Will team with director/editor Matt Spaull to oversee Gammut Productions
Partners + Napier, an integrated creative company serving national and global brands, has appointed Danene DiCicco to serve as executive producer of its in-house content production studio, Gammut Productions. DiCicco joins Partners + Napier from MullenLowe U.S. and MMB in Boston.
DiCicco’s appointment marks a key milestone in Gammut’s growth, launched in October 2020. In her role as EP, DiCicco will complement Matt Spaull, director of Gammut Productions. Spaull oversees the studio’s creative output as a seasoned director and editor.
“Our mission is to help our clients leave a mark, and our success is shaped not only by the work we create but by how we create it,” said Rob Kottkamp, chief creative officer at Partners + Napier, who previously worked with DiCicco at MullenLowe. He described DiCicco as “a world-class talent” who provides “a depth of perspective that will allow us to accelerate our production capabilities and better satisfy the needs of our clients.”
While at MullenLowe, DiCicco worked on numerous productions for clients including JetBlue, Hyatt Hotels, Royal Caribbean, Unilever, Athenahealth, and US Cellular. Her work on American Greetings’ “What It Means to Love” spot earned a Cannes Lion. DiCicco also oversaw all broadcast and digital production for the Department of Defense, one of the largest and longest standing accounts in the agency’s history.
DiCicco also brings a wealth of experience in the restaurant category. In her time at MMB, she spearheaded production duties for Carabba’s Italian Grill and Subway.
“The biggest draw for me was the culture and energy of Partners + Napier,” said DiCicco. “Finding that in an agency that’s also doing great work and investing in their people is priceless. Gammut Productions is the perfect way to bring that great work to clients in a more efficient and cost-effective way because we do things right in-house.”
DiCicco added, “I’m excited to partner with Matt to expand those capabilities and champion the success of not just Gammut but production at Partners + Napier as a whole.”
Review: Writer-Director Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance”
In its first two hours, "The Substance" is a well-made, entertaining movie. Writer-director Coralie Fargeat treats audiences to a heavy dose of biting social commentary on ageism and sexism in Hollywood, with a spoonful of sugar- and sparkle-doused body horror.
But the film's deliciously unhinged, blood-soaked and inevitably polarizing third act is what makes it unforgettable.
What begins as a dread-inducing but still relatively palatable sci-fi flick spirals deeper into absurdism and violence, eventually erupting — quite literally — into a full-blown monster movie. Let the viewer decide who the monster is.
Fargeat — who won best screenplay at this year's Cannes Film Festival — has been vocal about her reverence for "The Fly" director David Cronenberg, and fans of the godfather of body horror will see his unmistakable influence. But "The Substance" is also wholly unique and benefits from Fargeat's perspective, which, according to the French filmmaker, has involved extensive grappling with her own relationship to her body and society's scrutiny.
"The Substance" tells the story of Elisabeth Sparkle, a famed aerobics instructor with a televised show, played by a powerfully vulnerable Demi Moore. Sparkle is fired on her 50th birthday by a ruthless executive — a perfectly cast Dennis Quaid, who nails sleazy and gross.
Feeling rejected by a town that once loved her and despairing over her bygone star power, Sparkle learns from a handsome young nurse about a black-market drug that promises to create a "younger, more beautiful, more perfect" version of its user. Though she initially tosses the phone number in the trash, she soon fishes it out in a desperate panic and places an order.
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