Topher Lorette is set to come aboard ad agency Argonaut as head of integrated production starting on Aug. 15. He comes over from Droga5 where he was EP/group integrated production manager and ran a team of broadcast, digital, social, and print producers on accounts such as JPMorgan Chase, Pizza Hut, Clearasil, and Airwick.
At San Francisco-based Argonaut, Lorette succeeds Dan Watson who is leaving the agency to pursue passion projects.
Prior to Droga5, Lorette spent 15-plus years working with top industry players nationwide at shops including Deutsch LA, AKQA, R/GA, Ogilvy, and Grey, touching big-name brands like Canon, DirecTV, Smirnoff, Coca-Cola, and Target, among others. He also has extensive experience with international production, having worked across four continents, and brings a strong integrated background across broadcast and digital production to his new role.
Lorette’s work over the years has been recognized at various industry award shows including his work on Canon, which won four Cannes Lions including Gold for Branded Content, Silver for Promotions and Film, and Bronze for Titanium/Integrated. He was also part of the team that produced the Emmy-award winning commercial of the year in 2013–Canon’s “Inspired” spot–while at Grey New York.
Juliette Welfling Takes On A Musical, A Crime Thriller, Comedy and Drama In “Emelia Pérez”
Editor Juliette Welfling has a track record of close-knit, heartfelt collaboration with writer-director Jacques Audiard, a four-time BAFTA Award nominee for Best Film not in the English Language--starting with The Beat That My Heart Skipped in 2006, then A Prophet in 2010, Rust and Bone in 2013, and Dheepan in 2017. He won for The Beat That My Heart Skipped and A Prophet.
Welfling cut three of those features: A Prophet, Rust and Bone, and Dheepan. And that shared filmography has since grown to most recently include Emelia Pérez, the Oscar buzz-worthy film from Netflix. Welfling herself is not stranger to Academy Award banter. In fact, she earned a Best Achievement in Film Editing Oscar nomination in 2008 for director Julian Schnabel’s The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.
Emelia Pérez is a hybrid musical/drama/thriller which introduces us to a talented but undervalued lawyer named Rita (portrayed by Zoe Saldana) who receives a lucrative offer out of the blue from a feared drug cartel boss who’s looking to retire from his sordid business and disappear forever by becoming the woman he’s always dreamt of being (Karla Sofía Gascón in a dual role as Manitas Del Monte/Emilia Pérez). Rita helps pull this off, orchestrating the faked death of Del Monte who leaves behind a widow (Jessi, played by Selena Gomez) and kids. While living comfortably and contently in her/their new identity, Pérez misses the children. Pérez once again enlists Rita--this time to return to family life, reuniting with the kids by pretending to be their aunt, the sister of Del Monte. Now as an aunt, Pérez winds up adopting a more altruistic bent professionally,... Read More