Commercial production company Institute has added Courtney Loo to its directorial roster. This marks the first representation in the advertising market for the Chinese-American filmmaker whose body of work spans varied mediums.
Loo’s short films include Slick Talk, which premiered at the 2023 SXSW Film Festival, and Post Office, which debuted at the 2021 Slamdance Film Festival and was named a Vimeo Staff Pick. Both narrative films draw on her lived experiences as a Chinese-American woman and examine themes of identity, language, and female objectification. Loo’s commercial work includes projects for Honda and Athletic Greens, and she has collaborated with talent including Kehlani, Allyson Felix, Pink Sweat$, KIRBY, 6lack, and D Smoke. Loo is also the co-founder of the music management company Thrice Cooked. Her instincts for music and sound inform the rhythm and emotional waves of the stories she writes and directs. Loo is also a 2023 Almanack Screenwriting Fellow and is working on writing her debut feature film.
“Courtney is someone whose storytelling instincts I have admired for a long time, and I’m so excited to be officially working with her,” said Tori Palmatier, managing director at Institute. “Her work is incisive and original, and she brings a refreshing perspective to the branded space.”
“I was drawn to Institute because of Tori’s creative leadership, energy and passion, and as I learned more about the company it’s clear that Lauren [Greenfield, Institute founder and director] has built something really special here,” shared Loo. “Lauren is such a visionary artist, and she and Frank [Evers, founder and producer] are such great entrepreneurs and artist advocates, not to mention they are so knowledgeable across advertising, film, television, art, and so much more. Everyone here is willing to put the time into my art and my pursuits even if they don’t fit nicely in a box, and it’s rare to find that kind of support.”
Carrie Coon Relishes Being Part Of An Ensemble–From “The Gilded Age” To “His Three Daughters”
It can be hard to catch Carrie Coon on her own.
She is far more likely to be found in the thick of an ensemble. That could be on TV, in "The Gilded Age," for which she was just Emmy nominated, or in the upcoming season of "The White Lotus," which she recently shot in Thailand. Or it could be in films, most relevantly, Azazel Jacobs' new drama, "His Three Daughters," in which Coon stars alongside Natasha Lyonne and Elizabeth Olsen as sisters caring for their dying father.
But on a recent, bright late-summer morning, Coon is sitting on a bench in the bucolic northeast Westchester town of Pound Ridge. A few years back, she and her husband, the playwright Tracy Letts, moved near here with their two young children, drawn by the long rows of stone walls and a particularly good BLT from a nearby cafe that Letts, after biting into, declared must be within 15 miles of where they lived.
In a few days, they would both fly to Los Angeles for the Emmys (Letts was nominated for his performance in "Winning Time" ). But Coon, 43, was then largely enmeshed in the day-to-day life of raising a family, along with their nightly movie viewings, which Letts pulls from his extensive DVD collection. The previous night's choice: "Once Around," with Holly Hunter and Richard Dreyfus.
Coon met Letts during her breakthrough performance in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe?" on Broadway in 2012. She played the heavy-drinking housewife Honey. It was the first role that Coon read and knew, viscerally, she had to play. Immediately after saying this, Coon sighs.
"It sounds like something some diva would say in a movie from the '50s," Coon says. "I just walked around in my apartment in my slip and I had pearls and a little brandy. I made a grocery list and I just did... Read More