Edit 1, a NY-based previs boutique led by company president Michael Zimbard, has added Jessica Tabor as director of business development. Tabor joins Edit1 following three years as sales director at the visual effects/motion graphics studio Suspect….Harpoon Pictures has secured Ravelle Tomczak for West Coast representation…Management company colleen., founded by agent, coach and business development consultant Colleen Dolan Vinetz, has added music video cinematographer and photographer Joseph Labisi to its roster. In 2012, Labisi’s Drake “HYFR” video won both MTV’s Hip Hop Video of the Year and BET’s Hip Hop Video of the Year. His video for Chris Brown’s “Look At Me Now” won the same accolades the year before, including BET’s Video of the Year….Seattle-based, design-driven production company thenewBlank has hired Tom Leonard as director of business development. He will report to co-creative directors Bobby Hougham and Sevrin Daniels, and lead all new business efforts for the company as well as head the company’s new incubator space in Chicago. Leonard has over 20 years of experience in the entertainment and advertising production arena….
Utah Leaders and Locals Rally To Keep Sundance Film Festival In The State
With the 2025 Sundance Film Festival underway, Utah leaders, locals and longtime attendees are making a final push — one that could include paying millions of dollars — to keep the world-renowned film festival as its directors consider uprooting.
Thousands of festivalgoers affixed bright yellow stickers to their winter coats that read "Keep Sundance in Utah" in a last-ditch effort to convince festival leadership and state officials to keep it in Park City, its home of 41 years.
Gov. Spencer Cox said previously that Utah would not throw as much money at the festival as other states hoping to lure it away. Now his office is urging the Legislature to carve out $3 million for Sundance in the state budget, weeks before the independent film festival is expected to pick a home for the next decade.
It could retain a small presence in picturesque Park City and center itself in nearby Salt Lake City, or move to another finalist — Cincinnati, Ohio, or Boulder, Colorado — beginning in 2027.
"Sundance is Utah, and Utah is Sundance. You can't really separate those two," Cox said. "This is your home, and we desperately hope it will be your home forever."
Last year's festival generated about $132 million for the state of Utah, according to Sundance's 2024 economic impact report.
Festival Director Eugene Hernandez told reporters last week that they had not made a final decision. An announcement is expected this year by early spring.
Colorado is trying to further sweeten its offer. The state is considering legislation giving up to $34 million in tax incentives to film festivals like Sundance through 2036 — on top of the $1.5 million in funds already approved to lure the Utah festival to its neighboring... Read More