Heidi Gottlieb and Doug Wedeck have amicably parted ways as partners in New York-based Single Bid. Wedeck will continue to head Single Bid, while Gottlieb is currently weighing her options. In the meantime, she will be working through her New York company, Realist….Computer Café, Santa Monica and Santa Maria, Calif., has signed Laura Zinn of New York-based Zinndependent for representation on the East Coast and Detroit, and Kelly Class of Class Represents, Marina del Rey, Calif., for Midwest sales…. Dallas-based rep firm Jack Reed Reps has been signed to represent Atlanta-based Comotion Films in Texas and the Southwest…. Sherman Oaks, Calif.-based Ambitious Entertainment has added director/cameraman Robert Crombie for worldwide representation….DPs Mike Maley and Bernard Auroux, and production designer Johannes Spalt, have signed with The Martins Agency, Santa Monica….Dana Locatell has joined creative digital studio R!OT, Santa Monica as national executive producer for new business. He was formerly at Creative Management Partners, bicoastal and Chicago, where he served as an account manager….
A Nomination Tradition: DGA Award, Best Director Oscar Discrepancy Continues
The awards season norm has seen the nearly annual occurrence of at least one difference between the lineups of Best Director Oscar and the DGA Award nominees. In only five of the  77 years of the DGA Awards have the Guild nominations exactly mirrored their Academy Award counterparts. This time around Edward Berger and Coralie Fargeat are in line with the predominant history. Fargeat earned a Best Director Oscar nomination this week for The Substance (MUBI). Berger, who didn’t make the directorial Oscar cut, earned a DGA Award nomination for Conclave (Focus Features). Four of the five directors vying for the DGA Award and the Outstanding Achievement in Directing Oscar are in sync this year: Jacques Audiard for Emilia Pérez (Netflix) Sean Baker for Anora (Neon), Brady Corbet for The Brutalist (A24), and James Mangold for A Complete Unknown (Searchlight). On the flip side of tradition, if Fargeat were to win the directing Oscar, that development wouldn’t be aligned with but rather bucking history. Only eight times has the DGA Award winner not gone on to win the Oscar. That happened most recently in 2020 when Sam Mendes won the DGA Award for 1917 while Bong Joon-ho scored the Oscar for Parasite. Fargeat has already made a bit of history, scoring just the 10th Best Director Oscar nomination ever for a woman. The Substance is up for five Oscars--the other nominations being for Best Picture, Leading Actress (Demi Moore), Original Screenplay (Fargeat), and Makeup & Hairstyling (Pierre-Olivier Persin, Stephanie Guillon, Marilyne Scarselli). Even without a Best Director nomination, Conclave tallied eight Oscar nods--for Best Picture, Leading Actor (Ralph... Read More