Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner Peter Richardson, who recently made his TV directing debut on Oprah Winfrey’s OWN network with the seven-part documentary series Belief that explores faith around the world, has connected with Hollywood-based Sticks+Stones Studios for commercials and branded content. Richardson first made a splash with his stirring, emotional 2011 documentary about the terminally ill called How to Die in Oregon, which garnered the Documentary Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. Along with his foray into more commercial work and film, Richardson is directing an upcoming series for Showtime, which will debut in the first quarter of 2016….
Venice Beach, Calif.-based creative VFX studio Siren Lab Productions recently launched on the heels of a five-month collaboration with director Cary Joji Fukunaga (True Detective) on his critically acclaimed Netflix original film, Beasts of No Nation. Siren Lab, led by veteran VFX supervisor/Flame artist Karen Heston, collaborated with Fukunaga by overseeing and producing the majority of the VFX shots used in Beasts of No Nation. Upcoming for Siren Lab are commercial projects for Infiniti and Tom Ford. During her decade-plus career, Heston, has worked on a variety of notable commercial and music video projects at established VFX companies including Framestore, MassMarket, Rhino FX, Charlex, and for major brands such as Google, Kohl’s, Macy’s Visa, GE, AT&T, and L’Oreal….
Juliette Welfling Takes On A Musical, A Crime Thriller, Comedy and Drama In “Emelia Pérez”
Editor Juliette Welfling has a track record of close-knit, heartfelt collaboration with writer-director Jacques Audiard, a four-time BAFTA Award nominee for Best Film not in the English Language--starting with The Beat That My Heart Skipped in 2006, then A Prophet in 2010, Rust and Bone in 2013, and Dheepan in 2017. He won for The Beat That My Heart Skipped and A Prophet.
Welfling cut three of those features: A Prophet, Rust and Bone, and Dheepan. And that shared filmography has since grown to most recently include Emelia Pérez, the Oscar buzz-worthy film from Netflix. Welfling herself is not stranger to Academy Award banter. In fact, she earned a Best Achievement in Film Editing Oscar nomination in 2008 for director Julian Schnabel’s The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.
Emelia Pérez is a hybrid musical/drama/thriller which introduces us to a talented but undervalued lawyer named Rita (portrayed by Zoe Saldana) who receives a lucrative offer out of the blue from a feared drug cartel boss who’s looking to retire from his sordid business and disappear forever by becoming the woman he’s always dreamt of being (Karla Sofía Gascón in a dual role as Manitas Del Monte/Emilia Pérez). Rita helps pull this off, orchestrating the faked death of Del Monte who leaves behind a widow (Jessi, played by Selena Gomez) and kids. While living comfortably and contently in her/their new identity, Pérez misses the children. Pérez once again enlists Rita--this time to return to family life, reuniting with the kids by pretending to be their aunt, the sister of Del Monte. Now as an aunt, Pérez winds up adopting a more altruistic bent professionally,... Read More