Production company Interrogate has added director Amelia Hashemi to its roster. This is the first U.S. signing for the London-based Hashemi.
Half-Iranian, half-English Hashemi, who knew by the age of 12 that she wanted to be a director, got her start in the film industry working a variety of roles in the world of theater and feature films. Early jobs included shadowing Stephen Daldry during his work on Billy Elliot: The Musical; Video assist on the 2006 feature Breaking and Entering under director Anthony Minghella, and serving as assistant to casting directors like Susie Figgis and Lucinda Syson, working under directors like Tim Burton, Mike Newell, and Garth Jennings.
To this day, Hashemi’s casting know-how informs her approach as a director. “The first thing I think of in my creative process is the cast, because I know the casting process so well,” she explained. “I’m drawn to the story and how certain performances can capture the moments I want to tell with honesty and authenticity.”
In 2014, Hashemi took her first stab at directing with her short, Don’t Blame Us Cos We’re Famous!, which had its U.K. premiere at the London Short Film Festival, and went on to win Best UK short at the East End Film Festival. The success of the film, which documents a father and son on a day of spontaneous adventures, caught the attention of VW, who tapped Hashemi to film three spots for their Motability Campaign. Those spots included the charmingly portrayed “Brother and Sister,” in which a teen brother picks up his cantankerous younger sister from a birthday party and melts her heart with a trip to the ice cream parlor.
From there, spots for brands like Cadbury and E.Leclerc have followed, as did her 2018 short film, Night Out, which drew on Hashemi’s experience growing up with a Muslim parent. Night Out tells the coming-of-age story of Muslim teen Meena on her way with friends to a nightclub for the first time. The short premiered at the BFI London Film Festival, was nominated for the London Critics’ Circle award and won best short at Leeds International Film Festival.
George Meeker, executive producer/partner of Interrogate, speaks to Hashemi’s singular skillset: “Rarely do directors in our business come from the casting space. It’s unexpected but provides such a unique perspective. Amelia has looked at actors upon actors upon actors, and as a result, is able to find and capture a real sense of honesty in her performances and dialogue.”
With Interrogate, Hashemi is excited to share her whimsical storytelling with the U.S. advertising industry and to continue to grow as a filmmaker. Already Hashemi has two feature films in the works, one of which is for BBC Films with Parkville Pictures.
“I loved the guys at Interrogate immediately because they had followed my work and they understood where I’m coming from with being a mom, and honored that,” said Hashemi. ”I’m so excited about this signing because I’ve always wanted to work in America. I’m so looking forward to expanding my audience.”
From Restoring To Hopefully Preserving Multi-Camera Categories At The Emmys
When Gary Baum, ASC won his fourth career Emmy Award earlier this month, it was especially gratifying in that the honor came in a category--Outstanding Cinematography for a Multi-Camera Half-Hour Series--that had been restored thanks in part to a grass-roots initiative among cinematographers to drum up entries. Last year the category fell by the wayside when not enough multi-camera entries materialized.
In his acceptance speech, Baum appealed to the Television Academy to keep multi-camera categories alive. He later noted to SHOOT that editors also got their multi-camera recognition back in the Emmy competition this year. Baum hopes that after resurrecting multi-camera categories in 2024, such recognition will be preserved for 2025 and beyond.
A major factor in the decline of multi-camera submissions in 2023 was the move of certain children’s and family programming from the primetime Emmy competition to the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences’ (NATAS) Emmy ceremony. For DPs this meant that multi-camera programs last year were reduced to vying for just one primetime nomination slot in the more general Outstanding Cinematography for a Series (Half-Hour) category. It turned out that this single slot was filled in ‘23 by a Baum-lensed episode of How I Met Your Father (Hulu).
Fast forward to this year’s competition and Baum won for another installment of How I Met Your Father--”Okay Fine, It’s A Hurricane,” which turned out to be the series finale. Two of Baum’s Emmy wins over the years have been for How I Met Your Father, and there’s a certain symmetry to them. His initial win for How I Met Your Father was for the pilot in 2022. So he won Emmys for the very first and last... Read More