Hollywood-based production house PICROW has named Bill Reilly as executive producer. Reilly will bring over directors Zach Braff, Michael Haldane and Art Streiber from his own Brilliant Works company…LipSync Post has added VFX supervisor George Zwier and VFX producer Paul Driver. Zwier comes over from Double Negative where he has worked on feature film projects including Thor: The Dark World. During his career he has worked at such visual effects facilities as Industrial Light & Magic and Weta Digital, and his credits include the Dark Knight series, The Hobbit, Moulin Rouge, I, Robot, Children of Men, Inception and Pacific Rim. Zwier was the recipient of the 2010 Visual Effects Society’s accolade of “Best Compositing in a Motion Picture” for his work on Inception. Driver joins LipSync Post from Cinesite where he worked on 300: Rise of an Empire and Jack Ryan. Prior to this, he spent three years at Double Negative, where he was VFX line producer on Skyfall and assumed a similar role on John Carter of Mars. Driver also worked for five years at MPC on titles including The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian and Sweeney Todd. Current feature films at LipSync Post include A Little Chaos, directed by Alan Rickman; Turner, directed by Mike Leigh; Anomaly, directed by Noel Clarke; and television projects include BBC2’s Great Train Robbery films….Justin Ebert has been promoted from creative director to executive creative director at Saatchi & Saatchi NY. Ebert joined Saatchi as a creative director in Dec. 2010. During his Saatchi tenure, he has helped craft work for clients including MGD64, Keystone Light, Capri Sun, Kool Aid, Duracell and Charter Cable. Prior to Saatchi, Justin spent three years with Crispin Porter + Bogusky in Boulder, Colo., where he worked on Hulu, Microsoft, Best Buy, Volkswagen and American Express. During his career, Ebert’s work has garnered One Show Pencils, CLIOs, Cannes Lions, and been nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Commercial….
Utah Leaders and Locals Rally To Keep Sundance Film Festival In The State
With the 2025 Sundance Film Festival underway, Utah leaders, locals and longtime attendees are making a final push — one that could include paying millions of dollars — to keep the world-renowned film festival as its directors consider uprooting.
Thousands of festivalgoers affixed bright yellow stickers to their winter coats that read "Keep Sundance in Utah" in a last-ditch effort to convince festival leadership and state officials to keep it in Park City, its home of 41 years.
Gov. Spencer Cox said previously that Utah would not throw as much money at the festival as other states hoping to lure it away. Now his office is urging the Legislature to carve out $3 million for Sundance in the state budget, weeks before the independent film festival is expected to pick a home for the next decade.
It could retain a small presence in picturesque Park City and center itself in nearby Salt Lake City, or move to another finalist — Cincinnati, Ohio, or Boulder, Colorado — beginning in 2027.
"Sundance is Utah, and Utah is Sundance. You can't really separate those two," Cox said. "This is your home, and we desperately hope it will be your home forever."
Last year's festival generated about $132 million for the state of Utah, according to Sundance's 2024 economic impact report.
Festival Director Eugene Hernandez told reporters last week that they had not made a final decision. An announcement is expected this year by early spring.
Colorado is trying to further sweeten its offer. The state is considering legislation giving up to $34 million in tax incentives to film festivals like Sundance through 2036 — on top of the $1.5 million in funds already approved to lure the Utah festival to its neighboring... Read More