takes

As Film Festivals Go Online, a Competitive New Business Takes Shape to Support Them

By Laveta Brigham 20 hours ago

As the pandemic forced shutdowns worldwide, no aspect of the film industry faced a more immediate existential threat than the festival circuit. While mainstays from Cannes to Telluride chose not to hold events at all, others did the once-unthinkable: They migrated online. Now, the race is on to provide digital services that support the unexpected era of the virtual film festival.

Enter Shift72, which counts Toronto, New York, and Sundance among its upcoming clients. The New Zealand-based company has provided secure press and industry screening platforms since 2008 and has now emerged as a leading company poised to tackle the challenge of creating online festivals. However, it’s hardly alone in an industry that has just gotten started and could be here for good.

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In conversations with IndieWire, festival organizers discussed the frantic process of shopping for cost-effective platforms that could meet their needs on a tight schedule

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Cuomo takes heat over nursing home deaths; California tightens restrictions; New York sends testing teams to Atlanta

By Laveta Brigham 1 month ago

Much-needed pandemic help was on its way to Atlanta on Tuesday while Californians joined a lengthening list of Americans facing tighter restrictions in the face of the rapidly burgeoning coronavirus crisis.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday in a joint conference with Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms that his state would send testing and contact tracing teams to the city.

“Mayor Bottoms, we’ve been watching you and what you’ve been going through,” Cuomo told Bottoms. “Anything we can do for you, for the city, we stand ready.”

But Cuomo, lauded globally for efforts that flattened the curve in New York, was taking heat back home for his administration’s report that appeared to off-load blame for thousands of deaths at nursing homes in the state.

In California, Los Angeles and San Diego public schools announced they will begin the school year online-only. And Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered fitness centers, churches,

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West Elm Takes the 15 Percent Pledge to Support Black-Owned Businesses

By Laveta Brigham 1 month ago

Photo credit: West Elm
Photo credit: West Elm

From ELLE Decor

As the #blacklivesmatter hashtag slowly stops trending online, how are large corporations going to continue to use their power to make an impact toward economic equality for Black businesses in their respective industries? Aurora James—the founder of Brother Vellies, a luxury accessories brand—came up with the 15 Percent Pledge as a response to the many people and businesses alike who have asked the question, What can we do to help?

The name of the project is derived from the fact that Black Americans make up nearly 15 percent of the U.S. population; the pledge began to go viral after James proposed the idea on her personal Instagram account and directly tagged major retailers such as Target, Sephora, and Whole Foods. When companies sign on to take the pledge, they are promising that at least 15 percent of their shelf space will be devoted

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Louis Vuitton Takes Men’s Show on the Road

By Laveta Brigham 1 month ago

Click here to read the full article.

PARIS — New era, new system.

As the fashion world grapples with how to deal with the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic, Louis Vuitton is upending its men’s wear schedule and switching to a seasonless, itinerant model of fashion shows, beginning with physical runway displays in Shanghai on Aug. 6 and in Tokyo at a later date.

Titled “Message in a Bottle,” the spring 2021 collection will introduce a multifaceted sustainability initiative, where work can be recycled, upcycled and even reissued in its original form.

Michael Burke, chairman and chief executive officer of Louis Vuitton, and Virgil Abloh, artistic director of men’s wear, revealed their plans in an exclusive joint Zoom interview with WWD, ahead of a cocktail event on Thursday evening at the historic Louis Vuitton grounds in the Paris suburb of Asnières.

In a wide-ranging talk, the men addressed topics ranging

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As Big Deals Make the Rounds at the Cannes Market, a Pandemic Era of Dealmaking Takes Shape

By Laveta Brigham 2 months ago

Click here to read the full article.

When this year’s Cannes market migrated online, some worried that it might have a negative impact on the business. As it turns out, it’s a lot easier to close international pre-sales when jumping from meeting to meeting means logging into various Zoom rooms, rather than squeezing through throngs of people on the Croisette. Agents and buyers say that while nothing can compare to in-person meetings at Cannes, this week’s virtual markets were productive and offered a blueprint for pandemic-era dealmaking.

In fact, if the Cannes markets are any indication, buyers are hungry for big deals, despite the uncertainty that surrounds whether audiences are comfortable returning to theaters.

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While the the country’s three largest circuits all plan to reopen all their locations in July, Warner Bros. this week pushed back for a second time the summer’s highest-profile film, Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet,”

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Tech Players Consolidate Healthcare Presence, Apple Takes Lead

By Laveta Brigham 2 months ago

Apple AAPL is dominating the wearables market, courtesy of Apple Watch. The company’s focus on health features like ECG and fall detection in the Apple Watch Series 4 has been a game changer.

Moreover, on Jun 23, the iPhone-maker previewed watchOS 7 at its first-ever virtual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), delivering enhanced customization tools and new health and fitness features including sleep tracking, automatic handwashing detection, additional workout types including dance, and a new hearing health feature expanding insight into overall user well-being.

Moreover, the solid adoption of Apple Watch Series 5, has helped the iPhone maker strengthen its presence in the personal health monitor space. Notably, the smartwatch is based on watchOS 6, which comes with additional healthcare and fitness features like Cycle Tracking, the Noise app and Activity Trends.

This Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company’s wide array of healthcare offerings in watchOS makes it a key differentiator in

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1.48m more Americans file for unemployment as pandemic takes toll

By Laveta Brigham 2 months ago

Another 1.48 million people filed for unemployment insurance across the US last week as the grim economic toll of the coronavirus pandemic continued and infection rates picked up in many states.

Claims for unemployment insurance have now fallen for 12 weeks in a row but remain historically high. About 47 million people have now filed for benefits in the last 14 weeks with 3 million claims made in the last two weeks. Last week’s figure was just 60,000 lower than the previous week.

The latest figure comes even as states across the country have begun reopening after relaxing quarantine measures. But surges in infection rates in states, including new record highs in states including Arizona, California and Texas, are likely to prove a further drag on the economic recovery.

Nicholas Juhle, head of economic research at Greenleaf Trust, said a backlog of claims may have been adding to the still

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Trump’s national security adviser takes aim at China

By Laveta Brigham 2 months ago

PHOENIX (AP) — President Donald Trump’s national security adviser warned China on Wednesday that the United States is waking up to the threat that it believes the Chinese Communist Party poses “to our great way of life” and will act to check the spread of Beijing’s ideology.

Robert O’Brien said his speech challenging China was the first of many in the coming weeks by senior administration officials, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Attorney General William Barr and FBI Director Christopher Wray.

“The days of American passivity and naivety regarding the People’s Republic of China are over,” O’Brien told a group business leaders in Phoenix.

“America, under President Trump’s leadership, has finally awoken to the threat of the Chinese Communist Party’s actions and the threat they pose to our great way of life.”

This latest verbal offensive is an extension of Trump’s harsh words for Beijing’s handling of the coronavirus,

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SC Gov. McMaster takes side on Strom, but not on colleges’ push to change building names

By Laveta Brigham 2 months ago

As a powerful movement builds across South Carolina to remove the names of monuments to racists and segregationists from university buildings and public squares, the state’s top elected official has so far been publicly silent on whether a 20-year-old law preventing those erasures without support of a super majority of legislators is just or should be repealed.

But Friday, S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster’s spokesman gave the first indication of where the governor and former state attorney general stands on the Heritage Act, which says only a two-thirds vote by the General Assembly can remove or change war monuments and the dedication of roads, parks and other public spaces to historical figures.

“Boards of universities have every right to ask for these changes — that’s why the law exists as it does, and the governor is supportive of them doing so and the General Assembly debating them, with public input, as

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Ritz Paris Tableware Gets Ready for Auction, #ShareTheMicNow Initiative Takes Off, and More News This Week

By Laveta Brigham 2 months ago

From significant business changes to noteworthy product launches, there’s always something new happening in the world of design. In this weekly roundup, AD PRO has everything you need to know.

Sales

Looking for the Perfect Finishing Touch for Your Next Client Project? Try Some Tableware From the Ritz Paris

This weekend is set to include a very special—and limited—opportunity for fans of the iconic Ritz Paris hotel. Thanks to Artcurial, individuals will be able to bid on pre-renovation examples of the Ritz’s tableware, glassware, silverware, and other cutlery. (If this concept rings a bell, it might be because an auction of the hotel’s furnishings already took place a couple years ago.) Regardless, highlights of this sale include a Marthe service commissioned by Ceìsar Ritz in 1898 for the opening of the hotel, a Ritz Club service designed by Jean Boggio, and more than 450 lots of Limoges porcelain. “This auction

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