Marci Miles of Reelize Reps, Chicago, has been named to handle the Midwest for Los Angeles-based Rhythm & Hues.….Bicoastal Cohn + Company and New York-based Nadel@ Cohn + Company have signed Mark Andrews of Where’s The Boards?, Los Angeles, for West Coast sales….Los Angeles- based visual effects house KromA has secured independent rep Grace Silverstein of Reel Grace, Santa Monica, to handle the West Coast and Texas….Andrea Marcucci of Agent 99, New York, is now handling East Coast representation for editorial, visual effects and design shop Version2. Editing, New York….Sovereign, the Santa Monica-based music and sound design shop recently launched by composer PJ Hanke, has hired Arrianne Braverman for representation on the West Coast. Executive producer Katie Jones continues to rep Sovereign in all other territories….Sales rep Victoria Venantini has joined Holbrook Management, the New York-based independent repping firm that handles the East Coast for bicoastal Moxie Pictures, Finger Music, West Los Angeles, Blind, Santa Monica, and the New York shops Consulate, cYclops and foreignfilms@cYclops….Global Production Network (GPN), Los Angeles, has inked an exclusive deal to handle U.S. representation for Aussie filmmaker Jane Smith’s Sydney-based production services company Filmsmiths Australia…. After wrapping additional photography on the Warner Bros. feature Constantine, DP Jeff Cutter is once again available for commercial and music video work via United Talent Agency (UTA), Beverly Hills, Calif….
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