Changes at the Helm
David Naylor & Associates (DNA), Hollywood, has taken on exclusive spot and music video representation in the U.S. for London-based production company Pagan. A prime focus for commercials will be Pagan director Vaughan Arnell, who made his first mark in the industry as half of the directing team Vaughan +Anthea, with Anthea Benton, in the mid-1980s. The duo was successful in both videos and spots. Arnell and Benton then began solo directing careers in ’96. Vaughan continued to be active in clips (The Spice Girls’ “Say You’ll Be There”) and commercials (Orange, Audi, Levi’s, Stella Artois). He joined Pagan in ’02. Additionally, Pagan has the mono-monikered Rankin, a noted photographer, publisher and most recently film director, whom DNA will handle stateside. David Naylor is president of DNA. His counterpart at Pagan is Adam Saward….. Director Grant Baird has joined MotivFilms, a Santa Monica shop founded in ’00 by director Eric Bute and exec producer Jim Rutherford. Baird first became known on the agency side, having served as creative director and head of production at Bozell-Bonneville and at Bonneville Communications, Salt Lake City…..MRB Productions has added directors Todd Kellstein, Brian O’Connell and Vincent Pagazza, joining company mainstay helmer Mark Teitelman…..Category:News
The Oscars Are More International Than Ever. But Is The International Film Category Broken?
For many filmmakers, the Oscars are a pipe dream. But not because they think their movies aren't good enough.
The Iranian director, Mohammad Rasoulof, for instance, knew his native country was more likely to jail him than submit his film for the Academy Awards. Iran, like some other countries including Russia, has an official government body that selects its Oscar submission. For a filmmaker like Rasoulof, who has brazenly tested his country's censorship restrictions, that made the Oscars out of the question.
"A lot of independent filmmakers in Iran think that we would never be able to make it to the Oscars," Rasoulof said in an interview through an interpreter. "The Oscars were never part of my imagination because I was always at war with the Iranian government."
Unlike other categories at the Academy Awards, the initial selection for the best international film category is outsourced. Individual countries make their submission, one movie per country.
Sometimes that's an easy call. When the category — then "best foreign language film" — was established, it would have been hard to quibble with Italy's pick: Federico Fellini's "La Strada," the category's first winner in 1957.
But, often, there's great debate about which movie a country ought to submit — especially when undemocratic governments do the selecting. Rasoulof's fellow Iranian New Wave director Jafar Panahi likewise had no hopes of Iran selecting his 2022 film "No Bears" for the Oscars. At the time, Panahi was imprisoned by Iran, which didn't release him until he went on a hunger strike.
Rasoulof's film, "The Seed of the Sacred Fig" — a movie shot clandestinely in Iran before its director and cast fled the country — ultimately was nominated for best... Read More
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