Commercial production company Ampersand has entered into a partnership with creative management firm MilkToast for U.S. representation covering the East and West Coast markets. MilkToast is headed by Philip Fox-Mills, Jake Strom and Dani Ostrowski on the East Coast, and Bryan Farhy and Jen Herrera out West. This partnership comes to fruition partly due to Ampersand managing director Phillip Detchmendy’s pre-existing relationship with MilkToast’s Fox-Mills and Farhy. Detchmendy and Fox-Mills worked together in the past at Satellite, while Farhy and Detchmendy are co-founders of The FireFlies West bicycle charity ride. Ampersand’s parent company, AOI Pro., a leading creative production company in Asia, maintains offices in eight countries, AOI Pro. produces over 1,000 commercials per year and is active in the film and TV spaces…..
The Alliance of Independent Representatives (AIR) recently unveiled its first annual Unsigned Diverse Directors Showcase. The showcase took place on July 25 with an introduction from AIR president Veronica Lombardo of VLM. The attendees were introduced to showcase filmmaking talent by members of the Alliance’s Diversity in Talent committee: Isabel Echeverry of Kontakto Reps, Sonia Blum of Sonia Reps and Mary Saxon of Saxon + Partners Presents. Inclusion in the Showcase was limited to the top five directors, as determined by members of AIR. Submissions were open to directors who identified as women, AAPI, Black, BIPOC, Latinx or LGBTQ+ and were currently independent and not represented by an established commercial production company or post house. The six directors featured (the showcase was expanded, as there was a tie for one of the coveted slots) were Ilanna Barkusky; Utsab Giri; Jose Ho-Guanipa; Antonio “Tronic” McDonald; Paul Moore; and Mike Palafox. Giri and Ho-Guanipa were past SHOOT New Directors Showcase honorees–in 2021 and 2019, respectively. Simian was a supporting sponsor of the AIR showcase…..
Full-service creative agency Giant Spoon has named Lauren Gluck as the agency’s first VP of business development. In this role, Gluck will be leading all new business efforts, including expanding the agency’s creative, media, and social practices, and adding to its current client roster which includes GE, MassMutual, Yelp, Coravin, HP, Petco, and Kate Spade New York. Prior to landing at Giant Spoon, Gluck worked as director of growth at The Many. For the past decade, Gluck has helped agencies like Kastner & Partners and David&Goliath lead new business and expand their client roster. Gluck began her career in New York at the PR agency DKC before moving to Los Angeles in 2014. Since then, Gluck has honed her account management skills, working with brands like HBO, Google, Pabst Blue Ribbon, Rakuten, and CVS. In addition to her success in new business over the years, Gluck is most proud of her non-profit work, fighting for children’s privacy rights online and raising funds to build schools in Sierra Leone…..
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 yearโs 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 & Chongโs 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 Emmyยฎ 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 Awardยฎ nominee Chloรซ Sevigny; Caught By The Tides directed by Jia Zhangke; Hard Truths directed by Mike Leigh with... Read More