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…..
Juliette Welfling Takes On A Musical, A Crime Thriller, Comedy and Drama In “Emelia Pรฉrez”
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 Pรฉrez, 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 Schnabelโs The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.
Emelia Pรฉrez 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 whoโs looking to retire from his sordid business and disappear forever by becoming the woman heโs always dreamt of being (Karla Sofรญa Gascรณn in a dual role as Manitas Del Monte/Emilia Pรฉrez). 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, Pรฉrez misses the children. Pรฉrez 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, Pรฉrez winds up adopting a more altruistic bent professionally,... Read More