LOS ANGELES While being nominated for an Academy Award is a high honor, it carries even greater significance for directors Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie whose Sugarcane (National Geographic) is in the running for the Best Documentary Feature Film Oscar. Gaining recognition from Hollywood–which has a cinematic history of cowboys and Indians fare in which the Read More 

LOS ANGELES & NEW YORK Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans was a blowout win for the Philadelphia Eagles over the Kansas City Chiefs. So much for relying on a close game with the outcome hanging in the balance to help hold viewer interest through all four quarters. But we still have the commercials–and advertisers who paid a premium, some Read More 

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. Sean Baker won the marquee feature prize at the 77th Directors Guild of America (DGA) Awards on Saturday night (2/8) for Anora. This makes Baker the frontrunner to win the Best Director Oscar. Only eight times over the past 76 years has the DGA Award winner not gone on to win the Oscar. That happened Read More 

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. Andreas Nilsson of Biscuit Filmworks won the Directors Guild of America (DGA) Award recognizing Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Commercials for 2024. The honor was announced and celebrated during the gala 77th DGA Awards ceremony on Saturday evening (2/8) at the Beverly Hilton. This marked the second career DGA Award in the commercials category for Nilsson. Read More 

LOS ANGELES Anora took the top prize at the Producers Guild Awards, winning the Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures during a gala ceremony on Saturday evening (2/8) at The Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles. It was an eventful evening for Anora as the Producers Guild Award came on the heels Read More 

LOS ANGELES Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes won the marquee honor–Outstanding VFX in a Photoreal Feature–at the 23rd Annual Visual Effects Society (VES) Awards on Tuesday evening (2/11). Meanwhile Dune: Part Two garnered the most photoreal feature wins, with four awards. The Wild Robot was named top animated film, winning four awards. Shōgun earned best Read More 

NEW YORK (AP) The inner-Vatican machinations of “Conclave” have nothing on this year’s Oscar race. Just as Edward Berger’s film juggles various candidates for the papacy, the race for best picture at the Academy Awards has seen one favorite replaced by another, and then another. While some clarity has lately emerged, with a handful of big wins for Read More 

SANTA MONICA, Calif. While Emilia Pérez, The Substance and Wicked topped the 30th annual Critics Choice Awards’ tally with three wins apiece, Anora walked away with the marquee Best Picture honor during Friday’s ceremony (2/7) at the Barker Hanger in Santa Monica. It was the lone win of the night for writer-director Sean Baker’s Anora. The Wicked wins Read More 

LOS ANGELES The Wild Robot, DreamWorks’ blockbuster hit, won Best Feature, along with eight more categories at the 52nd Annie Awards celebration Saturday night (2/8) on the campus of UCLA. In addition to Best Feature, The Wild Robot also took home Annie Awards for Best FX- Feature (Derek Cheung, Michael Losure, David Chow, Nyoung Kim, Steve Avoujageli), Read More 

NEW YORK (AP) This year’s Super Bowl commercials went for easy laughs and nostalgia, largely steering clear of controversy and leaving the surprises on the football field, where the Philadelphia Eagles dominated the Kansas City Chiefs. Eugene Levy’s eyebrows flew off and buzzed around after he ate some Little Caesars. Four old ladies went on a joy ride Read More 

NEW YORK Last night (2/10) in New Orleans, the Kansas City Chiefs faced off against the Philadelphia Eagles in a repeat match up of 2023’s top teams, but this time, the Eagles came out on top. As the Eagles dominated the game from start to finish, it was the commercials that kept the audience entertained, and Nike Read More 

NEW YORK The AICP has unveiled the full roster for the Curatorial Committee for the 2025 AICP Show: The Art & Technique of the Commercial. The committee, representing a lineup of experts from a cross-section of the industry, will gather this spring under the leadership of AICP Show chairperson Patrick Milling-Smith, co-founder and CEO of SMUGGLER. The Read More 

NEW YORK RadicalMedia has added director Lena Beug to its roster for U.S. representation in commercials. Beug has made her mark across the spotmaking and branded content space, with a portfolio that seamlessly blends authentic, character-driven storytelling, humor, relatability, and striking visuals. She has directed campaigns for brands such as Google, Walmart, HP, Honda, GMC, Toyota, and Read More 

NEW YORK (AP) For the first time in recent history, the percentage of top-grossing films featuring female protagonists equaled the percentage of films with male protagonists, according to a pair of annual studies released Tuesday. Movies like “Wicked,””Inside Out 2” and “The Substance” lifted Hollywood’s theatrical releases to gender parity in leading roles in 2024. Of the 100 Read More 

LOS ANGELES The Casting Society (CSA) honored excellence in casting across feature film, television (scripted and unscripted), commercials and theater at the 40th Annual Artios Awards held on Wednesday evening (2/12), with ceremonies in Los Angeles, New York and London. Among the feature award winners were Wicked, A Complete Unknown, Conclave, My Old Ass and Emilia Pérez. Read More 

LOS ANGELES (AP) Kris Bowers embraced a new challenge with his first animated film, turning his signature storytelling through music into an Oscar-nominated masterpiece. Bowers’ work on ” The Wild Robot ” continues to solidify his place as one of Hollywood’s most sought-after composers, earning him a nomination for best original score. His score complements the film’s stunning Read More 

LOS ANGELES The Society of Composers and Lyricists (SCL) has unveiled the winners of the 6th Annual SCL Awards® held on Wednesday evening (2/12) at Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. Top honors for film scoring went to Oscar-nominated composers Kris Bowers, who won Original Score For A Studio Film for The Wild Robot, and Daniel Blumberg, Read More 

LOS ANGELES The Advanced Imaging Society has revealed the winners of the 2025 Lumiere Awards, recognizing outstanding creative and technical achievements in its 15th annual celebration. The awards honor the artists, engineers and innovators whose work continues to push the boundaries of storytelling and cinematic technology. While the annual Lumiere Awards luncheon was scheduled to be celebrated Read More 

LOS ANGELES Production company Institute has added director and photographer Blaise Cepis to its roster. Cepis marks Institute’s fourth dual signing to both its commercial directing and photography rosters, alongside Lauren Greenfield, Ray Neutron, and Thandiwe Muriu, cementing Institute’s multi-platform production expertise in delivering creative collaboration for clients. Cepis is known for creating bright, absurd, subtly opulent, Read More 

VENICE, Calif. Stadium Creative Group has added filmmaker Rodney Lucas to its U.S. commercial roster. Known for his raw, street-level storytelling, Lucas hails from the South Side of Chicago and is now based in Brooklyn, NY. He’s built a career at the intersection of documentary and commercial filmmaking, creating emotionally charged, culturally rich narratives for brands like Read More 

SAO PAULO, Brazil & NEW YORK Creative studio LOBO has added multi-faceted artist Cisma (Denis Kamioka) to its directorial roster for commercials and branded content. Cisma, a self-taught motion designer, animator, and live-action director, began his career at LOBO nearly 20 years ago. His return marks a homecoming following a tenure working in Europe as a film artist. Cisma’s filmmaking style Read More 

BROOKLYN, NY SCHROM x Yacht Club, a live-action, tabletop and postproduction company, has signed U.K.-based director Helen Downing to its roster for U.S. representation. Downing has directed major campaigns for brands like Sainsbury’s and M&S, Domino’s, Progresso, and Blue Apron. Her wide ranging background spans culinary series, music videos and performances, along with branded content. Prior to Read More 

CHICAGO & LOS ANGELES French Butter, the food and beverage production company based in Chicago and Los Angeles, has added director/DP Timothy Hogan to its roster. A veteran director, Hogan got his start in still photography and brings extensive experience shooting liquids, fashion and jewelry, among other product categories, to the company. Hogan brings more than just a DP’s Read More 

LONDON (AP) Get ready to check into “The White Lotus” in Thailand for Season 3 — this time, sadly, there’s no room for Jennifer Coolidge, who went overboard in the second season. With the absence of her fan-favorite character Tanya comes the opportunity for other characters to win over the audience, when it returns to screens on Read More 

BERLIN (AP) The Berlin International Film Festival is kicking off on Thursday with the world premiere of Tom Tykwer’s “The Light,” a timely tale of a dysfunctional German family and a Syrian refugee. The festival known as the Berlinale this year comes against the backdrop of Germany’s parliament elections. For Tykwer, it’s the third time he has Read More 

NEW YORK (AP) It’s not unusual for a city to double for another metropolis in movies. New Yorkers have long been able to spot when Toronto has been substituted for the Big Apple. Matthew Rankin, though, has gone more than a step, or maybe 85 steps, further. His “Universal Language” takes place in Winnipeg, Manitoba, but the culture Read More 

LOS ANGELES (AP) It is a truth universally acknowledged, as Bridget Jones herself might write in her diary, that at the end of any Bridget Jones movie, our heroine has triumphed over all doubts and obstacles and is finally happy. With a man. Well, so far, with one particular man: Mark Darcy, the stuffy-yet-dashing man of her dreams. Read More 

NEW YORK (AP) On a quiet winter weekend at the box office, DreamWorks Animation’s “Dog Man” chased its own tail, repeating as the top movie in theaters. The animated Universal Pictures release, adapted from Dav Pilkey’s popular graphic novel series, collected $13.7 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday. Both new releases – the Ke Huy Read More 

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