Piper Productions has named Thomas Robbins as its president, a new position at the bicoastal shop. He comes over from Foote, Cone & Belding on the West Coast where he served as senior VP, director of communications. Robbins will work out of Piper’s Santa Monica office, while managing director Sarah Jenks, who founded the company in 1996, remains based in New York…. Director Kevin Bourland and bicoastal Great Guns have amicably parted ways…..Heidi Gottlieb has been named executive producer at New York-based production company Zero 2 Sixty. She spent the past seven years as president/partner at now defunct rep firm Single Bid….Kevin Batten, formerly a staff producer at Deutsch LA, has taken the executive producer reins at Brand New School, a design/graphics/live-action shop that’s just gone bicoastal with the opening of a New York office. Batten replaces Matthew Marquis, who had been executive producer since the end of February (SHOOT, 2/23, p. 1). Marquis, who continues to maintain spot shop Milk Bar, has taken a temporary leave of absence from that company due to family reasons. In the interim, former freelancer Erin Tauscher is handling executive producer responsibilities at Milk Bar, which has relocated to Marina del Rey, Calif., and which continues to represent directors Jarl Olsen, Lara Shapiro and Brumby Boylston. Seth Epstein, who had been repped by Milk Bar, has left to pursue opportunities outside of directing….Northern Lights Post, New York, has added editor Patrick Burns, Jr. and producer Arthur Tremeau to its staff….
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