Director Phil Brown has signed with Venice-based Backyard. He had most recently been with Tate USA, Santa Monica, and continues to be repped in Canada by Industry Films.
Brown’s ad industry experience spans the agency and production house sides of the fence. A U.K. native, Brown got his start as an art director at Aberdeen, Scotland-based agency Formula. He made his spot directing debut by way of a competition sponsored by Creative Review; Brown helmed an Absolut Vodka ad, “Absolut Intrigue,” which garnered attention. He then moved to Canada and took an art director position at BBDO Vancouver.
During his BBDO tenure, Brown took another stab at directing when a creative colleague, Bradley Wood, from Palmer Jarvis DDB, Vancouver, offered him an assignment for Fong’s fresh poultry, “Dead Chicken,” which was short listed at the Cannes International Advertising Festival in ’98. Brown and Wood teamed to create the darkly humored spot in which two elderly women are not allowed to board a city bus with a live chicken–so they strangle it.
Shortly after the Cannes recognition, Brown landed spot representation as a director via Radke Films, Toronto, and then in the U.S. at bicoastal The Artists Company. He later shifted from the latter for a stateside representation stint with the former Metro Pictures, and then briefly at bicoastal/international Partizan in ’02. That same year, he moved his Canadian representation to Industry Films, Toronto. In ’05, he signed with Tate for stateside representation.
Brown has gained a reputation as a visual director whose work often reflects a candid yet stylized realism on scales both large and small. Brown’s body of work also reflects a human element ranging from emotionally heart warming to humorous. His credits include high profile campaigns for Volkswagen, The Canadian Ministry of Energy, and Pfizer. Over the years Brown has directed for such major brands as Pepsi, Molson, Sony, Ikea, Samsung, Ford, Toyota, Lexus, Coors, Budweiser, Kia, Visa and MasterCard.
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