Director Bee Grandinetti, known for her animation and mixed media work, has joined the roster of New York-based Hornet. Her work spans playful loops for Snapchat, educational videos about AIDS for Vallourec and a breakout brand film for Annovera. Grandinetti grew up in Brazil. She studied in Stockholm, then lived in London. She now lives in Stockholm again. She co-founded Panimation, a community of more than 5,000 women, trans, and non-binary folks working within animation and motion graphics. Establishing human connections for herself and for these people all across the globe, while simultaneously promoting more equal gender representation, is an endeavor to which she’s firmly committed….
Australian director/writer Owen Trevor has joined Rattling Stick for U.K. representation. His short film Two Laps gained recognition and opened doors to major ad assignments in Australia for Wild Turkey and Pizza Capers. He’s gone on to work with clients including Sunny, Walls, Sixt, Cadbury, Samsung and O2, as well as directing multiple campaigns with McVities. Trevor also directed five seasons of BBC’s Top Gear and most recently helmed Netflix family film, Go Karts….
Dublin, Ireland-based director Ciaran Dooley has joined Sparks Productions for representation in Canada. Dooley made his advertising debut with Samsung’s “The Loneliest Boy In The World,” establishing his empathetic lens through which he conveys a story. He also has to his credit many spots for Ireland’s Homestore, perhaps most notably “The Date” which earned him a Kinsale Shark award for directing craft. His short films have also won him both a Warner Bros Creative Talent Scholarship and an Irish Film and Television Academy Award nomination. Dooley is repped in Ireland by Sweet Media, in the U.K. by Outsider, and in Europe by agent Francesco Del Minio….
Celebrity-created alcohol brands have rocketed in popularity over the last five years, driven by a millennial audience with a taste for the VIP status those brands afford. GrapeStars Entertainment, a new joint content venture from celebrity alcohol marketplace GrapeStars International Inc., and Los Angeles creative agency Observatory, aims to deepen consumer affinities to the innovative retail platform. GrapeStars is a direct-to-consumer e-commerce platform for celebrity wine and spirit brands that connects customers across 45 states with 200-plus celebrity-owned and endorsed alcohol brands such as Ryan Reynolds’ Aviation Gin, Metallica’s Blackened American Whiskey, David Beckham’s HAIG Club Whiskey, and Mila Kunis’ Jim Beam Bourbon. These celebrity creators are already lending their personality to market these brands, but GrapeStars Entertainment will accelerate content creation as a lifestyle brand-focused entertainment studio. GrapeStars Entertainment is a film, television and entertainment studio dedicated to creating content highlighting the GrapeStars brand, celebrity partners and their products. Through this collaboration, Observatory will work with the GrapeStars team to create entertainment programming centered on celebrity alcohol brands. Observatory, which earlier was known as CAA Marketing, will handle the ideation, creation and distribution of all forms of content (which may include, but not limited to, feature films, unscripted series, and scripted series, among others). That content will be distributed on the GrapeStars app and across various entertainment platforms. Observatory is known for its decade-plus work with global mega-brands, like AB InBev, Chipotle, Coca-Cola, Budweiser’s Global Halloween platform and the most successful campaign for Corona Mexico in its 100-year history, and has recently expanded its offering and expertise to include next-generation digital businesses like Bonobos, Kajabi, Masterclass, and now GrapeStars Entertainment….
