Though it’s far from a fait accompli, the national boards of SAG and AFTRA voted overwhelmingly in favor of bringing the two unions together under one banner. The boards are scheduled to convene again on April 5 to consider specifics of the merger, including the name of the umbrella organization. If the boards again give a thumbs-up at that time, members would vote on the proposal in May, with 60 percent approval needed from rank and file of both unions for the deal to come to fruition. What effect a combined union would have on upcoming advertising industry contract negotiations remains to be seen. The current SAG commercials contract expires at the end of October….Partners/directors David Daniels and Chel White, and partner/executive producer Ray Di Carlo have launched Bent Image Lab, a mixed media/animation shop in Portland, Ore….Feature filmmakers Sidney Lumet (Night Falls On Manhattan; Serpico) and the mono-monikered Kaos (Ballistic: Ecks Vs. Sever) have signed with Creative Film Management International, New York, for commercial representation….Editors Saar Klein and Peter Mostert have joined bicoastal Lost Planet…. Director Steve Dell, formerly of Highway 61, New York, has joined Hyena Films, the New York commercial production house founded by partners Alex Winter and Alex Halpern. Dell will continue to be represented overseas by Method Films, London. Four other directors out of Winter’s U.K. production facility Brave Films, London, have also signed up for stateside representation. Director Dave Hartley will be repped by Hyena while directors Sue Worthy, Sara Dunlop and Lucy Blakstad will work out of Hyena’s newly launched division Fur, New York. Fur was recently formed to differentiate its directors specializing in beauty, effects and drama from Hyena’s core of comedic helmers….Director Anthony Atanasio has signed with bicoastal production company Naked Project for stateside representation….Jessica Cooper Carlson has joined Bruce Dowad Associates, Hollywood, as executive producer, succeeding Heidi Nolting….Sarah Grey has joined bicoastal Brand New School as its East Coast executive producer. She comes over from Ogilvy & Mather, New York, where she was a broadcast producer….Editor Sophie Scoufaras, coming off a year of freelancing, has joined Steel Rose Editorial, New York. Scoufaras’ cutting background also includes a brief stint at New York’s Greene & Grand as well as nine years in the New York office of bicoastal/San Francisco Crew Cuts….Owner/editor Jonathan Smalheiser, most recently a partner at New York editing facility Three Fingered Louie, has bowed editorial boutique ChicKönKey, New York. On staff are executive producer Robin Hall, formerly of Crew Cuts, and editor Charlie Cusumano, recently with Mad River Post, New York, Santa Monica, San Francisco, Dallas and Detroit…. The directing team of Maureen Egan and Matthew Berry have reached an agreement to helm music video, commercial and branding projects for Vagrant Records Entertainment, the Los Angeles-based creative, production and advertising arm of Vagrant Records…Music video director Curtis Norman Fuqua has signed with 1171 Production Group, Los Angeles….Caleb Deschanel has wrapped principal photography on the Mel Gibson-directed feature The Passion, and is available to direct spots via Dark Light Pictures, Hollywood…Philip H. Knight, chairman of the board, CEO/co-founder of Nike has been named "Advertiser of the Year" by the Cannes International Advertising Festival. The honor will be presented at the 50th Cannes Fest on June 21. This is the second time Knight has received the award; the first came in ’94…. Editor Mark Block, formerly of Boomtown, New York and bicoastal Crew Cuts, has launched Have Avid, Will Travel, New York, a mobile editing studio that commutes to advertising agencies that are not equipped with editing equipment. Block hopes to fulfill a need among ad agencies where creatives are too busy to spend a day in an editing facility….
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