Creative studio Cause & [Effect] has added Emmy Award-winning creative director Anthony Gelsomino. The former VP/creative director of Nickelodeon Movies and On-Air Promotions joins Cause & [Effect] after a 20 -ear tenure with MTV Networks including MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon, Nick@Nite and TVLand. He has been the creative force behind various network rebrands, series launches and live award shows. He also collaborated closely with major motion picture studios, working with numerous celebrities including Robert Downey Jr., Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, Will Ferrell, Justin Timberlake and Beyonce.
After working across a multitude of departments, he has created major promotional campaigns for such blockbuster films as Shrek 3 & 4, Dreamworks’ “Madagascar” franchise, “The Last Airbender,” “Rango,” “Sherlock Holmes” and Steven Spielberg’s “Indiana Jones And The Crystal Skull” and “TinTin.” Gelsomino also launched the promotion for “iCarly” with Miranda Cosgrove, “Victorious” with Victoria Justice and “Sam & Cat” with Ariana Grande. He also creatively executed entire campaigns for the Kid’s Choice Awards with Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Dwayne Johnson and Will Smith- for which his work earned him an Emmy for Outstanding Campaign Announcement.
The hiring of Gelsomino will allow Cause & [Effect] to expand its in-house offerings to provide campaign expertise to all of its brand clients. His joining comes on the heels of the creative studio signing Emmy-winning art director Nick Jernigan who has crafted visuals for such clients as National Geographic, PBS, Discovery and Visa. After earning a degree in Visual Media with a concentration in Film from American University, he landed his first gig at National Geographic, where his work earned him four Emmy nominations and a 2005 win in “Outstanding Achievement in a Craft: Graphic and Artistic Design” for “Predators of War.” Prior to joining Cause & [Effect], he served as a VFX supervisor at Pixeldust Studios, earning his fifth Emmy nomination for the his imagery for the Discovery series “Apocalypse How?”
First-Time Feature Directors Make Major Splash At AFI Fest, Generate Oscar Buzz
Two first-time feature directors who are generating Oscar buzz this awards season were front and center this past weekend at AFI Fest in Hollywood. Rachel Morrison, who made history as the first woman nominated for a Best Cinematography Oscar---on the strength of Mudbound in 2018--brought her feature directorial debut, The Fire Inside (Amazon MGM Studios), to the festival on Sunday (10/27), and shared insights into the film during a conversation session immediately following the screening. This came a day after William Goldenberg, an Oscar-winning editor for Argo in 2013, had his initial foray into feature directing, Unstoppable (Amazon MGM Studios), showcased at the AFI proceedings. He too spoke after the screening during a panel discussion. The Fire Inside--which made its world premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival--tells the story of Claressa “T-Rex” Shields (portrayed by Ryan Destiny), a Black boxer from Flint, Mich., who trained to become the first woman in U.S. history to win an Olympic Gold Medal in the sport. She achieved this feat--with the help of coach Jason Crutchfield (Brian Tyree Henry)--only to find that her victory at the Summer Games came with relatively little fanfare and no endorsement deals. So much for the hope that the historic accomplishment would be a ticket out of socioeconomic purgatory for Shields and her family. It seemed like yet another setback in a cycle of adversity throughout Shields’ life but she persevered, going on to win her second Gold Medal at the next Olympics and becoming a champion for gender equality and equitable pay for women in sports. Shields has served as a source of inspiration for woman athletes worldwide--as well as to the community of... Read More