Director/writer Richard Yelland is joining Happy Ending, the New York-based production company founded by executive producer Steven Shore and director Jonathan David earlier this year. Yelland’s film Floating: the Nathan Gocke Story, produced by Oscar-nominee, Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me), won Best Documentary at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival’s American Pavilion Emerging Filmmaker Showcase. Floating was also a Best Documentary winner at the 2010 New York City Short Film Festival and is currently airing nationally on FUEL TV. Yelland’s directorial credits also include projects for Fox Sports, Fuel TV and Ford….Beef Films, headed by partners/exec producers Ashley Adams and Stephen Hens, has signed writer/director Seth Townsend for exclusive U.S. spot representation. Townsend first became known in the commercialmaking arena as a producer, writer and director for the Traktor collective, working on spots, music videos and branded content. He later formed Seth & Bobby, a directing partnership with Bobby Lewis, and signed with Partizan. Townsend later went on to direct independently. He now joins a Beef directorial roster that consists of Danny Trachtenberg, Ian Schiller, Joe Schaak, Little Red Robot, Michael Pescasio, Nick Spooner, and Alex Anderson….George Meeker has joined bicoastal Interrogate as executive producer/partner. He had been exec producer at Furlined. Interrogate, which is headed by managing partner Jeff Miller, has a directorial roster in the U.S. that includes Jeff Labbe, the Snorri Bros., Henrik Hallgren, Amit Mehta, and Outsider helmers James Rouse, Scott Lyon, Bart Timmer, Henry Littlechild, Jorn Threlfall and Vesa Manninen….Asher Edwards, formerly a sr. producer at The Mill LA, has joined the MPC LA team as executive producer. He will be developing and sharing talent at his new roost while helping plan the facility’s expansion into the second floor of the Santa Monica building in which it’s housed. Edwards came to The Mill LA from The Mill NY where he was head of 3D production. Prior to his tenure at the Mill, Edwards worked at MPC London. His U.S. market credits include VFX for such notable spots as Coca-Cola’s “It’s Mine” and AMF’s “Caterpillar”….Tim Sepulveda has joined design-focused production studio Leviathan in the new role of design director. He had most recently been freelancing for several leading Chicago shops, including Leviathan, and prior that served in senior designer and associate creative director positions at Charlex, New York….Hook, an Ann Arbor, Mich.-based interactive company that creates integrated content for agencies and their brands, has enlisted Dave Evans, formerly executive integrated producer at Saatchi & Saatchi LA, to lead company strategy and development. Earlier Evans served as senior integrated producer at Crispin Porter+Bogusky for Burger King, Coke Zero and Zune while co-leading Microsoft. His credit include Toyota’s “Swagger Wagon” at Saatchi and Coke Zero’s “Rooftop Racer” at Crispin….Global creative agency Attik in San Francisco has brought Paul Wang aboard as associate creative director, design. For the past two years, he has been Motorola’s director of global brand design….
Fernanda Torres’ Oscar Nomination Has Made Her Brazil’s Carnival Muse
Brazil's Carnival muse this year isn't one of the divas or drum queens parading with the Rio de Janeiro samba schools. It's Fernanda Torres, who's competing for the best actress Oscar on Sunday.
The Oscars fall smack in the middle of Carnival, Brazil's largest celebration, which runs through Tuesday. During the five-day revelry, the rest of the universe usually fades into the background as Brazilians cut loose and indulge.
Not this year, and the keen focus on the Oscars speaks to Brazil's pride for its culture and desire to be recognized on the global stage.
"Just imagine, her winning the Oscar on Carnival Sunday. It'll be a double celebration," Clarissa Salles, 33, told The Associated Press while buying a replica Oscar statuette in Sao Paulo for her costume.
Torres is nominated for her performance as the lead in the Walter Salles-directed "I'm Still Here," which is also nominated for best picture and best international feature. Excitement around the awards has prompted TV Globo, Brazil's largest network, to resume live coverage of the ceremony after a five-year hiatus. It will forgo the nationwide airing of high-ratings Carnival parades, instead broadcasting the Oscars everywhere except Rio.
Bars and nightclubs across Brazil are organizing Oscar watch parties and results will even be shown on a big screen to the tens of thousands of spectators gathered at Rio's Sambadrome for the parades.
"Today, all of Brazil only thinks about this," President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said on his social media channels. "Everybody is cheering for 'I'm Still Here' and Fernanda Torres at the Oscars."
As far away as the Amazon, an Indigenous community in the Inhaa-be village promoted a screening of the film on Friday. With singing... Read More