Multiple award-winning Swedish director Filip Nilsson has joined Blink and Skunk for U.K. and U.S. representation, respectively. He is behind such lauded work as Volvo’s “Technician” and “Hook,” two films in the Volvo Trucks’ “Live Tests” campaign produced by Stockholm-based Folke Film for Forsman & Bodenfors, Stockholm, which won the Cannes Lions 2014 Cyber Grand Prix. The third high profile entry in the Volvo Trucks campaign was “Epic Split” directed by Andreas Nilsson of Folke Film.
Nilsson is a founder (with Johan Tappert and Tobias Bergman) of Folke Film and has directed spots for clients including Gevalia, Marabou, SPP, and the Ottawa Citizen. He has also directed music videos for Royksopp, John de Sohn and Peter Bjorn & John.
Recently, Nilsson directed commercials for Sony Headphones through DDB Toronto, and Statoil for SMFB Norway. The former Sony piece, titled “Ear Crunches” and produced via OPC Toronto, shows a man exercising his ears in preparation for hearing music as part of the Sony Hi-Res audio experience. “Ear Crunches” earned inclusion into SHOOT’s “The Best Work You May Never See” gallery (SHOOTonline, 12/1/14).
James Bland, executive producer of Blink, said of his new director addition, “Since discovering Filip’s work in music videos and following his trajectory, it was clearly the time to get involved with this hilarious, talented and annoyingly handsome Swede. He’s got that special vision that can bring a film to life. We can’t wait to get started.”
Skunk EP Matt Factor added, “It’s rare to introduce such a talented director to the U.S. marketplace.”
Review: Writer-Director Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance”
In its first two hours, "The Substance" is a well-made, entertaining movie. Writer-director Coralie Fargeat treats audiences to a heavy dose of biting social commentary on ageism and sexism in Hollywood, with a spoonful of sugar- and sparkle-doused body horror.
But the film's deliciously unhinged, blood-soaked and inevitably polarizing third act is what makes it unforgettable.
What begins as a dread-inducing but still relatively palatable sci-fi flick spirals deeper into absurdism and violence, eventually erupting — quite literally — into a full-blown monster movie. Let the viewer decide who the monster is.
Fargeat — who won best screenplay at this year's Cannes Film Festival — has been vocal about her reverence for "The Fly" director David Cronenberg, and fans of the godfather of body horror will see his unmistakable influence. But "The Substance" is also wholly unique and benefits from Fargeat's perspective, which, according to the French filmmaker, has involved extensive grappling with her own relationship to her body and society's scrutiny.
"The Substance" tells the story of Elisabeth Sparkle, a famed aerobics instructor with a televised show, played by a powerfully vulnerable Demi Moore. Sparkle is fired on her 50th birthday by a ruthless executive — a perfectly cast Dennis Quaid, who nails sleazy and gross.
Feeling rejected by a town that once loved her and despairing over her bygone star power, Sparkle learns from a handsome young nurse about a black-market drug that promises to create a "younger, more beautiful, more perfect" version of its user. Though she initially tosses the phone number in the trash, she soon fishes it out in a desperate panic and places an order.
The one rule to follow is that... Read More