Robin Benson has formally launched Company, a Los Angeles production house with a spot directorial roster that includes Philippe Andre, The Coen Brothers, Fred Goss, Sara Marandi, David McNally, Jeff Thomas and Harald Zwart. Benson and Richard Goldstein will be the company’s exec producers. Robert Nackman has been named head of production….Director Paul Riccio has come aboard The Sweet Shop, New York, which is headed by exec producer/partner Steven Shore….Washington Square Films, New York, has signed director/DP Carolina Zorrilla de San Martin, who’s wrapped her first project for the production house, a Gardasil assignment via Prime Access, New York….Charlotte, N.C.-based ad agency BooneOakley has hired Craig Jelniker as head of broadcast production, a new position at the shop. Jelniker previously served as senior producer/VP at Element 79, Chicago….The Whitehouse, bicoastal, Chicago and London, has added Dan Maloney as a full fledged editor in its New York shop. He had been freelancing as an assistant editor at the company and also freelance cut some work there as well, including a recent PSA for Air France and international children’s rights organization ECPAT through Euro BETC, Paris….
“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