A Symphony of Success: Emmy Nominees Talk VFX, Composing, and Editing

We had the pleasure of hosting two panels this year—check out our first panel here— ahead of the 2024 Emmy Awards, which will be held live on ABC on Sunday, September 15, from 8-11 ET. For our second panel, our Emmy nominees came from a wide-ranging group of shows—Lessons in Chemistry‘s ace director Millicent Shelton, nominated for directing episode 6, “Poirot,” Shōgun‘

The Rewards of the Craft: Emmy Nominees on the Joys & Challenges of Television

We had the pleasure of hosting two panels this year—check out our second panel here— ahead of the 2024 Emmy Awards, which will be held live on ABC on Sunday, September 15, from 8-11 ET. Like last year, we sat down with some nominees from some great, disparate, challenging shows. In our first panel, Planet Earth III composers Jacob Shea and Sara Barone (nominated for episode 6,

“Emily in Paris” Star Ashley Park on ‘brat summer’, Her Singing Chops, and Season 4’s Stakes

As the first five episodes of season four of the hit series Emily in Paris dropped on Netflix on August 15, fans were eager to delve back into the world of Emily (Lily Collins) and Mindy (Ashley Park) as they navigate messy relationships, major career changes, and general adulthood woes, in Paris. 

At the conclusion of season three, Mindy was dating her former high school crush (and real-life boyfriend) Nicolas (Paul Forman) and also found out she had been accepted to the Eurovision competition with her former boyfriend,

Benetone Films Co-Founder Kulthep Narula on Taking Thailand’s Film Industry to the Next Level

From Hollywood to Bollywood, Benetone Films has provided production services for over 100 feature films, TV series, and 1,000 TV commercials in over two decades. The Bangkok-based company is also a key provider for foreign productions filmed on location in Thailand. Ten projects have been approved through Thailand’s incentive scheme, including 2020’s The Forgotten Army for Amazon Studios and 2022’s Blood & Treasure season 2 for CBS Studios.

In recent years,

Twin Forces: “The Acolyte” Director Hanelle M. Culpepper on Crafting Amandla Stenberg’s Dual Roles

When she helmed the first episode of Star Trek: Picard in 2020, director Hanelle M. Culpepper made history as the first woman to launch a Star Trek series. She went on to win the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Directing in a Drama Series for that project. This, along with her work on shows like Westworld, The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, Kung Fu,

“Fancy Dance” Producer Heather Rae on Putting Together Erica Tremblay’s Moving New Film

For Heather Rae, it’s all about heart. The award-winning producer of Frozen River, Wind Walkers, and Tallulah, and the director/producer of the acclaimed documentary Trudell, believes her place is at the heart of a production. And just as important, Rae is driven to make films with heart.

Fancy Dance, Rae’s latest film, now streaming on Apple TV+,

MPA Creator Award Recipient Writer/Director JA Bayona’s Epic Journey

J.A. Bayona’s Society of the Snow, a reimagining of the real-life 1972 Uruguayan plane crash in the Andes Mountains that caught the world’s attention, is a viscerally astonishing feat of empathetic filmmaking. It was nominated for two Oscars: Best International Feature for Spain and Best Makeup and Hairstyling (Ana López-Puigcerver, David Martí, and Montse Ribé), a sweet coda for a filmmaker who returned to his home country of Spain for the majority of the film’s production.

“Space Cadet” Writer/Director Liz Garcia on Crafting Her Cosmic Comedy

It was an article about NASA’s first class of astronaut candidates in which women constituted half the participants that piqued Liz Garcia’s curiosity about the highly competitive candidacy process and ultimately prompted her to write about it. As the writer/director/producer (The Lifeguard, The Sinner) notes in her Director’s Statement, “Once I learned how astonishingly competitive it is to even get to the point that you’re being considered, I knew I wanted to set a movie in that world,

“Fancy Dance” Writer/Director Erica Tremblay on the Power of Indigenous Storytelling

Fans of Lily Gladstone will be happy to know they can see her on the big screen again in Apple’s new release, Fancy Dance. The film centers on Jax (Gladstone) and Roki (newcomer Isabel Deroy-Olson), an Indigenous aunt and niece who live on the Seneca-Cayuga reservation and are dealing with the disappearance of Tawi, Jax’s sister and Roki’s mom. Jax and Roki are hoping they’ll meet up with Tawi at the annual powwow if she’s not found beforehand.

Writer/Director Andrew Haigh Revisits His Career at the Provincetown International Film Festival

Each June for 26 years, the Provincetown International Film Festival (PIFF) unspools a singular mix of first-rate features, documentaries, and shorts; in-person filmmakers; and an unpretentious vibe that’s uniquely Provincetown.

A highlight this year was British writer-director Andrew Haigh, who was feted with the PIFF’s highest honor, the annual Filmmaker on the Edge Award. Haigh traveled from London to appear at the historic Town Hall to accept the award and converse with director John Waters,

“Shōgun” Editors Aika Miyake and Maria Gonzales on Cutting Mariko’s Heroic Path

The first season of Justin Marks and Rachel Kondo’s masterful Shōgun was an expertly paced slow-burn drama that plunged viewers into 17th-century Japan with a passionate obsession with the rigors and wonders of the period and location. The new Shōgun shifts its center of balance from the swashbuckling but woefully out of his depth British pirate Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis) to his Japanese captors. Blackthorne has washed ashore on a land in the midst of a tectonic power shift,

“Under the Bridge” EP/Director Quinn Shephard on Lily Gladstone & Riley Keough’s Twisty Murder Mystery

In 1997, fourteen-year-old Reena Virk went to a party and never came home, then became front page news around the world when a tight-knit circle of girls and one troubled teenage boy were implicated in her murder. Journalist Rebecca Godfrey wrote about the crime in her acclaimed book “Under the Bridge”, and now Hulu’s narrative series of the same name delves into the life of the victim, as well as those involved in her death.

Netflix’s Production of “One Hundred Years of Solitude” is a Bold Showcase of Latin American Culture

“Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.” 

With these haunting words, acclaimed as one of the best opening lines in literature, Gabriel García Márquez introduces readers to the enchanting world of Macondo in his celebrated novel, “One Hundred Years of Solitude.” Now, after a decade since the passing of the Nobel laureate,

Reimagining Korea’s Dynamic Film & TV Industry With Wow Point Executive Producer Yoomin Hailey Yang

Wow Point CEO and executive producer Yoomin Hailey Yang is blazing a trail for young female producers in the Korean film and TV industry.

After stints working with Korean broadcaster MBC and agency-producer BH Entertainment, she co-founded Wow Point with leading Korean filmmaker Yeon Sang-ho (Train To Busan, Peninsula) in 2021. The Seoul-based company has launched two series on Netflix so far this year: Parasyte: The Grey,

Writer/Director Jane Schoenbrun on Their Stunning New Film “I Saw the TV Glow”

While a student at Boston University, writer/director Jane Schoenbrun enjoyed “many formative movie experiences” at the nearby  Coolidge Corner Theater. “A fond memory is of a zombie movie and me and all my friends dressing in zombie makeup,” says Schoenbrun. “It was one of the happiest memories of my college experience, and it probably says something about me.”

So it’s a fitting, full circle moment for Schoenbrun when they returned to the historic Boston theater on May 11 as the 2024 recipient of the Coolidge Breakthrough Artist Award.

Taiwan Based Producer Sam Yuan on His Netflix Series “Shards of Her” & More

In a career that spans over two decades, Taiwan-based producer Sam Yuan has been involved in a variety of productions, from critically acclaimed GF*BF and box office megahit Our Times in his early days to the more recent, Golden Horse-winning My Missing Valentine and Netflix hit series Shards of Her.

He is currently the secretary general of the Taiwanese industry organization, New Media Entertainment Association (NMEA),

From “SNL” to the Director’s Chair: Julio Torres Lights Up With “Problemista”

There is a cornucopia of comedy happening in Problemista, Julio Torres’ debut feature. In a little over 90 minutes, writer/director Torres pokes fun at cryonics, the Kafkaesque bureaucracy of the U.S. immigration system, and the eccentricities of the art world. Along the way, there are jabs at Craigslist, FileMaker Pro, and Bank of America. All of it is wrapped around a virtuoso performance by Tilda Swinton as a madcap,

The Sartorial Feast of Feudal Japan with “Shōgun” Costume Designer Carlos Rosario – Part Two

In Part One of our conversation with costume designer Carlos Rosario, we talked about the monumental effort his team went through to research, design, and handmake 2,300 costumes for FX Networks’ gripping historical saga. We continue the discussion today on how his team designed a distinct closet for each of the three main characters.

Unlike most other projects, Rosario could not design a collection that could be utilized throughout the series.

“Damsel” Director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo on Flipping the Fantasy Script With Millie Bobby Brown

Sure, she’s in distress, but Millie Bobby Brown’s Elodie is hardly in need of saving in director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo‘s revisionist fantasy film Damsel. Fresnadillo’s fantasy epic takes the typical story of a young woman desperate for a prince to puzzle out her troubles in a medieval setting, turns it upside down, and sinks it deep into a dragon’s cave. Brown’s Elodie is as resourceful as she is noble, and in a nice twist,

“The American Society of Magical Negroes” Writer/Director Kobi Libii Puts a Spell on Old Tropes

The American Society of Magical Negroes has a provocative premise: What if Black people could join an underground league that gave them the power to erase any white person’s distress? Racism, the movie argues, stems from white anxieties. If that discomfort can be vanished, Black bodies won’t face as much risk. 

Kobi Libii’s satirical take on racial dynamics is a bold swing, especially for a first-time director. Justice Smith plays Aren,