Chris Smith of Sugar Film Production directed a four-spot campaign for H-E-B, including “Toga” which features stars from the NBA champion San Antonio Spurs. Conceived by a creative ensemble at The Richards Group, Dallas, “Toga” features Spurs’ star Tim Duncan returning from a workout to find teammates Tony Parker, Patty Mills, Kawhi Leonard and Manu Ginobili decked out in homemade togas to fully immerse themselves in their enjoyment of H-E-B’s new Greek yogurt.
Smith has directed the H-E-B/Spurs campaigns with The Richards Group for nearly a decade. He has developed a deft touch for capturing comedic performances from star athletes. The latest campaign also includes the :30s “Wise,” “Slogans” and “Barbie.”
Audience, Juried Awards At Denver Fest
The Starz Denver Film Festival, sponsored by Starz Entertainment and produced by the Denver Film Society, recently wrapped with the unveiling of its jury and audience award winners. The People’s Choice Awards included the Roberto Ando-directed Viva la liberta as Best Narrative Feature, the Dave Iverson-helmed Capturing Grace as top Documentary Feature, Moon Molson’s The Bravest, The Boldest as Best Short, and Xavier Maingon’s “Save Me” for Irma as Best Music Video.
The juried award lineup included:
—The Krzysztof Kieลlowski Award for Best Foreign Feature Film went to The Tribe (Plemya) directed by Miroslav Slaboshpitsky (Ukraine).
—A Special Jury Award was bestowed upon August Winds directed by Gabriel Mascaro (Brazil).
—Another Special Jury Award was garnered by Stations of the Cross directed by Dietrich Brรผggemann (Germany).
—The Maysles Brothers Award for Best Documentary Film was garnered by The Look of Silence directed by Joshua Oppenheimer (USA).
—Honorable Mention for Best Documentary was earned by Watchers of the Sky directed by Edet Belzberg (USA).
—The American Independent Award for Best Feature Film went to The Midnight Swim directed by Sarah Adina Smith (USA).
—The ASIFA-Colorado Best Animated Short Award was earned by Salmon Deadly Sins directed by Steven Vander Meer (USA).
—The Liberty Global International Student Short Award went to The Bigger Picture directed by Daisy Jacobs (UK).
—The Spike Lee Student Filmmaker Award winner was A Grand Canal directed by Johnny Ma (USA).
—The Feature Screenplay Award was won by Claire Fowler for Little House.
— John Burdeaux won Short Screenplay honors for Pelham Bay Park.
People On The Move…
Greg Talmage has joined animation, VFX and design company Blur Studio as exec producer. Talmage comes to Blur from Iron Claw, an Emmy Award-winning production company that he co-founded in 2008. Talmage began his entertainment career at DreamWorks in marketing in the late ‘90s and then gravitated towards design and short-form projects, rising through the ranks as a producer at Imaginary Forces, Transistor Studios, Troika and Logan, where he managed projects for brands such as Microsoft, Apple and Electronic Arts….
After 20 Years of Acting, Megan Park Finds Her Groove In The Director’s Chair On “My Old Ass”
Megan Park feels a little bad that her movie is making so many people cry. It's not just a single tear either โ more like full body sobs.
She didn't set out to make a tearjerker with "My Old Ass," now streaming on Prime Video. She just wanted to tell a story about a young woman in conversation with her older self. The film is quite funny (the dialogue between 18-year-old and almost 40-year-old Elliott happens because of a mushroom trip that includes a Justin Bieber cover), but it packs an emotional punch, too.
Writing, Park said, is often her way of working through things. When she put pen to paper on "My Old Ass," she was a new mom and staying in her childhood bedroom during the pandemic. One night, she and her whole nuclear family slept under the same roof. She didn't know it then, but it would be the last time, and she started wondering what it would be like to have known that.
In the film, older Elliott ( Aubrey Plaza ) advises younger Elliott ( Maisy Stella ) to not be so eager to leave her provincial town, her younger brothers and her parents and to slow down and appreciate things as they are. She also tells her to stay away from a guy named Chad who she meets the next day and discovers that, unfortunately, he's quite cute.
At 38, Park is just getting started as a filmmaker. Her first, "The Fallout," in which Jenna Ortega plays a teen in the aftermath of a school shooting, had one of those pandemic releases that didn't even feel real. But it did get the attention of Margot Robbie 's production company LuckyChap Entertainment, who reached out to Park to see what other ideas she had brewing.
"They were very instrumental in encouraging me to go with it," Park said. "They're just really even-keeled, good people, which makes... Read More