Bicoastal Tool of North America and managing director Phillip Detchmendy have parted ways. No word yet as to a successor to Detchmendy…..Longstanding London production house Godman is slated to close its doors in the next month or so. Plans call for the company to complete its current slate of projects before winding down operations. The shop intends to honor all of its financial obligations…..Southwest Productions, with offices in Albuquerque and New York, has added comedy director Alan Blake, formerly of Blake & Co., London. The move marks his return to commercial production after having worked on longform TV and movie projects. Blake now resides in Connecticut….Director/digital cinematographer John Allardice has joined Sway Studio, Los Angeles. He previously was at Digital Domain, Venice, Calif., where he ran previsualization on spot projects and had some feature project involvement as well…..
“Atropia” and “Twinless” Win Marquee Prizes At Sundance Film Festival
The war satire “Atropia,” about actors in a military role-playing facility, won the grand jury prize in the Sundance Film Festival’s U.S. dramatic competition, while the Dylan O’Brien movie “Twinless” got the coveted audience award.
Juries and programmers for the 41st edition of the independent film festival announced the major prizewinners Friday in Park City, Utah.
Other grand jury winners included the documentaries “Seeds,” about farmers in rural Georgia and “Cutting Through the Rocks,” about the first elected councilwoman in an Iranian village. The Indian drama “Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears),” about a city dweller mourning his father in the western Indian countryside, won the top prize in the world cinema competition.
“It’s for my dad,” said writer and director Rohan Parashuram Kanawade. His late father, he said, was the one who encouraged him to pursue filmmaking.
Audiences also get to vote on their own awards, where James Sweeney’s “Twinless,” about the bromance between two men who meet in a twin bereavement support group, triumphed in the U.S. dramatic category. O’Brien also won a special jury award for his acting.
The U.S. documentary audience award went to “André is an Idiot,” a life-affirming film about dying of colon cancer. Other audience picks were “Prime Minister,” about former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, and “DJ Ahmet,” a coming-of-age film about a 15-year-old boy in North Macedonia.
Mstyslav Chernov, the Oscar-winning Associated Press journalist, won the world cinema documentary directing award for his latest dispatch from Ukraine, “2000 Meters to Andriivka,” a joint production between the AP and PBS Frontline.
“Here’s to all... Read More