Kelly Anne Smith has been named in-house East Coast sales rep for 11/11 Productions, New York. Smith will also handle national sales for sister company cap tv, New York….Hollywood-based music/sound design house Soundelux Design Music Group (DMG), a division of Liberty Livewire Corp., has secured New York-based Commercial Artists Management (CAM) for spot representation on the East Coast. CAM owner Marc VanDermeer and rep Keith Ehrlich will handle DMG, which continues to be repped in the Midwest and on the West Coast by staff producer Darlene Gorzela….San Francisco-based Roaring Tiger Films, under the aegis of executive producer Carey Crosby, has retained Dorothea Poloynis for representation on the West Coast and in Texas.…Attik has signed New York-based Peter McCann and M1 Management for East Coast spot representation of its New York studio. The brand communications company also maintains offices in San Francisco, London and Huddersfield, England, and Sydney, Australia….Sherry Howell and Donna Woodroof of Los Angeles-based independent repping firm Howell & Associates are handling the West Coast for Tuki Edit, Santa Monica….
First-Time Feature Directors Make Major Splash At AFI Fest, Generate Oscar Buzz
Two first-time feature directors who are generating Oscar buzz this awards season were front and center this past weekend at AFI Fest in Hollywood. Rachel Morrison, who made history as the first woman nominated for a Best Cinematography Oscar---on the strength of Mudbound in 2018--brought her feature directorial debut, The Fire Inside (Amazon MGM Studios), to the festival on Sunday (10/27), and shared insights into the film during a conversation session immediately following the screening. This came a day after William Goldenberg, an Oscar-winning editor for Argo in 2013, had his initial foray into feature directing, Unstoppable (Amazon MGM Studios), showcased at the AFI proceedings. He too spoke after the screening during a panel discussion. The Fire Inside--which made its world premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival--tells the story of Claressa “T-Rex” Shields (portrayed by Ryan Destiny), a Black boxer from Flint, Mich., who trained to become the first woman in U.S. history to win an Olympic Gold Medal in the sport. She achieved this feat--with the help of coach Jason Crutchfield (Brian Tyree Henry)--only to find that her victory at the Summer Games came with relatively little fanfare and no endorsement deals. So much for the hope that the historic accomplishment would be a ticket out of socioeconomic purgatory for Shields and her family. It seemed like yet another setback in a cycle of adversity throughout Shields’ life but she persevered, going on to win her second Gold Medal at the next Olympics and becoming a champion for gender equality and equitable pay for women in sports. Shields has served as a source of inspiration for woman athletes worldwide--as well as to the community of... Read More