Jessica Torres
FUTURE LEADERS AGENTS
Florent Lamy FRANCE Elevate Artist Management florent@elevate-artistmanagement.com Clients include Chloe Pirrie, Martina Garcia, Djimon Hounsou, Sebastian Roché, Freddie Highmore
Florent Lamy launched Paris-based company Elevate Artist Management three years ago having started in the industry as a press attaché. The company now represents some 30 international actors who want to work in France or Europe. It also reps bilingual French talents with international aspirations. Lamy hit on the idea for the agency while working for French press agency Kinéma Film, which handles press for Metropolitan Export, one of the top distributors of US features in France. “I saw the US model of a talent having a press agent, talent agent and a manager,” he says. “I could see there was a lot of US and UK talents eager to work in France but the problem was that there aren’t many links between US and UK agents and those in France.” He has recently helped place French-UK actor Sebastian Roché in The Young Pope and Colombian actress Martina Garcia in the second season of Narcos. “The rise of big-budget international drama such as The Young Pope has opened a lot of opportunities for talent wanting to work internationally,” Lamy says.
Gabriel Mena US Paradigm gmena@ paradigmagency.com
Clients include Ciro Guerra, Alejandro Brugues, Emiliano Rocha Minter, Oscar Jaenada, Luis Gerardo Mendez, Lorenza Izzo
“Perseverance will allow great stories to be told. Trust in your own lunacy.” So says Gabriel Mena, the former head of a fund in Spain and a member of producerfinancier Hispafilms, who flexed his producer muscles on the likes of Sundance 2008 selection Mancora and Andy Garcia’s City Island. In 2013, Mena become an agent closely involved in representing talent from the Latin American market. His clients include Ciro Guerra, director of Colombia’s foreign-language Oscar submission Embrace Of The Serpent. He travels to the region and attends as many festivals as he can to familiarise himself with the best of the new generation of talent. “I operate with a hands-on, thoughtful approach that offers the client not only a service but a collaborator in the expansion of their business,” he says. When asked what he most enjoys about his job, he says: “Positioning myself and Paradigm at the forefront of the Hispanic market both in the US and in Latin America.” In the next five years, Mena plans to steer himself into a leadership position at Paradigm “so the company can continue to forge itself as the premier alternative agency in the industry — focused on a client-first mentality”.
54 Screen International at Cannes May 12, 2016
Camille McCurry
UK
United Agents cmccurry@unitedagents.co.uk
Clients include David Wnendt, Kornel Mundruczo, Paddy Breathnach, Grimur Hakonarson, Mark Herman, Hong Khaou
Law graduate Camille McCurry handles an eye-catching list of emerging European voices, including Wetlands and Look Who’s Back writer-director David Wnendt, White God writer-director Kornel Mundruczo (co-repped with Natasha Galloway), Rams writer-director Grimur Hakonarson and Lilting writer-director Hong Khaou. McCurry came to agenting via work as an assistant at US record label Astralwerks and as a legal executive for Sony. After a couple of years bedding in at United, she had the opportunity to start building a film and TV list under veteran agent Tim Corrie. “The film-makers I represent range in genre and style but what they have in common is an original vision,” she says. “I’m drawn to auteur voices, a special quality that has a universal impact. I know it when I see it.” McCurry has around 35 writers and directors on her books, clients who regularly scoop awards at Cannes, Sundance and Locarno.
Anthony Mestriner
UK
Casarotto Ramsay & Associates anthony@casarotto.co.uk
Clients include Brandon Cronenberg, Jonas Akerlund, Adam Randall, Otto Bathurst
The life of a talent agent can be a lonely place at times with agents operating in a ferociously competitive sector, but literary specialist Anthony Mestriner is someone who underlines the importance of teamwork. “I try to pitch myself as part of a bigger agency that works collaboratively,” he says. “While I have my taste and strategy in certain circumstances, I can draw on a lot of experience to help make good decisions.” Mestriner started out as assistant to Casarotto founder Jenne Casarotto and covered another agent’s maternity leave before assuming his own impressive roster. Among his most recognised clients are Swedish music videos director Jonas Akerlund, rising UK director Adam Randall (whose second film iBoy, starring Maisie Williams and Bill Milner, is in post-production) and Antiviral director Brandon Cronenberg. The London-based executive also handles a slew of prolific TV directors who have worked on hit series such as Downton Abbey, Peaky Blinders, Deutschland 83 and Doctor Who. Building and sustaining careers at the top level is often the biggest challenge, explains Mestriner, who advises clients “to find their voice and be resilient”. “It can take a very long time for things to happen so it’s very easy to get frustrated or lose confidence.” The same applies to agents, he acknowledges. “The industry is growing and changing at a speed that is tough to keep up with as things become more global and film and television merge. You have to be ahead of the curve. The volume of information to process is immense when taking into account the number of projects everyone is trying to push through.”
Colin Moy
NEW ZEALAND
colinmjmoy@gmail.com
Clients To be announced in June
New Zealand insiders credit Colin Moy with being instrumental in upping the profile of Kiwi newcomer Beulah Koale. There is a lot of buzz building around Koale, who has gone from shorts and local TV movies to join Miles Teller, Haley Bennett and Amy Schumer on the US set of Thank You For Your Service. Produced by DreamWorks, the drama, which covers the issue of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), is the highly anticipated directorial debut of Oscar-nominated writer Jason Hall (American Sniper). Moy represented Koale at Red11 Management until very recently, when Moy left the company to branch out on his own. (He spoke to Screen during a three-month non-compete sabbatical.) Moy was working as an actor when the offer to become an agent came out of the blue. “I wasn’t sure being an agent was something I wanted to do and, as a result, I tentatively agreed to a three-month trial. Once it was over I felt that not only was I up for the challenge of being an agent, I was excited by it.” Having worked as an actor (Deathgasm, In My Father’s Den, Vertical Limit), Moy has an acute understanding of the peaks and troughs of a career in performing. “In New Zealand, the biggest challenge to anyone in the industry is the lack of opportunity,” he says. “It’s hard for actors to stay positive, confident and off the poverty line when the work just isn’t there. The challenge for me as an agent is to support them through these periods.” »
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