Director Joan Raspo, formerly of New York-headquartered Curious Pictures, has joined Digital Kitchen’s Manhattan office as its creative director. Digital Kitchen also maintains operations in Seattle and Chicago, providing development, design and production for advertising, TV entertainment and theatrical features. Raspo’s credits include projects–spanning such discipline as live action, animation and motion design–for clients that include Target, USA Networks, Verizon, Microsoft, TNT and AOL. She helmed the strategic branding for the latter’s relaunch in 2004. Among her many endeavors were redesigning VH-1s identity and co-creating original TV series for the Oxygen network…..Bicoastal Sandwick Films has signed directing teams Nic & Sune (Nic Osborne and Sune Maroni) and Roenberg (Joachim Roenning and Espen Sandberg) for U.S. representation…..Freddy’s Barn Service, a Santa Monica-based production house under the aegis of exec producer Jeff Maier, has opened with a directorial roster that includes Greg Daniels, Adam Karsen, Gary Manske Vasco Elola and Carlos Rusansky……Rochester Hills, Mich.-based CGI/visual effects studio With A Twist has opened a production office in Venice, Calif…..
“Atropia” and “Twinless” Win Marquee Prizes At Sundance Film Festival
The war satire “Atropia,” about actors in a military role-playing facility, won the grand jury prize in the Sundance Film Festival’s U.S. dramatic competition, while the Dylan O’Brien movie “Twinless” got the coveted audience award.
Juries and programmers for the 41st edition of the independent film festival announced the major prizewinners Friday in Park City, Utah.
Other grand jury winners included the documentaries “Seeds,” about farmers in rural Georgia and “Cutting Through the Rocks,” about the first elected councilwoman in an Iranian village. The Indian drama “Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears),” about a city dweller mourning his father in the western Indian countryside, won the top prize in the world cinema competition.
“It’s for my dad,” said writer and director Rohan Parashuram Kanawade. His late father, he said, was the one who encouraged him to pursue filmmaking.
Audiences also get to vote on their own awards, where James Sweeney’s “Twinless,” about the bromance between two men who meet in a twin bereavement support group, triumphed in the U.S. dramatic category. O’Brien also won a special jury award for his acting.
The U.S. documentary audience award went to “André is an Idiot,” a life-affirming film about dying of colon cancer. Other audience picks were “Prime Minister,” about former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, and “DJ Ahmet,” a coming-of-age film about a 15-year-old boy in North Macedonia.
Mstyslav Chernov, the Oscar-winning Associated Press journalist, won the world cinema documentary directing award for his latest dispatch from Ukraine, “2000 Meters to Andriivka,” a joint production between the AP and PBS Frontline.
“Here’s to all... Read More