Mary Knox has joined Curious Pictures, New York , as its executive producer of commercials. She succeeds company partner David Starr who becomes Curious’ executive producer of branded entertainment. Curious is active in branded entertainment fare for such clients as AOL, Mattel and Burger King. Meanwhile Knox–who recently served as a partner in New York-based independent rep firm Commercial Artists Management–has helped to bring some new talent aboard Curious, including the helming duo Ugly, which consists of Abraham Spear and Rohitash Rao. Furthermore, Knox had a hand in inking Baltimore animation studio Buoyant Duck whose directors are now handled via Curious….Feature film directors Christopher Noonan (Babe) and Vincent Ward (What Dreams May Come) have signed with Saville Productions, Beverly Hills, for exclusive U.S. spot representation…..Production execs Joby Barnhart and Jamie Miller have launched Savant, a Santa Monica-based production house. The new venture opens with a directorial roster that includes John Bonito, Matt Carter, Jake Knowles and the Swedish collective Waytion……Director Susie Roberson has joined Taxi Films, New York….Editor Jonathan Silver has returned to Venice, Calif.-based Room. He had most recently been freelancing on the East Coast…..As part of the Advertising Week proceedings in New York, music/post house Fluid, New York, presented its third annual Battle of the Ad Bands. Coming in first place for the second consecutive year was Pants, the band out of McKinney, Raleigh, N.C.. Taking second were The Subliminals from Grey, New York, and finishing third was World Grope from McCann Erickson, New York. The event benefits VH1’s Save The Music foundation, which is dedicated to saving music programs in public schools….
A Nomination Tradition: DGA Award, Best Director Oscar Discrepancy Continues
The awards season norm has seen the nearly annual occurrence of at least one difference between the lineups of Best Director Oscar and the DGA Award nominees. In only five of the 77 years of the DGA Awards have the Guild nominations exactly mirrored their Academy Award counterparts. This time around Edward Berger and Coralie Fargeat are in line with the predominant history. Fargeat earned a Best Director Oscar nomination this week for The Substance (MUBI). Berger, who didn’t make the directorial Oscar cut, earned a DGA Award nomination for Conclave (Focus Features). Four of the five directors vying for the DGA Award and the Outstanding Achievement in Directing Oscar are in sync this year: Jacques Audiard for Emilia Pérez (Netflix) Sean Baker for Anora (Neon), Brady Corbet for The Brutalist (A24), and James Mangold for A Complete Unknown (Searchlight). On the flip side of tradition, if Fargeat were to win the directing Oscar, that development wouldn’t be aligned with but rather bucking history. Only eight times has the DGA Award winner not gone on to win the Oscar. That happened most recently in 2020 when Sam Mendes won the DGA Award for 1917 while Bong Joon-ho scored the Oscar for Parasite. Fargeat has already made a bit of history, scoring just the 10th Best Director Oscar nomination ever for a woman. The Substance is up for five Oscars--the other nominations being for Best Picture, Leading Actress (Demi Moore), Original Screenplay (Fargeat), and Makeup & Hairstyling (Pierre-Olivier Persin, Stephanie Guillon, Marilyne Scarselli). Even without a Best Director nomination, Conclave tallied eight Oscar nods--for Best Picture, Leading Actor (Ralph... Read More