Director Steve Beck, formerly of Industrial Light + Magic Commercial Productions, San Rafael and Los Angeles, has joined bicoastal Reactor Films. Word is that Reactor is also about to add director/designer Linzi Knight, who continues to be partnered in Toronto house Red Rover….In an effort to satisfy the debts of New York-headquartered Shooting Gallery Inc. (SGI), its Toronto-based parent, itemus, has issued a preliminary base shelf prospectus that—if approved—would permit itemus to issue shares of itemus stock to SGI creditors; itemus is liable for up to $10 million of SGI debt. Meanwhile, a group of SGI investors has filed suit against SGI, itemus and former SGI president/CFO Stephen Carlis, alleging that SGI failed to pay investment returns and accusing Carlis of fraud and deliberate misuse of funds. As earlier reported (SHOOT, 7/6, p. 1) SGI’s financial problems undermined its profitable commercial and music video shop, Shooting Gallery Productions, which closed in late June…..Director Tryan George has come aboard bicoastal M-80 Films. George was most recently with now defunct The End….Director Eric E. Fitzpatrick and bicoastal Cohn+Company have parted ways….89 Greene, New York, is adding editor Paul Kelly who comes over from BUG Editorial, New York. Kelly’s official 89 Greene start date is Sept. 1….Larry Pecorella, partner/composer at Chameleon Music, Chicago, has signed with Com/track, Chicago, where he joins composers Bryan Rheude, Dave Hutten and Justin Hori; the Chameleon Music staff—including in-house rep Marya Fletcher—will merge into Com/ track….In other Windy City news, Chicago-headquartered post shop The Filmworkers Club has acquired Astro Color Laboratories, Chicago. Filmworkers also owns Chicago-based sister shop, Sanitary Lab….Creative ad boutique Elvis & Bonaparte, Portland, Ore., has shuttered. Several of the shop’s personnel are expected to launch a new venture, according to Dave Helfrey, the agency’s former VP/creative director …Caroline Jones, a creative director/copywriter who founded, among other ad shops, Mingo, Jones, Guilmenot—now the Chisholm/Mingo Group, New York—and Caroline Jones Inc., also New York, died of cancer on June 28 at the Calvary Hospital, Bronx, N.Y. She was 59….Ronald Monchak, a longtime creative executive in the Detroit advertising community passed away June 26 of leukemia. Monchak retired as chairman of D’Arcy Detroit, Troy, Mich., in 1993…
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