International production studio Hamlet has added U.S. director Maya Margolina to its roster for representation in France, Greater China, Belgium and The Netherlands. Margolina has extensive experience in the fashion and beauty market creating content films for Victoria Secrets, Allure Magazine, beauty platform Glossier and fashion platform MCM. She has worked with a host of prominent figures in the beauty and fashion world including Kim Kardashian, Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid, Paloma Elsesser, Adut Akech and Christine Quinn. Margolina started out as a music supervisor and started to create music videos for friends, which then led to being head hunted by Glossier to lead the video department. She then moved to Condé Nast where she created new content series with fashion and beauty luminaries for Vogue.com and Allure.com. Founded in 2015 by executive producers Ruben Goots and Jason Felstead, Hamlet operates out of Brussels, Berlin, Shanghai and most recently Paris….
First-Time Feature Directors Make Major Splash At AFI Fest, Generate Oscar Buzz
Two first-time feature directors who are generating Oscar buzz this awards season were front and center this past weekend at AFI Fest in Hollywood. Rachel Morrison, who made history as the first woman nominated for a Best Cinematography Oscar---on the strength of Mudbound in 2018--brought her feature directorial debut, The Fire Inside (Amazon MGM Studios), to the festival on Sunday (10/27), and shared insights into the film during a conversation session immediately following the screening. This came a day after William Goldenberg, an Oscar-winning editor for Argo in 2013, had his initial foray into feature directing, Unstoppable (Amazon MGM Studios), showcased at the AFI proceedings. He too spoke after the screening during a panel discussion. The Fire Inside--which made its world premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival--tells the story of Claressa “T-Rex” Shields (portrayed by Ryan Destiny), a Black boxer from Flint, Mich., who trained to become the first woman in U.S. history to win an Olympic Gold Medal in the sport. She achieved this feat--with the help of coach Jason Crutchfield (Brian Tyree Henry)--only to find that her victory at the Summer Games came with relatively little fanfare and no endorsement deals. So much for the hope that the historic accomplishment would be a ticket out of socioeconomic purgatory for Shields and her family. It seemed like yet another setback in a cycle of adversity throughout Shields’ life but she persevered, going on to win her second Gold Medal at the next Olympics and becoming a champion for gender equality and equitable pay for women in sports. Shields has served as a source of inspiration for woman athletes worldwide--as well as to the community of... Read More