Oil Factory, Beverly Hills, has added director Life Garland to its roster. Garland recently won MTV’s Video Music Award for best rap video on the strength of Chamillionaire’s “Ridin'”….Directors Kevin Macdonald and David Gordon Green are again available for commercials via bicoastal/international Chelsea Pictures. Green just wrapped his fourth feature film, Snow Angeles starring Sam Rockwell and Kate Beckinsale. The movie has been invited to premiere at the Sundance Festival in January and will be released in Feb. ’07. Green’s spot endeavors include campaigns for ESPN and Miller Brewing. Meanwhile Macdonald comes off of his fourth feature, The Last King of Scotland, which opens the London International Film Festival this month………..Director Suno Gonera of bicoastal Anonymous Content is once again available for spots after wrapping his feature debut, Pride, for Lions Gate….Final Cut, London, has added editors Jono Griffith and Adam Rudd….Designer Jake Sargeant and visual effects artists Chris Clyne and Andrew Romatz have joined Motion Theory, Venice, Calif….Eric McCasline has joined kaboom productions, San Francisco, as head of production….Philip Thomas has been appointed CEO of the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival while Carolyn Lowery has been named Festival director……
“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