LOS ANGELES -- Sometimes the story about the storyteller can in some respects rival the stories he or she is lauded for telling. Consider the case of composer Carlos Rafael Rivera who was nominated for two Emmy Awards in recognition of his work on the Netflix series Godless . Rivera wound up winning for the show’s main title music this past Saturday evening (9/8) at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards ceremony and in his brief acceptance remarks he thanked writer-director Scott Frank “who’s changed my life.” Rivera... Read More, Comment

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Excited about Monday's 70th Emmy Awards? Probably not. That's an educated guess based on shrinking interest in entertainment's back-slapping ceremonies generally and television's biggest night in particular. Last year's Emmys drew 11.4 million viewers, a smidge above 2016's worst-ever 11.3 million. The 2018 Oscars dipped to an all-time low with 26.5 million viewers — still more than double that of its small-screen sibling. But imagine this: An expert in producing live TV jumps in to invigorate... Read More, Comment

TORONTO (AP) -- Women filmmakers, activists and actors congregated outside the hub of the Toronto International Film Festival on Saturday in a series of impassioned speeches on gender inequality in the movie industry and the power of female voices to overcome it. The "Share Her Journey Rally," attended by hundreds on a chilly Toronto morning, followed similar events at earlier film festivals. Ahead of the gathering, Cameron Bailey, co-head of the Toronto Film Festival, signed an inclusivity pledge to achieve... Read More, Comment

TORONTO (AP) -- Lynda La Plante's 1980s British crime series "Widows" had a curious hold of filmmaker Steve McQueen as a 13-year-old boy. The show was about a group of women who, after their criminal husbands are killed, band together to pull off the raid their dead spouses had planned. The women were, to young McQueen growing up in London, doing what they were deemed not to be capable of. "I was a person at that time who was deemed not to be capable, as well, being a young black boy at school and having to... Read More, Comment

TORONTO (AP) -- Alfonso Cuaron's last movie, the dazzling space thriller "Gravity," won seven Oscars and grossed more than $720 million worldwide. His new movie, "Roma," is based on his childhood memories and was shot in black and white in the Mexico City neighborhood he grew up in. With limitless opportunities at his disposal after the success of "Gravity," Cuaron decided to go home. And the result — a neorealist blend of intensely personal filmmaking and overwhelming visual command — has been hailed as a... Read More, Comment

ROME (AP) -- "Roma," Alfonso Cuaron's intimate, black-and-white portrait of the women who raised him in Mexico City's turbulent 1970s, has won the top prize at the 75th Venice Film Festival. Cuaron accepted the Leone d'Oro on Saturday, which he said was the birthday of the woman who inspired the lead character Cleo, a young domestic worker with her own troubles amid political strife in the city's Roma neighborhood. The jury prize went to "The Favorite" by Yorgos Lanthimos, about the women surrounding Queen... Read More, Comment

TORONTO (AP) -- The response to Bradley Cooper's romantic saga "A Star Is Born" has been intense. Critics have boasted of crying uncontrollably. Fans outside theaters have swooned for its star, Lady Gaga. Words like "glorious," ''rapturous" and, of course, "gaga" are running rampant. "Having been on the other side of it, when you do something that doesn't do well, people tend to avoid you," Cooper said in an interview alongside his co-star. "I don't see people, like, going the other way as I'm walking down the... Read More, Comment

LOS ANGELES -- Procter & Gamble’s “The Talk” won the primetime commercial Emmy on Saturday (9/8) during the first night of the Creative Arts Emmy Awards weekend at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. Created by BBDO New York and directed by Malik Vitthal of The Corner Shop, “The Talk” is part of P&G’s continuing My Black Is Beautiful initiative. The piece features different African-American parents having “The Talk” with their kids about racial bias and how it can make life more difficult--and at... Read More, Comment

LOS ANGELES -- The concluding night (9/9) of the weekend Creative Arts Emmy Awards saw two notables who recently passed away earn major wins, while joining the exclusive ranks of EGOT honorees were three key contributors to NBC’s production of Jesus Christ Superstar Live In Concert . On the latter score, performer John Legend, composer Andrew Lloyd Weber and lyricist Tim Rice joined the elite club of EGOT winners. With the musical earning the Emmy for Best Live Variety Special, EPs Legend, Lloyd Webber and... Read More, Comment

LOS ANGELES -- The show that garnered the most nominations this year-- Game of Thrones (HBO) with 22--has gotten off to a fast start, leading the way with seven Emmy wins on the first night (Saturday, 9/8) of this weekend’s Creative Arts Emmy Awards held at the Microsoft Theater in downtown L.A. Game of Thrones took the Outstanding Special Visual Effects, Fantasy/Sci-Fi Costumes and Sound Mixing categories for the “Beyond The Wall” episode, Outstanding Music Composition (Original Dramatic Score) and... Read More, Comment

NEW YORK -- Agency mcgarrybowen has named Greg Johnson its chief innovation officer. He will lead the development of new capabilities, competencies, and business models for the clients across mcgarrybowen’s three U.S. offices in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco. Johnson fills what is a new role at the shop. He formerly served as chief marketing officer at Swirl, a San Francisco-based digital agency which mcgarrybowen acquired last December. At Swirl, Johnson was instrumental in extending the agency’s... Read More, Comment

NEW YORK -- Mass Appeal, an urban culture-focused media and entertainment company, has added director Katya Bankowsky to its roster for commercials and branded content in the U.S. Bankowsky, who had formerly been repped by production house Strike Anywhere, brings to Mass Appeal 15 plus years of experience, creating award-winning ads, branded entertainment and digital campaigns for clients including the WNBA, NFL, Reebok, Maserati, Verizon, the US Olympic Committee, Chase and Brazilian Brahma beer. Prior to... Read More, Comment

NEW YORK -- Swiss director Ivo Wejgaard has signed with commercial production company IDENTITY for representation in the U.S. Wejgaard specializes in working with international beauty and lifestyle brands, including Lancome, L’Oréal, Laura Biagiotti, 4711, Reebok, Olay, Nivea, s.Oliver, Palmers, Olympus and Ponds, and with talent that includes Julianne Moore, Lucy Liu and Freida Pinto, and international models Heidi Klum, Natasha Poly, Barbara Palvin and Ana Beatriz Barros. Internationally, Wejgaard is... Read More, Comment

NEW YORK -- International creative animation/design studio LOBO has added Brazilian directing duo Alton to its roster for global representation. Based in Sao Paulo, Alton is comprised of Felipe Machado and Tiago Marcondes, and specializes in stop-motion, 3D, motion graphics and mixed media. Alton brings a unique skill set of design and character animation to a diverse body of creative projects, including a recent LOBO project for the Annecy International Film Festival that reimagines some of Brazil’s most... Read More, Comment

TORONTO (AP) -- It was as she forcefully stuffed actress Tatiana Maslany into the trunk of a car that the sheer out-of-body experience of her role in the brutal L.A. noir thriller "Destroyer" came into focus for Nicole Kidman. "I was putting her in the trunk of that car going: 'What the hell is this?'" Kidman recalled at the film's Monday evening premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. As much as we've come to expect it, Kidman's transformations can startle even herself. And just as has so often... Read More, Comment

TORONTO (AP) -- The short story that begat Angie Thomas' breakthrough young adult novel "The Hate U Give" was inspired by the shooting of Oscar Grant III, the Oakland, Calif., African-American 22-year-old who was shot by a white transit police officer in 2009. In the years that followed, more shootings followed and Thomas kept on writing. Now, a year and a half after "The Hate U Give" became a bestselling phenomenon, Thomas' book has been adapted to the big screen by director George Tillman Jr. from a... Read More, Comment

NEW YORK (AP) -- CBS Chief Les Moonves resigned Sunday, just hours after six more women accused the veteran television executive of sexual misconduct. The resignation is effective immediately, CBS said in a statement posted on its website Sunday night. The New Yorker magazine reported the latest allegations included Moonves forcing women to perform oral sex and retaliating when advances were turned away. Moonves acknowledged relations with three of the women but said they were consensual, adding he had never... Read More, Comment

TORONTO (AP) -- At the premiere of Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 11/9," the filmmaker's impassioned and portentous documentary about Donald Trump and the conditions that led to his presidency, Moore brought to the stage several Parkland, Florida, students who appear briefly in the film. "Generation of hope!" called out an audience member. "No, I'm against hope," corrected Moore. "Hope was back then with Obama. I'm for a generation of action." Moore's latest film is, on the surface, predictable. That the 64-year-... Read More, Comment

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Chloe Sevigny has been trying to do a fresh take on the Lizzie Borden tale for over a decade. A fateful trip to the house in Fall River, Massachusetts, convinced her to look at Borden's life through a different, more empathetic lens, pulling back the curtain on the suffocating circumstances surrounding the infamous 1892 ax murders of her father and stepmother and what might have driven her to do it. Borden was tried and acquitted of the killings, but continues to be a source of intrigue today... Read More, Comment

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- There's so much television to watch or pretend to watch — have you really followed all of wrenching "The Handmaid's Tale" or even heartwarming "This Is Us"? — the guru who coined the term "peak TV" is upping the ante. John Landgraf, the erudite chief executive of FX Networks, warned that TV's golden age may be morphing into a gilded one, borrowing Mark Twain's zinger aimed at the late 19th-century's crass excess. Harsh! But it's true that TV has reached superstore proportions: streaming, cable... Read More, Comment

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- There's more new television to watch than is humanly possible. But everyone has to make a time-allocation decision in the end, and that's what we're here to help with. Consider the list below a tip sheet to get you going on the fall TV season. Each of the six shows has something of note to offer, and some have the potential to be season (or beyond) standouts. Happy viewing, and the snacks are on you. "MURPHY BROWN" The unexpected success of "Roseanne" last season (before its sudden implosion... Read More, Comment

NEW YORK (AP) -- The Miss America ceremony subtracted the swimsuit competition for the first time in its 98-year history, and subtracted one million television viewers, too. The Nielsen company said 4.34 million people watched the annual ceremony on ABC Sunday, down 19 percent from the 5.35 million viewers last year. Declining viewership has been a consistent trend for the pageant over the past few years. With Miss America now under the leadership of former Fox News personality Gretchen Carlson, the swimsuits... Read More, Comment

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The horror movie "The Nun" has topped the domestic box office in its first weekend, scoring a best for the "Conjuring" franchise and another win for Warner Bros. Studio estimates on Sunday say the Demian Bichir and Taissa Farmiga-led film brought in $53.5 million from 3,876 North American theaters. Internationally, it banked $77.5 million for a massive $131 million global debut. The movie, a spinoff of a character seen in "The Conjuring 2" and set in 1952 Romania, cost only $22 million to... Read More, Comment

In this spot titled “Dream Big” from agency Carmichael Lynch, parents look to reconnect with their teenage daughter by showing her the wonders of nature during a road trip in their Subaru Ascent. The three-row SUV’s versatility, comfort and safety help make the life-affirming adventure doable, bringing a family closer together in the process. Two-time commercial DGA Award winner Martin de Thurah of Epoch Films directed “Dream Big” as well as the two other spots in the campaign. Read More, Comment

To capture the human impact of British Columbia’s wildfires, this campaign focuses on capturing the collective memories British Columbians share in BC’s forests and how easily a wildfire can take those experiences away. In this Government of British Columbia PSA directed by Jason Van Bruggen of production house Suneeva for Vancouver, B.C.-based agency Camp Pacific, each memory is represented by a large-scale photograph that seamlessly blends into the forest behind it, which highlights the... Read More, Comment

Aaron Stoller of Biscuit Filmworks directed this package of spots for Buffalo Wild Wings out of agency Figliulo & Partners, including this ScreenWork entry, “Office,” in which a man extricates himself from a boring business meeting by standing atop a conference table, climbing up through the ceiling and disappearing--only to reappear by falling through the ceiling of an adjoining office. He thus makes his “Escape To Football,” taking off and winding up at Buffalo Wild Wings to eat, drink,... Read More, Comment

This spot for FUBOTV introduces us to a guy who’s a dog person but is stuck with a cat thanks to his wife. This cat is totally uncooperative as evidenced in different scenarios including when our gent puts a leash on the feline and tries to take it for a walk. Luckily life doesn’t always have to be like this. Our male protagonist can successfully cut the cable cord and get all the sports he wants--and his family all the entertainment programming it enjoys--via FUBOTV. Bryan Buckley of Hungry... Read More, Comment

To encourage girls to pursue their interests in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), the Ad Council convened an unprecedented coalition of partners, including GE, Google, IBM, Microsoft and Verizon, to launch She Can STEM. Women make up half of the total college-educated workforce in the U.S., but they hold only 25 percent of STEM jobs, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. Research from the National Science Foundation shows that while approximately 66 percent of girls are... Read More, Comment

Gillette, an official partner of the NFL, has rolled out a television commercial celebrating the journey to greatness of Shaquem Griffin and all those who have overcome adversities to make their dreams come true. Griffin was born with amniotic band syndrome affecting his left hand, which resulted in it being amputated as a child. Through hard work and dedication, with the love and guidance of his father, he went on to become a college football star and then just rose to the NFL, along with his... Read More, Comment

In this initial spot in ESPN’s new “That’s Gonna be on SportsCenter” campaign from Droga5 NY, a football player lamenting a botched play is visited by an other-worldly sportscaster Kenny Mayne, who lets him know that the moment is definitely going to be on SportsCenter. Unfortunately for the player, it will be a part of the Not Top 10 segment, where highlights are celebrated for their infamy, rather than achievement. Mike Warzin of Arts & Sciences directed the ad, which is entitled “... Read More, Comment

The Docter Twins--Jason and Matt Docter--continue to exhibit their comedy chops, which first came to the fore back in 2008 when they earned inclusion in SHOOT ’s New Directors Showcase. Now with their own production house, Thinking Machine, the Docters recently teamed with agency R&R Partners to remind Southern Nevada residents to stay “water smart” with their “Future Tripping” water conservation PSA for the Southern Nevada Water Authority. Jason and Matt Docter introduce us to a suburban... Read More, Comment

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