Bicoastal Celsius Films has hired Wendy Kalison as its sales rep in New York. She will be working with Celsius head of sales Jack Fahey in repping the production house on the East Coast. Celsius has also added San Francisco-based Courtney Smith for West Coast sales….Bicoastal HKM Productions and The Directors Bureau have signed Chicago-headquartered Kristina Kovacevic to handle Midwest sales….San Francisco-based production house Pandemonium has secured new representation on the East Coast and in the Midwest. The latter market is being handled by Liz Laine of Liz Laine Reps, Chicago. And Carolyn Hill and Michelle Stuart of New York Office have been hired to cover the East Coast….Ellen Knable of Ellen Knable & Associates, Santa Monica, has been signed to rep Area 51 Films, Santa Monica, on the West Coast and in Texas….Jeremy D. Berman has been added as New York rep for Yessian Music, Farmington Hills, Mich., and New York….Donald R. Stogo Associates, New York, has signed an exclusive agreement with Saraceno Productions, Sydney, Australia, to represent director Antonio Saraceno in the U.S….Santa Monica-based broadcast design firm Fuel has signed Chicago rep Hillary Herbst to cover the Midwest….Darr Hawthorne of Sherman Oaks, Calif.-based Burning Motor Home is no longer handling the West Coast for New York-headquartered Highway 61….The Skouras Agency, Santa Monica, has signed DP Derek McKane for exclusive representation….Barbara Lamon has been named VP of sales for DJM Post Production, New York. She will be repping the facility nationally…. Seattle-headquartered Getty Images has named James A. Bonaventura senior VP of sales….
Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck Tell “Freaky Tales,” Look Back On The Impact Of Sundance On Their Careers
When Sean Baker accepted the Best Director Oscar this month for Anora, he made an impassioned plea for the theatrical motion picture. “Where did we fall in love with the movies? At the movie theater,” he affirmed, adding that it’s “a communal experience you don’t get at home.” The shared experience of being in an audience--being moved to tears, laughter, or stunned into silence--is like no other. And it is all the more invaluable in a world where we've become increasingly divided. Writers-directors Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden know all too well the richness of the in-theater experience. Boden recalled last year’s Sundance Film Festival when Freaky Tales--a feature she and Fleck teamed on--was screened before a capacity crowd. Described by Boden as a “crazy, popcorn, fun film,” Freaky Tales elicited a loud, boisterous response from the audience. “The laughter was loud,” as was the applause “when crazy shit went down,” she noted. Now Fleck and Boden, a long-time directing team dating back to their film school days, hope to see and hear that audience reception replicated in theaters across the country as Freaky Tales is slated for wide release by Lionsgate on April 4. Freaky Tales is a genre mashup set in Oakland, Calif., Fleck’s hometown, in the 1980s. Its ensemble cast includes Pedro Pascal, Ben Mendelsohn, Jay Ellis, Dominique Thorne and Normani. The directing team describes it as a personal fever dream fantasy incorporating Fleck’s youthful obsessions from sports, movies and music. The film had been percolating within Fleck for some 30 years, springing from his childhood experience in the 1980s with influences ranging from basketball to hip-hop to punk rock. Fleck at one point called... Read More