In a cash deal valued at about $44 million, Tewksbury, Mass.-headquartered Avid Technology has acquired Munich, Germany-based NXN Software, a provider of asset and production management systems for the entertainment and computer graphics industries. The acquisition will afford Avid’s film and video post, broadcast and 3-D animation customers the opportunity to access the workflow capabilities of the NXN Alienbrain product line (SHOOT, 10/3/03, p. 15), which has been implemented at such companies as Pixar Animation Studios, Richmond, Calif., and Sony Pictures Imageworks, Culver City, Calif….Michael Antonucci has joined McCann-Erickson Detroit, Troy, Mich., as senior VP/executive director of broadcast production….Director Barbara McDonough has come aboard bicoastal HKM….Producer Oscar Thomas has joined Driver, the New York-based independent agency/production company founded by producers Scott Weitz and J.D. Williams. Thomas had been with Crispin Porter+Bogusky, Miami, as a producer and business manager….Mono-monikered editor Namakula, formerly of Final Cut, New York, has joined Slingshot Edit and Post, New York….Editor Oren Sarch, formerly of The Blue Rock Editing Company, New York, has become a partner in New York-based Convergence Edit….Owner/editor Scott Gaillard has launched Outside Editorial, New York. The shop opens with editors Gaillard, Bill Rohn, Scott Gibney, Jeff Ferruzzo, Steve Evans, Shannon O’Brien, Fran Gullo and Wally Carey, the design team of Jaime Lamond and Riccardo Sinti, and executive producer Amanda Slamin. The same coterie of talent is also on the roster of the Gaillard-owned Berwyn Editorial, which provides services exclusively to New York ad agency Euro RSCG MVBMS Partners. Outside Editorial is the conduit through which this talent is available to the ad community at large….Hip-hop production team Medicine Men has signed with New York music shop Smythe & Co. for exclusive commercial representation.…Composer/producer Drazen Bosnjak of Q Department, Brooklyn, N.Y., has been named senior creative director of bicoastal Face The Music….Radium, San Francisco and Santa Monica, has added head of production Dennis Hoffman, CG supervisor Kirk Cadrette, Inferno artist Jon Wank, digital effects artist Chris Biggs and CG artist/matte painter Darin Hilton.…Suzanne Potashnick has joined New York design/production studio Freestyle Collective as executive producer….
Breakout Films and Major Takeaways From This Year’s Sundance Fest
Film wasn't the only thing on people's minds at this year's Sundance Film Festival, which comes to a close Sunday in Park City, Utah ( and online ).
The effects of the wildfires in Southern California loomed large, as did the bittersweet knowledge that this year will be the second to last Sundance based in Park City. Some films offered an escape from reality; others were a pointed reminder of the domestic and international political landscape, from transgender rights to the war in Ukraine.
Here are some of the key takeaways from the 41st edition of the festival.
The effects of the Southern California fires were deeply felt
The wildfires were still burning in parts of Los Angeles when Sundance began last week and reminders of its devastation were everywhere, even on screen. Max Walker-Silverman's "Rebuilding," starring Josh O'Connor as a cowboy who loses his ranch in a wildfire and forms a community with fellow survivors in a FEMA camp, hit close to home for many.
Filmmakers Meena Menon and Paul Gleason lost their home in Altadena where they filmed some of their zombie apocalypse movie "Didn't Die." Sundance artist labs head Michelle Satter lost her Palisades home as well. Satter had an audience of Sundance Institute donors in tears early in the festival while accepting an honor at a fundraising gala.
"It's a deeply devastating time for us and so many others, a moment that calls for all of us coming together to support our bigger community," Satter said. "As a friend recently noted, and I have to listen to this, 'Take a deep breath ... We lost our village, but at the end of the day we are the village.'"
The festival's move to another city dominated conversations
It was a topic... Read More