LOS ANGELES -- Director Anthony Maras, known for his lauded short films, has a lot riding on his feature debut, Hotel Mumbai (Bleecker Street). But any career considerations pale by comparison to the weight of responsibility he felt to do justice to the stories of the victims and survivors of the 2008 three-day siege of Mumbai, India’s famed Taj Hotel by a group of terrorists. “That responsibility,” affirmed Maras, “was our guiding light,” being true to what happened and as authentic as possible for those who... Read More, Comment

NEW YORK -- Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle’s Yesterday , from Universal Pictures and Working Title, will world premiere as the closing night selection of the Tribeca Film Festival’s 18th edition. Tribeca also announced this year’s Gala Anniversaries, including a never-before-seen restored version of Francis Ford Coppola’s cinematic masterpiece, Apocalypse Now , and the 30th anniversary and cast reunion of the iconic ‘80s coming-of-age film Say Anything... There will be additional Galas with the world... Read More, Comment

LONDON -- The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity has announced that Jeff Goodby and Rich Silverstein, founders of Goodby Silverstein & Partners, will be honored with the Lion of St. Mark Award at the 2019 Festival. “The Lion of St. Mark is a special award that honors those who have made a significant and outstanding contribution to creativity in advertising and communications over a lifelong career. Jeff and Rich have had such a profound influence, not only through their much... Read More, Comment

LONDON -- The Ridley Scott Creative Group has opened its first office in Amsterdam. The creation of Ridley Scott Creative BV Amsterdam comes as the global transmedia group looks to explore creative opportunities in the Netherlands and Europe, building on recent successes and capitalizing on commercial growth in the region. Established in 2018 to gather the collective of RSA Films, Scott Free, Black Dog Films, and Darling Films, the Ridley Scott Creative Group spans commercial, content, and entertainment... Read More, Comment

AUSTIN, Tex. (AP) -- Beto O'Rourke is sitting in his kitchen hours after a closer-than-expected Texas Senate race loss to Ted Cruz, musing about how his campaign brought out the best in thousands of supporters. "Somehow we've got to continue that way," he tells his wife, Amy, who stares into his face without reply. But then O'Rourke adds, "Maybe we did what we were supposed to do. So maybe that's it," to which his wife nods. The scene concludes "Running with Beto," a documentary that premiered Saturday at the South... Read More, Comment

NEW YORK -- The 18th annual Tribeca Film Festival has unveiled its 2019 lineup of 63 diverse and engaging short films in competition, including 31 world premieres. This year’s shorts program includes a cross-section of international and U.S. filmmakers, curated from a record 5131 submissions with female filmmakers directing 45% of the selections. The short films will be presented in 11 distinct competition programs, consisting of six narrative, four documentary, and one animation program. There will also... Read More, Comment

NEW YORK -- BBDO New York announced that Vishal (Vish) Dheiman has joined the agency in a new role as head of tactical innovation. Dheiman will report to Dave Rolfe, director of integrated production, and help lead the agency further within the tech and innovation space. He was most recently an executive producer for interactive production and innovation at 72andSunny, NYC. “For us, it’s about embracing pressure rather than having it stifle us,” said Rolfe. “We’re squarely seeking to tie closer and closer... Read More, Comment

LOS ANGELES -- Team One, Publicis Groupe’s L.A.-based fully integrated media, digital and communications agency, has hired advertising veteran Kirsten Rutherford as executive creative director on Expedia. In her new role, Rutherford leads all Expedia global creative work, overseeing creative talent at Team One as well as global teams in London, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Tokyo. She is responsible for the continuity of the Expedia brand voice, ensuring work is consistent across all continents. “As a... Read More, Comment

NEW YORK -- Director/cinematographer Lutz Hattenhauer has joined Grand Large, marking his first representation in the U.S. Hattenhauer has also just wrapped his first Grand Large project--for Porsche out of Chicago agency Cramer-Krasselt. The signing of Hattenhauer is the latest move for Grand Large, which last month signed director Katie Bell and in January added director Favourite Colour: Black. According to Steve Horton, founder and executive producer at Grand Large, who attended the Porsche shoot in... Read More, Comment

LOS ANGELES -- Production studio Strike Anywhere has signed Malia James for spots and branded content in the U.S. This marks her first representation in the American ad market. She is handled by Lark Creative for music videos. James is the first director signing for Strike Anywhere’s managing director Victoria Guenier who joined the company from previous posts as head of production at boutique agency Omelet and prior to that as director of content production at Deutsch in L.A. “I’m determined to use my years... Read More, Comment

GENEVA (AP) -- At the ripe old age of 30 and with half the globe using it, the World Wide Web is facing growing pains with issues like hate speech, privacy concerns and state-sponsored hacking, its creator says, trumpeting a call to make it better for humanity. Tim Berners-Lee on Tuesday joined a celebration of the Web and reminisced about his invention at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, starting with a proposal published on March 12, 1989. It opened the way to a technological revolution... Read More, Comment

LONDON (AP) -- Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple are once again being cast as monopolies that have become too powerful for society's good, a recurring theme that's increasing the pressure to rein them in. A 150-page report commissioned by the British government depicts big digital companies in search, social media, advertising and e-commerce as threats to competition, innovation and personal privacy. Meanwhile, the music streaming service Spotify filed an antitrust complaint in Europe against Apple, accusing... Read More, Comment

NEW YORK -- The lineup of members serving on the 2019 AICP Post Awards Curatorial Committee has been set. The AICP Post Awards--part of AICP’s suite of competitions that includes The AICP Show: The Art & Technique of the American Commercial and the AICP Next Awards--honors excellence in creative editorial and the postproduction arts. The Curatorial Committee is comprised of high-level artisans and serves as the final arbiter of the 2019 AICP Post Awards. It reviews the top-scoring entries in all... Read More, Comment

We don't find out our protagonist's name for quite some time in "The Mustang," the feature debut of French writer-director Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre. All we know at first is what we see and what Belgian actor Matthias Schoenaerts projects. A psychologist played by Connie Britton, in a brief but impactful role, tries to get a sense of his mental state having been in and out of solitary confinement in a rural Nevada penitentiary a number of times, but he's not interested in playing along, or... Read More, Comment

There's always that moment on roller coasters when the lap bar gets locked down and you slowly, agonizingly ride up to the first drop. You know the next few minutes are going to be harrowing — you just don't know how bad. So here's a warning about the new animated amusement park film "Wonder Park" — it's going to be more harrowing than you can imagine. A simple, bucolic beginning with the sunny characters exuberantly crying "Splendiferous!" leads to a post-apocalyptic, violent middle that... Read More, Comment

At first glance, Mark Zuckerberg's new "privacy-focused vision " for Facebook looks like a transformative mission statement from a CEO under pressure to reverse years of battering over its surveillance practices and privacy failures. But critics say the announcement obscures Facebook's deeper motivations: To expand lucrative new commercial services, continue monopolizing the attention of users, develop new data sources to track people and frustrate regulators who might be eyeing a breakup of... Read More, Comment

NEW YORK (AP) -- This week's controversy over statements made by Fox News Channel's Tucker Carlson is as much about a high-stakes battle over the network's financial future as it is over what he said on a radio show a decade ago. The liberal advocacy group Media Matters for America this week released two batches of recordings Carlson made as a guest on radio's "Bubba the Love Sponge Show" between 2006 and 2011, before he worked at Fox. The release was timed to coincide with Fox's meeting with advertisers on... Read More, Comment

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The Hallmark Channel cut ties Thursday with favored star Lori Loughlin, a day after her arrest in a college admissions scam put the family-friendly network and extended Hallmark brand in uncomfortable proximity to a national scandal. "We are saddened by the recent allegations surrounding the college admissions process," Hallmark Cards Inc., parent company of the Crown Media Family Networks group that includes the Hallmark Channel, said in a statement. "We are no longer working with Lori... Read More, Comment

NEW YORK (AP) -- HBO’s “Leaving Neverland” is heading up the charts. The unsparing documentary about Michael Jackson and his alleged sexual abuse is already the third most-watched documentary of the past decade at the prime cable network, which takes pride in its documentary schedule. It’s likely to surpass “Bright Lights,” the movie about Debbie Reynolds and her daughter Carrie Fisher, which is currently in second place, the network said. The first half of the four-hour program on Jackson has been seen by 3.67... Read More, Comment

NEW YORK (AP) -- "Captain Marvel," Marvel Studios' first female-fronted superhero movie, launched with $153 million domestically and $455 million globally, according to studio estimates Sunday, making it one of the biggest blockbusters ever led by a woman. Brie Larson's Carol Danvers, a character who first debuted in Marvel Comics in 1968, had never before made it into the movies and was previously lesser known than many Marvel heroes. But "Captain Marvel," which came in at the high end of the Walt Disney Co.'s... Read More, Comment

This four-minute video for Vicks Philippines--directed by Alan Harca and produced by Elastic Films and Provill for Publicis Singapore--introduces us to a child who was born with HIV infection. When his mom died from the disease, the four-month old was handed by his immediate family to “Agnes” (an assumed name to protect her real identity), his mom’s friend. Captured in the story is how “Agnes” later on found out about the child’s condition, and instead of turning away from the unexpectedly... Read More, Comment

Director Andreas Nilsson of Biscuit Filmworks and agency Anomaly London team to take us aboard the LNER East Coast London railway. This hero :60 TV spot depicts a series of unexpected characters all flung together on a homeward bound train ride. At the same time both eclectic and relatable, the campaign celebrates the broad tapestry of modern British train travel. Craig Ainsley, creative director, Anomaly, said “There’s something about getting the train home. And there’s something about the... Read More, Comment

Christoffer Borggren directed this student film which serves as a PSA for Mind (originally founded as the Swedish Association for Mental Health). As part of his education at the Salzburg University of Applied Sciences, Borggren, backed by a crew of mainly university students, wrote, directed, and exec produced this piece which bucks the norm of mental health advertising, especially in Sweden, where those who are ill are depicted as overtly sad and are the target group. In reality, many with... Read More, Comment

This spring, Macy’s is celebrating beauty in all its forms, expanding and redefining the word through a new iteration of their “Find the Remarkable You” campaign. Created by BBDO New York, the latest effort makes a powerful statement around the word “beautiful” by flipping it on its head, changing the term to fit a wide range of women. In a :60 TV spot, Macy’s features a diverse array of every kind of beautiful over a poem that redefines the word and encourages viewers to find their truest... Read More, Comment

Created by Venables Bell & Partners, Reebok’s “Sport the Unexpected” campaign kicks off with “Storm the Court,” a film featuring an unexpected, and seemingly uninvited guest who interrupts a pick-up basketball game--stopping people in their tracks. The film showcases the Reebok Aztrek Double, an all-new update to the brand’s original all-terrain adventure shoe from 1993. Tom Noakes of PRETTYBIRD directed “Storm the Court” with music supervision and sound design from Barking Owl. The music... Read More, Comment

Travelers’ campaign that honors real victims of distracted driving by bringing their unfinished stories to life through a series of animated shorts continues with a pair of films, including this one titled “Howard’s Unfinished Story: The Tree House.” Howard Stein, 61, was a self-taught master craftsman, who delighted in making furniture and goods for friends and loved ones. He struck by a distracted driver while tending to his truck on the side of the road. In “The Tree House,” a beautifully... Read More, Comment

Directed by JH Beetge of Goodoil Films for Schweppes and agency TBWA\Melbourne, this :60 titled “The Rush of Schweppervescence” features a soundtrack from sound designer Paul Le Couteur of Nylon Studios and composer Elliot Wheeler of Turning Studios. Encapsulating the sensory experience that occurs when opening a bottle of Schweppes with stylized vignettes featuring mass swarms of bubbles, the magical track narrates each moment a bubble interacts with the world around it--from endless... Read More, Comment

The Me Too Movement and Girls for Gender Equity teamed with Deutsch Los Angeles on a campaign of public service shorts which featured testimonies from survivors of sexual abuse. One of the PSAs centers on Daniela Contreras who shares her story which is brought to life through animation that illustrates the emotional journey form pain to healing to ultimately finding a purpose. Hornet served as animation studio on “Daniela,” with Natalie LaBarre serving as director, storyboard artist and one of... Read More, Comment

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