Company Continues To Diversify Beyond Its Spot Base, Hires Vet Agent Christopher Pizzo
By Robert Goldrich
NEW YORK --Washington Square Films, which is active in commercials through two separate divisions, has launched a New York-headquartered independent film sales division. Named to head the new WSF venture is film sales agent Christopher Pizzo, who comes over from the former Carmichael Films.
Pizzo brings with him a roster of films that will be represented under the WSF banner, including Play, which gained recognition at the World Film Festival Montreal and at the Tribeca Film Fest, and Satellite, a selection at Tribeca and at the Starz Denver International Film Festival.
Furthermore, the new sales unit has signed on as the exclusive North American agency for a contemporary love story titled Flannel Pajamas. This is the first major film acquisition for Pizzo at WSF.
At the aforementioned Carmichael Films, Pizzo had recent sales/licensing deals for such films as Unknown Soldier, The Forest for the Trees, Love, Ludlow and Coney Island Baby.
The formation of the film sales division comes on the heels of Washington Square launching the WSF Independent Film Production and WSF International divisions. The latter specializes in handling up-and-coming directors internationally for commercials, with a roster of helmers consisting of Steven Fong, Leandro Sanchez and Nick Santana. This operation complements the mainstay, longstanding commercialmaking shop Washington Square Films, which represents directors Bob Balaban (The Exonerated), Jeff Feuerzeig (The Devil and Daniel Johnston), Randy Hackett, Braden King (Dutch Harbor) and Peter Sillen (Smoke).
Among WSF’s film production endeavors are Love, Ludlow (which premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival), Life Interrupted, a picture about the late Spalding Gray (directed by Steven Soderbergh) and Lush Life–The Billy Strayhorn Story.Google Opens Its Defense In Antitrust Case Alleging Monopoly Over Online Ad Technology
Google opened its defense against allegations that it holds an illegal monopoly on online advertising technology Friday with witness testimony saying the industry is vastly more complex and competitive than portrayed by the federal government.
"The industry has been exceptionally fluid over the last 18 years," said Scott Sheffer, a vice president for global partnerships at Google, the company's first witness at its antitrust trial in federal court in Alexandria.
The Justice Department and a coalition of states contend that Google built and maintained an illegal monopoly over the technology that facilitates the buying and selling of online ads seen by consumers.
Google counters that the government's case improperly focuses on a narrow type of online ads — essentially the rectangular ones that appear on the top and on the right-hand side of a webpage. In its opening statement, Google's lawyers said the Supreme Court has warned judges against taking action when dealing with rapidly emerging technology like what Sheffer described because of the risk of error or unintended consequences.
Google says defining the market so narrowly ignores the competition it faces from social media companies, Amazon, streaming TV providers and others who offer advertisers the means to reach online consumers.
Justice Department lawyers called witnesses to testify for two weeks before resting their case Friday afternoon, detailing the ways that automated ad exchanges conduct auctions in a matter of milliseconds to determine which ads are placed in front of which consumers and how much they cost.
The department contends the auctions are finessed in subtle ways that benefit Google to the exclusion of would-be competitors and in ways that prevent... Read More