RSA Films has signed director Andreas Roth for exclusive representation in the U.S. and U.K.
Roth made his first major directorial mark at Filmakademie Baden-Wurttemberg in Germany where his student commercial for Dirt Devil titled “The Exorcist” went on to earn him inclusion in SHOOT’s 2012 New Directors Showcase, and first prize in the European film school category of the Young Director Awards competition at Cannes. The spot was an online viral sensation; it played like an exorcist’s nightmare with a young lass suspended on the ceiling, moving about wildly, violently screaming and seemingly possessed by evil. It turns out the elderly woman who lives on the floor above is running her Dirt Devil vacuum, moving the nozzle back and forth–the suction is the “other worldly force” rather than any satanic spirit. An end tag contains the slogan, “You know when it’s the devil,” accompanied by the Dirt Devil logo.
Roth went on to score another Young Director Award last year with an Herbaria tea spot which introduces us to a terrifying clown, a mass murderer with a chainsaw, and death itself–they all are fighting for their life underwater. Something seems to be pulling them down to their demise. They desperately try to fight their way up to the surface. But their fight is in vain, and all three of them lifelessly sink to the bottom. The resolution appears at the end of the film: an oversized tea bag was tied to each victim’s leg. A super reads, “Drown your fears,” accompanied by a Herbaria logo and the branding description, “calming tea.”
Roth’s latest work, Oceana’s “Sea Legend,” is set to premiere at the San Sebastian Film Festival. His work thus far has garnered honors from the Cannes Lions, Saatchi & Saatchi’s New Directors Showcase, D&AD, Clio, NY Festivals, Epica, Eurobest and the TED Global Conference. Roth received a scholarship for the UCLA Film Academy Master Class, and in 2014, graduated from Filmakademie Baden-Wurttemberg with a diploma for Commercial Directing. He is also currently developing a feature film.
Jules Daly, president of RSA, said of Roth, who now resides in Los Angeles, “Andreas is of the highest conceptual and executional level. His work shows a maturity far beyond his years. His filmmaking is powerful and mature.”
Earlier in his career, Roth was handled in the U.S. by production house Recommended.
After 20 Years of Acting, Megan Park Finds Her Groove In The Director’s Chair On “My Old Ass”
Megan Park feels a little bad that her movie is making so many people cry. It's not just a single tear either — more like full body sobs.
She didn't set out to make a tearjerker with "My Old Ass," now streaming on Prime Video. She just wanted to tell a story about a young woman in conversation with her older self. The film is quite funny (the dialogue between 18-year-old and almost 40-year-old Elliott happens because of a mushroom trip that includes a Justin Bieber cover), but it packs an emotional punch, too.
Writing, Park said, is often her way of working through things. When she put pen to paper on "My Old Ass," she was a new mom and staying in her childhood bedroom during the pandemic. One night, she and her whole nuclear family slept under the same roof. She didn't know it then, but it would be the last time, and she started wondering what it would be like to have known that.
In the film, older Elliott ( Aubrey Plaza ) advises younger Elliott ( Maisy Stella ) to not be so eager to leave her provincial town, her younger brothers and her parents and to slow down and appreciate things as they are. She also tells her to stay away from a guy named Chad who she meets the next day and discovers that, unfortunately, he's quite cute.
At 38, Park is just getting started as a filmmaker. Her first, "The Fallout," in which Jenna Ortega plays a teen in the aftermath of a school shooting, had one of those pandemic releases that didn't even feel real. But it did get the attention of Margot Robbie 's production company LuckyChap Entertainment, who reached out to Park to see what other ideas she had brewing.
"They were very instrumental in encouraging me to go with it," Park said. "They're just really even-keeled, good people, which makes... Read More