The Mill, the commercial postproduction company headquartered in London with a second facility in New York, plans to launch a shop in Santa Monica. Plans call for the facility to open in January…Dana Garman, formerly West Coast managing director for bicoastal Supply and Demand, has started superstudio, a Santa Monica-based production house…..The directing team of Rankin & Chris and French helmer Jean-Claude Thibaut have joined north6 films, a division of bicoastal print production company north6. Back in March, north6 diversified into spotmaking, landing Holly Vega, former head of production at Biscuit Filmworks, Los Angeles, as executive producer for the then newly formed north6 films…..Director Mike Harris has signed with New York-based design and production studio Freestyle Collective….Millennium Pictures, Santa Monica and Detroit, has secured directing team The Snudge Bros. (Liam Greenlaw and Paul Alexander) for exclusive North American representation. Greenlaw first established himself as a designer/director and Alexander as a still photographer……Marc Siegel has been named exec producer at Kommitted Films, a Santa Monica shop featuring director Nathan McGuinness. the Kommitted banner has been informally up and running since late last year to help McGuinness, CEO/creative director of Asylum Visual Effects, diversify into directing……
“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