The Story Companies, headquartered in Chicago, has signed a pair of directors for exclusive national representation in commercials: Jamie Most and Brian Johnson. Most is best known for his tenure as creative director of NBA Entertainment, where he directed more than two dozen commercials for the pro basketball league and its charitable endeavors. Johnson comes over from The Joneses, New York….Animation director Eli Balser has signed a national spot representation agreement with New York-based design/computer animation/visual effects house Click 3X….San Diego agency matthews/mark has changed its name to Matthews|Evans|Albertazzi, with the arrival of partner/creative director Craig Evans, who was formerly with Big Bang Idea Engineering, San Diego and Seattle. Other agency principals are CEO Jim Matthews and creative director Mark Albertazzi….Meanwhile creative director Michael Mark, who left matthews/mark in January, has formed ad agency NYCA, Encinitas, Calif….HUM Music+Sound Design has launched Grasshopper, a division that offers music and sound design solutions for less than $10,000. Producer Chanel Scott heads up the new division, which has a roster of four composers/sound designers: Rob Lopez, Dan Hart, Cliff Magreta and Kyle Mullarky….stimmüng, Santa Monica, has made inroads into the New York market with the signing of the mono-monikered composer Bix….Former Splash Design, New York, creative director/visual effects supervisor, Andy Milkis and producer Kelley McDermott have joined forces to form TLI Design & Visual Effects. TLI has reached an agreement with edit/graphic design facility, Creative Bubble, New York, and will operate out of the Creative Bubble offices.…Set to succeed Milkis as creative director at visual effects/design house Splash is Roi Werner, who will start in his new position on Aug. 1….
London Critics Name “The Brutalist” The Film of the Year
The Brutalist, Brady Corbet’s immigrant saga, won the Film of the Year prize at the 45th London Critics’ Circle Film Awards.
While The Brutalist garnered just one award, it was the marquee honor. Meanwhile Nickel Boys, Conclave and A Real Pain all receivd multiple awards, and Zoe Saldaña was honored twice.
Edward Berger’s Vatican thriller Conclave took two awards for British/Irish Film of the Year and Actor of the Year for Ralph Fiennes, while RaMell Ross’s radical Colson Whitehead adaptation Nickel Boys was recognized with Director of the Year and the Technical Achievement Award for Jomo Fray’s first-person cinematography. Jesse Eisenberg’s dark comedy A Real Pain was the night’s other multiple prizewinner, landing Screenwriter of the Year for the actor-filmmaker, and Supporting Actor of the Year for co-star Kieran Culkin.
Payal Kapadia’s Mumbai-set drama All We Imagine as Light was named Foreign Language Film of the Year, while the Palestinian-Israeli collective behind No Other Land took Documentary of the Year.
Alongside Conclave, British productions awarded by the Circle in the top categories included Mike Leigh’s intimate character study Hard Truths, which took Actress of the Year for Marianne Jean-Baptiste, while Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl was named Animated Feature of the Year. In the British/Irish-specific categories, Saoirse Ronan won British/Irish Performer of the Year for her performances in The Outrun and Blitz, 14-year-old Nykiya Adams won Young British/Irish Performer of the Year for her screen debut in Andrea Arnold’s Bird, and Rich Peppiatt won the... Read More