International production company Papaya Films has hired Mariusz Urbańczyk as the company’s first chief operating officer. Urbańczyk is an ad industry veteran who brings a proven track record of international business growth, most recently with Hogarth, where he first established the company’s presence in Latin America and later served as managing director for North America.
Urbańczyk began his global advertising career in his native Poland at Leo Burnett, later relocating to the UK for global account director roles at both JWT London and McCann Worldgroup, and then joining Hogarth in 2010. At Hogarth he served as general manager for Brazil and Argentina, where he was responsible for scaling up the company’s operations in Latin America, successfully building lasting client relationships in the region and attracting key talent. Following his achievements in Latin America, Urbańczyk was invited to serve as managing director for Hogarth North America, where he managed eight offices and over 400 staff across the U.S. and Canada, and achieved 20% business growth in just his first year in the role.
Papaya Films, founded in 2006 in Warsaw, has significantly scaled up its operations since 2017, expanding with offices in London, New York, and most recently Lisbon, and growing from a team of 40 worldwide staff to 200. A nimble and fully integrated studio with a global production pipeline and talent base, Papaya produces commercials, digital and social content, and branded entertainment for the leading brands. Papaya is under the aegis of founder and CEO Kacper Sawicki.
Papaya’s brand clients include Nike, Adidas, Puma, McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Nestle, Mercedes Benz, Porsche, Toyota, HBO, Red Bull, Samsung and T-Mobile. Papaya’s work has earned numerous accolades from Cannes Lions, D&AD, the Effies, and others. Papaya also fosters up-and-coming global talent through the Papaya Young Directors competition.
Jennifer Kent On Why Her Feature Directing Debut, “The Babadook,” Continues To Haunt Us
"The Babadook," when it was released 10 years ago, didn't seem to portend a cultural sensation.
It was the first film by a little-known Australian filmmaker, Jennifer Kent. It had that strange name. On opening weekend, it played in two theaters.
But with time, the long shadows of "The Babadook" continued to envelop moviegoers. Its rerelease this weekend in theaters, a decade later, is less of a reminder of a sleeper 2014 indie hit than it is a chance to revisit a horror milestone that continues to cast a dark spell.
Not many small-budget, first-feature films can be fairly said to have shifted cinema but Kent's directorial debut may be one of them. It was at the nexus of that much-debated term "elevated horror." But regardless of that label, it helped kicked off a wave of challenging, filmmaker-driven genre movies like "It Follows," "Get Out" and "Hereditary."
Kent, 55, has watched all of this — and those many "Babadook" memes — unfold over the years with a mix of elation and confusion. Her film was inspired in part by the death of her father, and its horror elements likewise arise out of the suppression of emotions. A single mother (Essie Davis) is struggling with raising her young son (Noah Wiseman) years after the tragic death of her husband. A figure from a pop-up children's book begins to appear. As things grow more intense, his name is drawn out in three chilling syllables — "Bah-Bah-Doooook" — an incantation of unprocessed grief.
Kent recently spoke from her native Australia to reflect on the origins and continuing life of "The Babadook."
Q: Given that you didn't set out to in any way "change" horror, how have you regarded the unique afterlife of "The... Read More