Director Hannah Pearl Utt has signed with bicoastal Epoch Films for commercial representation in the U.S.
Utt is a director, writer, and actor who’s feature directorial debut, Before You Know It, came out in theaters on August 30. The film, which also stars Utt, alongside co-writer, Jen Tullock, played in competition at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. It was also recently screened at the W+K Film Series, which was founded and is curated by its head of production, Matt Hunnicutt. The series invites writers, directors, and others to share their stories through private, pre-release screenings at a local theater with the goal of enriching W+K’s creative culture and exploring future opportunities to collaborate on commercial projects.
Utt and Tullock also co-wrote/created the series Disengaged for SuperDeluxe, which Utt also directed.
In 2017, Utt participated in Sundance’s inaugural Catalyst Women’s Initiative, as well as the Sundance Screenwriter and Director Labs, and received a 2018 Adrienne Shelly Foundation Women Filmmakers Grant.
As an actor, Utt can be seen in Dorm Life, Ingrid Goes West, and many commercials (including a few from fellow Epoch director, Phil Morrison), inhabiting such roles as “Toilet Girl” and “Egg Woman.”
Utt said, “I’ve been a fan of Epoch’s taste ever since getting cast in Phil’s 1-800-CONTACTS spot–that kind of vision is 20/20. I am honored to be in the company of the directors on Epoch’s roster, and getting to collaborate with the brilliant, hilarious and incredibly stylish women who run the company is a literal daydream come true.”
“A few years ago, Phil Morrison called me about Hannah,” recalled Mindy Goldberg, founding partner of Epoch Films. “He had worked with her as an actor and saw Disengaged, the series she wrote, directed and starred in. He said, ‘she’s fantastic, Epoch should sign her!’ Melissa (Culligan, Epoch’s managing executive producer), Hannah and I met, fell madly in love (we girl crushed on her) and knew we had to work together. A female director who understands nuanced comedy and has a sophisticated visual vocabulary. I think the ad world is ready to embrace Hannah.”
Utt and Epoch are represented in the West by Dexter Randazzo and Jonathan Logan at The Department of Sales; in the East by Tara Averill and John Robertson at Representation; and in the Midwest by Chris Brown at Baer Brown Reps.
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