PepsiCo has entered into a deal with recently formed Santa Monica production house BermanBraun–headed by veteran TV execs Gail Berman and Lloyd Braun– to create online entertainment. Braun served as head of Yahoo Inc.’s media group before exiting there in December….Veteran editor and effects designer Steve Medin has opened VOLT Studios, a Minneapolis-based post, design and effects shop. Joining him at the new venture are exec producer Charlie Lach and editor Chris Chiabotti….Composers Richard Friedman and Dino Herrmann have teamed with sound designers John Reese and Francois Blaignan to form music/sound house Tinitus. The new Los Angeles-based venture is currently having its digs being built out; still, it has managed to wrap several jobs including Diet Mountain Dew and Mountain Dew for BBDO New York, and Heineken for Ogilvy & Mather, Singapore. Concurrent with Tinitus, Blaignan continues to maintain a relationship with bicoastal editing house Nomad for select sound design assignments….Audio engineer Daniel Verlinde has joined the audio post group at post facilities Postique and hdstudios in Southfield, Mich. He comes over from Southfield-based Gold Sound. Additionally, Spencer Hall has been promoted to audio engineer at Postique and hdstudios….
“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