Chromista, a commercial production company with bases of operation in New York and L.A., has signed Amsterdam-based agent Bart Hendrikx to handle sales in select territories. Bart Hendrikx Consultancy will rep Chromista in the EMEA (excluding the U.K.) and the APAC regions, for the production of traditional TV and online advertisements, series (streaming media), and long-form projects. Chromista’s directorial roster includes Darren Aronofsky, Eddie Alcazar, Marcelo Burgos, Josh Cole, Morgan Cooper, Kasra Farahani, Sarah Daggar-Nickson, Elliott Lester, Xavier Mairesse, Eliza McNitt, Dael Oates, Alessandro Pacciani, and Daniel Portrait. Oscar-nominated director (Black Swan) Aronofsky opened Chromista in May 2013 with EPs Scott Franklin, Ted Robbins and Sandy Haddad. The company has since taken on projects for The New York Times, Montefiore, P&G, and agencies such as Droga5, Ogilvy, Anomaly, BBDO, and DDB. Bart Hendrikx Consultancy was founded in 2017 by former Sonos, Heineken, and Ridley Scott consultant Hendrikx who was later joined by former in-house Google, Uber, and Casper recruiter Alexander Dengler. The Amsterdam-based representation firm is a natural choice for Chromista, with a multidisciplinary team drawn from a variety of creative and technology-driven backgrounds, including award-winning executive producers that will service Amsterdam with a Pan-European and Pan-APAC remit. Chromista is the latest signing to Hendrikx’s talent agency, who currently represents the global experience design studio Resn and Europe’s animation/VFX studio Sehsucht. …..
Tessa Films, a production company based in Chicago and L.A. headed by EPs/co-founders Lisa Masseur and Reid Brody, has appointed Veronica Lombardo of VLM to handle representation on the West Coast. VLM joins a Tessa national sales team that includes Ilene Silberman of Silberman Productions on the East Coast, Amy McIntyre of Beeline Representation in the Midwest, and Sharon Swanson and Perry Tongate of Sharon & Perry in Texas and the Southeast. In turn, Tessa joins a VLM roster that includes Alchemy X, Residency, FELLOW, kroma digital cosmetics® and Yessian Music….
Jennifer Kent On Why Her Feature Directing Debut, “The Babadook,” Continues To Haunt Us
"The Babadook," when it was released 10 years ago, didn't seem to portend a cultural sensation.
It was the first film by a little-known Australian filmmaker, Jennifer Kent. It had that strange name. On opening weekend, it played in two theaters.
But with time, the long shadows of "The Babadook" continued to envelop moviegoers. Its rerelease this weekend in theaters, a decade later, is less of a reminder of a sleeper 2014 indie hit than it is a chance to revisit a horror milestone that continues to cast a dark spell.
Not many small-budget, first-feature films can be fairly said to have shifted cinema but Kent's directorial debut may be one of them. It was at the nexus of that much-debated term "elevated horror." But regardless of that label, it helped kicked off a wave of challenging, filmmaker-driven genre movies like "It Follows," "Get Out" and "Hereditary."
Kent, 55, has watched all of this — and those many "Babadook" memes — unfold over the years with a mix of elation and confusion. Her film was inspired in part by the death of her father, and its horror elements likewise arise out of the suppression of emotions. A single mother (Essie Davis) is struggling with raising her young son (Noah Wiseman) years after the tragic death of her husband. A figure from a pop-up children's book begins to appear. As things grow more intense, his name is drawn out in three chilling syllables — "Bah-Bah-Doooook" — an incantation of unprocessed grief.
Kent recently spoke from her native Australia to reflect on the origins and continuing life of "The Babadook."
Q: Given that you didn't set out to in any way "change" horror, how have you regarded the unique afterlife of "The... Read More