By CAROLYN GIARDINA
Beatrice Conetta, one of the first women editors in the commercialmaking industry, was inducted into the AICE Editors Hall of Fame during the East Coast chapter’s 1999 Hall of Fame award and dinner dance on March 25. During the event, held at the Copacabana, New York, slightly more than 400 honored Conetta, and strengthened the camaraderie of the editorial community while supporting the AICE.
This past year, the chapter’s industry contributions ranged from the rewriting of the editorial bid form to simplifying of editorial insurance policies.
The master of ceremonies for the award presentation was former AICE/East VP Jane Stuart, a partner in New York-based Big Picture Communications. Presenters included: event chair Roe Bressan, who is an AICE/East board VP and managing director of Red Car’s New York office (Red Car also has shops in Santa Monica, Chicago and Dallas); AICE/East president Nitza From, president/editor at New York-based Salamandra Images; past AICE/East president Arthur Williams, chairman of Editing Concepts, New York; and AICE national president and AICE/ East past president John Palestrini, CEO of The Blue Rock Editing Co., New York.
Members of the AICE/East board of directors sang a humorous song penned by Blue Rock editor Michael Charles. The board includes Bressan; From; Williams; Palestrini; David Friedman, djm Films; Mitch Garelick, Horn/Eisenberg; David Binstock, Rhinoceros; Bob Friedrich, First Edition; Michael Pollock, Vito DeSario Editing; Chris Franklin, Big Sky Editorial; Alan Morris, Invisible Dog; Craig Warnick, mad.house; Burke Moody, Seventh Art; and AICE executive director John Held. The aforementioned companies are New York-based, except for Seventh Art which is in Philadelphia.
Conetta’s career as an editor as well as a director of TV, film, commercial, documentary and corporate projects began in the ’40s and spanned six decades. Her work has garnered many accolades, including Clio Awards and Emmy nominations. Among her Clio-winning work was "Waterfall" for the Jamaica Tourist Board via the then-Doyle Dane Bernach (now DDB Needham), New York. The spot was honored in ’64 while Conetta was employed at now-closed Rose-Maywood Productions. In ’71, the Conetta-edited documentary Methadone: Escape from Heroin, received four nominations from the New York Emmy Awards.
“Smile 2” Tops Weekend Box Office; “Anora” Glitters In Limited Release
Horror movies topped the domestic box office charts and an Oscar contender got off to a sparkling start this weekend. "Smile 2," in its first weekend, and "Terrifier 3" in its second proved to be the big draws for general movie audiences in North America, while the Palme d'Or winner"Anora" got the best per-theater average in over a year.
"Smile 2" was the big newcomer, taking first place with a better than expected $23 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. Parker Finn returned to write and direct the sequel to the supernatural horror "Smile," his debut. Originally intended for streaming, Paramount pivoted and sent the movie to theaters in the fall of 2022. "Smile" became a sleeper hit at the box office, earning some $217 million against a $17 million budget.
The sequel, starring Naomi Scott as a pop star, was rewarded with a bit of a bigger budget, and a theatrical commitment from the start. Playing on 3,619 screens, it opened slightly higher than the first's $22 million.
Second place went to Universal and DreamWorks Animation's "The Wild Robot" in its fourth weekend with $10.1 million, bumping it past $100 million in North America. Family films often have long lives in theaters, particularly ones as well reviewed as "The Wild Robot," and some have speculated that it got a bump this weekend from teenagers buying tickets for the PG-rated family film and then sneaking into "Terrifier 3," which is not rated, instead. Either way, Damien Leone's demon clown movie, which cost only $2 million to produce, is doing more than fine with legitimate ticket buyers. It added an estimated $9.3 million, bringing its total to $36.2 million.
"Rumors like that are PR gold," said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. "There's... Read More