Zulu Alpha Kilo has promoted Andrea Por, Christina Roche, Marco Buchar and Michael Romaniuk to associate creative director, and Sterling Hall to resource director. The moves come on the heels of new business wins, a string of international accolades and a commitment to groom and grow talent from within.
Por joined Zulu in 2017 after winning Zulu’s inaugural Employeeship competition. Roche joined Zulu later that year to work with Por. In their time at the agency, Por and Roche have worked on award-winning campaigns across multiple clients, including “Trigger Change” for the Coalition for Gun Control, One Show’s call for entries, “Smile Cookie” for Tim Hortons, and “Star in AR” for Young People’s Theatre, the first-ever series of mini-plays to live entirely as Instagram filters. Most recently, they created “The Micropedia of Microaggressions”, which has garnered accolades at virtually every top tier show, including a One Show Fusion pencil, D&AD pencil, two Cannes lions and Design Best of Show at this year’s Marketing Awards.
Romaniuk was hired on the spot in 2018 after showing up at the agency dressed as a “FedEx/FedUp with spec” courier. Buchar joined the same year with a different partner. In 2020, Romaniuk and Buchar paired up to create such notable work as “Green Screen Shirt” for Harry Rosen, Goldfish’s “Focus Faceoff Lens,” “Sound of Spending” for Interac, and “Orders of Sacrifice” for the Royal Canadian Legion which recently won them a D&AD pencil.
According to agency founder and CCO Zak Mroueh, great work only happens when you have great planning and resource management. Hall, who originally joined Zulu as resource manager, was also promoted to resource director. With a string of major international creative accolades over the past two years, Hall is credited with improving the agency’s process and “clearing the path for creative teams” to work their magic and deliver big results for the indie shop’s clients.
Mroueh added, “It’s nice to see talent grow from within our walls and move to the next level in their careers. These promotions are well-earned. All five of them are integral parts of the agency and consistently go above and beyond to make us better.”
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