Finger Music & Sound Design has hired Mario Davis as head of film & TV music. Formerly of Angry Mob Music, Davis has been fortifying the Finger Music catalog, beefing up its songwriter and trailer composer roster, and expanding the company’s reach to film and TV series music, moves that will help expand Finger’s capabilities in the advertising marketplace. Davis began his career at Chicago-based music promotions firm JMA Promo, where he promoted projects by an eclectic roster of artists including The Strokes, Outkast and Christina Aguilera. Davis’ duties spanned both radio promotion and new artist development, which exposed him to promotional strategies for both established major label artists and up-and-coming independent talent. He later founded Kestrel Artist Management, a boutique music management and consulting company where he promoted many notable careers, assisted in attaining recording and distribution deals with major and independent labels, and secured publishing and licensing opportunities, as well as the development and implementation of successful music and lifestyle marketing initiatives with companies such as Filter Magazine, Barney’s Co-Op, Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art and American Apparel. An accomplished musician, Davis studied music performance, composition, and production at Princeton University….Production manager Brittany Progulske has been promoted from production manager to producer, Dee Farmand from special projects manager to producer, and Tone Hoeft from production & development coordinator to a creative manager at MRB Productions, a Hollywood, Calif.-based producer of television, feature, new media and commercial content, founded by two-time Emmy Award-winning producer Matthew Brady….
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