Bicoastal Cohn+Company has added director Harry Patramanis for spots….Director Danny Boyle is joining Hollywood-based SunSpots….Tombo, the Hollywood-headquartered production house founded by executive producer Fred Porter, has signed director Branson Veal….Swedish director Johan Tappert has signed with Compulsive Pictures, New York for commercial representation….VP/executive producer Matthew Charde has exited San Francisco-headquartered Red Sky’s entertainment division and is pursuing other opportunities. The entertainment group was created last fall after Red Sky acquired Boston- and Burbank-based animation/effects/live-action studio Olive Jar, in which Charde was a principal, and Los Angeles-based multimedia firm White Noise (SHOOT, 10/6/00, p. 1). Earlier this year, Red Sky filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection (see SHOOT’s "Street Talk," 7/27, p. 22)….Bicoastal Believe Media has fortified its U.K. presence via an association with Rose Hackney Barber, London. Believe Media’s London operation will be quartered on the Rose Hackney Barber premises, with executive producer Mark O’Sullivan continuing to represent the Believe directorial roster in the U.K….Hollywood-based Orbit Entertainment Group, the parent to commercial production house Orbit Productions, is set to produce Phoenix Pictures’ military thriller Basic. Directed by John McTiernan (Die Hard, The Hunt For Red October) and starring John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson, Basic is the first feature to come out of the strategic alliance entered into last year by Orbit Entertainment Group and Culver City, Calif.-based Phoenix Pictures (SHOOT, 1/21/00, p. 1)….PostWorks, New York, has named visual effects/graphics designer Victor Barroso director of the company’s newly created graphics and visual effects division…Smoke editor Nathan Hurlburt has joined Liquid Light, New York….Jeff Ross has come aboard Glendale, Calif.-based Sunset Digital (formerly Sunset Post) in the newly created role of executive VP/COO. Ross spent the past 11 years at Pacific Ocean Post, Santa Monica, joining as its COO in 1990 and then serving from ’97 on as managing director of POP Film and POP Animation (which have both since been merged into R!OT)….Amy Nicholson, creative director at the New York office of Wieden+Kennedy (W+K), has left the agency. Todd Waterbury, who had been at the Portland, Ore., headquarters of W+K, will succeed Nicholson….Nigel Williams has joined ad agency davidandgoliath, as creative director. He will be based in the shop’s Los Angeles headquarters (the agency also maintains a New York office), and report directly to David Angelo, chief creative officer/managing partner. Williams comes over from Suissa Miller Advertising, Los Angeles….After 15 years in business, Holland Mark Advertising, Boston, has closed. Clients serviced by the agency included Polaroid, which recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, Yankee Candle Co., and Veryfine Products’ juice line….
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