Diane Patrone and Chris Zander have partnered to form The Family, New York. The pair is handling East Coast representation for Backyard Productions, Venice, Calif., Cut + Run, bicoastal and London, and stimmüng, Santa Monica….Marci Miles of Reelize Reps, Chicago, has been named to handle the Midwest for Los Angeles-based Rhythm & Hues Studios….Northern Lights Post, New York, has signed Rich Schafler of Schafler Artists Management, New York, for East Coast sales….New York-based animation studio Noodlesoup Productions has signed Perry Schaffer and Corey Rogers of independent rep firm SchafferRogers, New York, to cover the East Coast….Julie Vargo of Julie Vargo and Associates, Chicago, will handle Midwest representation for ONDA Music + Sound Design, New York….Finger Music, West Los Angeles, has signed Kristina Kovacevic of KK Reps, Chicago, for Midwest representation….Lauren Kretzmer has joined Convergence, New York, as director of client relations….Mitch Rabin has been named VP/sales and marketing for Opus 1 Music Library, Studio City, Calif….Graciella Creazzo at GoGoGo Films, Miami, will be repping director Sergio Guerrero on the East Coast and in Texas. Darcy/Fox Productions, Santa Monica, will rep Guerrero on the West Coast and in the Midwest….Global Production Network, Los Angeles, has taken on exclusive U.S. representation for Media Pro Pictures and its subsidiary Domino Films, both established in the Romanian and Eastern European production arena. Media Pro, which provides production services and facilities to theatrical features, is headed by Andrei Boncea. Domino Films is Media Pro’s commercial production arm, which is under the aegis of executive producer Mihai Cociasu….Production designer Marcos Lutyens has signed with Radiant Artists, Los Angeles, for representation in commercials and music videos….Wardrobe stylist Hala Bahmet has signed with Montana Artists, Los Angeles, for exclusive representation. Also, DP Crescenzo Notarile has finished work on the TV series Hawaii and is again available for spotwork via Montana Artists….
The Oscars Are More International Than Ever. But Is The International Film Category Broken?
For many filmmakers, the Oscars are a pipe dream. But not because they think their movies aren't good enough.
The Iranian director, Mohammad Rasoulof, for instance, knew his native country was more likely to jail him than submit his film for the Academy Awards. Iran, like some other countries including Russia, has an official government body that selects its Oscar submission. For a filmmaker like Rasoulof, who has brazenly tested his country's censorship restrictions, that made the Oscars out of the question.
"A lot of independent filmmakers in Iran think that we would never be able to make it to the Oscars," Rasoulof said in an interview through an interpreter. "The Oscars were never part of my imagination because I was always at war with the Iranian government."
Unlike other categories at the Academy Awards, the initial selection for the best international film category is outsourced. Individual countries make their submission, one movie per country.
Sometimes that's an easy call. When the category — then "best foreign language film" — was established, it would have been hard to quibble with Italy's pick: Federico Fellini's "La Strada," the category's first winner in 1957.
But, often, there's great debate about which movie a country ought to submit — especially when undemocratic governments do the selecting. Rasoulof's fellow Iranian New Wave director Jafar Panahi likewise had no hopes of Iran selecting his 2022 film "No Bears" for the Oscars. At the time, Panahi was imprisoned by Iran, which didn't release him until he went on a hunger strike.
Rasoulof's film, "The Seed of the Sacred Fig" — a movie shot clandestinely in Iran before its director and cast fled the country — ultimately was nominated for best... Read More