Shop opens with a directorial roster that includes Tobias Granström, Tomas Skoging, Michael Mann, Tate Taylor, Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, Ewan McGregor, Duncan Jones, Kaz Firpo, DJ Caruso, Øcean Vashti Jude and Arielle Pytka
Industry veterans David Mitchell and Tomer DeVito have founded creative collective Wild Gift, a production company working across all formats with a highly curated talent roster. Mitchell will serve as Wild Gift managing director, running the company’s day-to-day business, with DeVito as a collaborating EP.
A producer at Ridley Scott’s RSA Films for over two decades, Mitchell most recently served as the company’s managing director. He’s collaborated with many A-list directors, artists and celebrities over the years, producing high-profile global campaigns, commercials and branded content. His work includes Jake Scott’s “Gentleman’s Wager” films for Johnnie Walker and Nike’s Emmy-winning commercial “Awake,” along with Tony Scott’s iconic “Beat The Devil” for BMW Films starring Clive Owen, Gary Oldman and James Brown. DeVito has a storied production background as well, coming up the ranks at RSA Films before founding independent creative boutique Native Content in 2010, where he also remains as managing director, managing the company’s day to day business.
Mitchell and DeVito saw founding Wild Gift as an opportunity to push one another to do what they hadn’t yet done in their collective experience. Their mission is to foster a diverse, tightly knit creative community of genuinely good people with direct access to leadership. Wild Gift’s eclectic roster so far includes award-winning film, television, commercial and music video directors Tobias Granström, Tomas Skoging, Michael Mann, Tate Taylor, Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, Ewan McGregor, Duncan Jones, Kaz Firpo, DJ Caruso, Øcean Vashti Jude and Arielle Pytka.
“Our focus is on filmmakers who are not only great at their jobs, but also collaborative and passionate in their approach,” Mitchell said. “Our roster so far is a clear reflection of that, and we’ll have even more exciting news to share soon.”
“Wild Gift will genuinely be a partner to our clients,” DeVito added. “We will always deliver at a very high level creatively and collaborate to solve any challenges, like an extension of an agency’s own in-house production team.”
“As an MD at RSA over the last three years, helping to run their busy global business shifted my focus away from what I love most, which is producing,” Mitchell said. “Wild Gift lets me get back to working closely with talent while getting my hands dirty once again with the crew in production. Not to sound all kumbaya … but if there’s a team effort with no rigid hierarchy, you bring everyone along and they work hard and give you blood. You walk away with a fantastic product, and everyone has a good time doing it.”
Wild Gift is represented by Pop-Arts on the West Coast, The House of Representatives in the Midwest and MilkToast on the East Coast.
Full Lineup Set For AFI Fest; Official Selections Span 44 Countries, Include 9 Best International Feature Oscar Submissions
The American Film Institute (AFI) has unveiled the full lineup for this year’s AFI Fest, taking place in Los Angeles from October 23-27. Rounding out the slate of already announced titles are such highlights as September 5 directed by Tim Fehlbaum, All We Imagine As Light directed by Payal Kapadia, The Luckiest Man in America directed by Samir Oliveros (AFI Class of 2019), Zurawski v. Texas from executive producers Hillary Clinton, Chelsea Clinton and Jennifer Lawrence and directors Maisie Crow and Abbie Perrault, and Oh, Canada directed by Paul Schrader (AFI Class of 1969). A total of 158 films are set to screen at the 38th edition of AFI Fest.
Of the official selections, 48% are directed by women and non-binary filmmakers and 26% are directed by BIPOC filmmakers.
Additional festival highlights include documentaries Architecton directed by Victor Kossakovsky; Cheech & Chong’s Last Movie directed by David Bushell; Devo directed by Chris Smith about the legendary new wave provocateurs; Gaucho Gaucho directed by Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw; Group Therapy directed by Neil Berkeley with Emmy® winner Neil Patrick Harris and Tig Notaro; No Other Land directed by a Palestinian-Israeli team comprised of Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor and Hamdan Ballal; Pavements directed by Alex Ross Perry; and Separated directed by Errol Morris. Notable narrative titles include Black Dog (Gou Zen) directed by Guan Hu; Bonjour Tristesse directed by Durga Chew-Bose with Academy Award® nominee Chloë Sevigny; Caught By The Tides directed by Jia Zhangke; Hard Truths directed by Mike Leigh with... Read More