Barbarian, a digital creative agency backed by Cheil Worldwide, has named Resh Sidhu as its executive creative director. In her role, Sidhu will be responsible for driving transformational creative work that delivers business impact across all of the agency’s clients. She will serve as a member of the Barbarian leadership team, reporting directly to global CEO Steven Moy.
Sidhu brings over 20 years of design expertise, technology experience, and creative craft to Barbarian. Her leadership approach has empowered her multidisciplinary creative teams to create breakthrough products, services and communications for brands like Nike, Volvo, and Coca-Cola in recent years.
She will oversee the creative vision of Barbarian’s New York headquarters, nurturing creative talent and creating influential work that builds emotional resonance.
Sidhu joins Barbarian from digital agency AKQA where she was group creative director across London and New York. Previously, she served as creative director of the VR studio at Oscar-winning visual effects company, Framestore. There, she led a multi-disciplinary team across a wide variety of experiential and immersive experiences, earning her critical acclaim.
Sidhu has received numerous awards and accolades throughout her career, including recognition from The One Show, Cannes Lions, Webby Awards, D&AD and the Clios. She was also awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Arts London in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the field of digital, film, immersive technology and advertising.
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