Tony Ke has joined Tribal Worldwide as group creative director for Experience Design. He will be based in the agency’s New York office. In this new position, Ke will be responsible for work across the shop’s client roster including H&R Block, Pfizer Consumer Healthcare, and Alcon Visioncare while supporting a deeper integration and collaboration between the agency’s strategy, user experience, and visual design practices. Ke joins Tribal from Digitas, where he served as the VP/creative director for Mobile and Experience Design with clients including American Express, eBay, Aetna, Whirlpool, and Taco Bell….LOOK Effects has hired visual effects industry veteran Wendy Lanning as executive visual effects producer in its Vancouver office (LOOK also maintains operations in L.A., NY and Stuttgart, Germany. Lanning will be producing LOOK’s postproduction projects and working to bring on new films and television shows. Her most recent projects include: The Great Gatsby, Out of the Furnace, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Pt. 1, Immortals, and Sucker Punch. Previously, as one of the original founding partners of Intelligent Creatures in Toronto, she acted as executive producer on over 20 feature films. Her credits include: Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium, Hairspray, The Number 23, The Fountain, Babel, Stranger Than Fiction, Stay, Mr. & Mrs. Smith and The Matador. Other experience includes serving as visual effects production manager on Panic Room and as visual effects producer on the Oscar-winning Chicago….Ryan Spelliscy, formerly co-creative director at Sid Lee Toronto, has been named sr. VP, creative director at JWT Canada‘s Toronto office….
Utah Leaders and Locals Rally To Keep Sundance Film Festival In The State
With the 2025 Sundance Film Festival underway, Utah leaders, locals and longtime attendees are making a final push — one that could include paying millions of dollars — to keep the world-renowned film festival as its directors consider uprooting.
Thousands of festivalgoers affixed bright yellow stickers to their winter coats that read "Keep Sundance in Utah" in a last-ditch effort to convince festival leadership and state officials to keep it in Park City, its home of 41 years.
Gov. Spencer Cox said previously that Utah would not throw as much money at the festival as other states hoping to lure it away. Now his office is urging the Legislature to carve out $3 million for Sundance in the state budget, weeks before the independent film festival is expected to pick a home for the next decade.
It could retain a small presence in picturesque Park City and center itself in nearby Salt Lake City, or move to another finalist — Cincinnati, Ohio, or Boulder, Colorado — beginning in 2027.
"Sundance is Utah, and Utah is Sundance. You can't really separate those two," Cox said. "This is your home, and we desperately hope it will be your home forever."
Last year's festival generated about $132 million for the state of Utah, according to Sundance's 2024 economic impact report.
Festival Director Eugene Hernandez told reporters last week that they had not made a final decision. An announcement is expected this year by early spring.
Colorado is trying to further sweeten its offer. The state is considering legislation giving up to $34 million in tax incentives to film festivals like Sundance through 2036 — on top of the $1.5 million in funds already approved to lure the Utah festival to its neighboring... Read More