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Monkeylands 2019 Year In Review

Jan 01, 2020

01 January 2020


Hello and Happy New Year Clients, Colleagues and Friends!


Now that 2020 has arrived, we’d like to share some highlights of the past year. As always, we feel blessed and honored to be working with such wonderful and creative talents. We are fortunate to be able to be a part of your projects and to continue to do what we love for a living!


2019 began on a high note with Chinonye Chukwu’s CLEMENCY (starring Alfre Woodard) winning the Grand Jury Prize (Dramatic) at the Sundance Film Festival. Now in limited theatrical release, it has been nominated for three 2020 Film Independent Spirt Awards and currently has a 92% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Another film that was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance was Britt Poulton and Dan Madison Savage’s THEM THAT FOLLOW which later received a theatrical run. We are proud and humbled to be a part of bringing their visions to life!



The start of 2019 also saw the debut of our second Dolby Atmos Stage, Plata, which we christened mixing season 1 of the new series TRINKETS and the original feature SECRET OBSESSION, both for Netflix. We look forward to working on season 2 of TRINKETS in the new year!


Other feature film projects in 2019 included: Robert Luketic’s comedy THE WEDDING YEAR for Lakeshore Entertainment; Chris Nelson’s THE PERFECT DATE for Netflix (winner of two Teen Choice Awards and a People’s Choice Award); the Eric Andre prank movie BAD TRIP from the makers of Jackass and Bad Grandpa, scheduled for an MGM theatrical release in April 2020; the distinctly European-styled, multi-award winning SHOW ME WHAT YOU GOT from Svetlana Cvetko and David Scott Smith; William Bindley’s THE LAST SUMMER for Netflix (nominated for three Teen Choice Awards); the Arabic language comedy RASHID & RAJAB; Angel Kristi Williams’ romantic drama REALLY LOVE; reuniting with Don Michael Paul for Universal’s BULLETPROOF 2, scheduled for release later this month; GO KARTS for Netflix; Allison Burnett’s drama ANOTHER GIRL; and HOLLER from Nicole Riegel (named one of 10 Directors to Watch For 2020 by Variety). Other highlights included Riley Stearn’s THE ART OF SELF-DEFENSE which had a nice theatrical run in 2019, the animated feature NORM OF THE NORTH: KING SIZED ADVENTURE for Lionsgate (our third in the Norm franchise) and the feature-length Melanie Martinez music video K-12.



2019 saw Monkeyland continuing to expand into the scripted TV / series realm as well with the recently released first season of DOLLY PARTON’S HEARTSTRINGS for Netflix; the highly acclaimed series PEN15 (season 1) for Hulu; Gregg Araki’s NOW APOCALYPSE (season 1) for Starz; DARK/WEB (season 1) for Amazon, the who-done-it IN THE VAULT for Complex Networks; the supernatural thriller LIGHT AS A FEATHER (season 2) for Hulu; BRAIN GAMES (season 6) hosted by Keegan-Michael Key for National Geographic premiering on January 20th; season 3 of the Kevin Hart sports interview series COLD AS BALLS; and the ensemble family drama THE BAXTERS (seasons 1 and 2) for MGM. We also have three series currently in progress for Jeffrey Katzenberg’s new streaming service Quibi.


We were also busy on the TV movie front with titles including Doug Campbell’s MY DAUGHTER’S RANSOM for Lifetime; Mark Gantt’s MODEL CITIZEN; SLEEPING WITH MY STUDENT directed by Tom Shell; THE AU PAIR by Joe Russo, and A CHRISTMAS MOVIE CHRISTMAS.


Ever the fan of documentaries, we teamed up once again with Director Stephen Kijak and Producer Diane Becker on the Judy Garland biography SID & JUDY for Showtime, as well as Warren Miller’s TIMELESS and the gritty I’VE GOT A MONSTER.


Every year we welcome our fellow colleague to our facilities to mix their projects as well. Highlights this past year include THE 11th GREEN mixed by our long time friend Mark A. Rozett; the Mayday concert feature MAYDAY LIFE, sci-fi feature SOUNDWAVE and ROUGHNECK all mixed by another friend Tom Marks; season 2 of the Sundance TV series THIS CLOSE mixed by Roland Vajs; Agustin Castaneda’s RUTA MADRE; Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman’s LINDA RONSTADT: THE SOUND OF MY VOICE for CNN Films mixed by Milos Zivkovic; and Alex McAulay’s thriller DON’T TELL A SOUL mixed by William McGuigan; Barry Jay’s horror feature KILLER THERAPY mixed by Richard N. Shapiro. Our doors are always open to our fellow post sound professionals!


Other highlights include our friend, filmmaker and teacher Rory Kelly of UCLA with his short DOWN TO NOTHING starring Sheryl Lee; Zoe Ward with her UCLA student thesis SOFT & PINK; continuing our relationship with Brian Knight and his dramatic crime short THE PEACE OF WILD THINGS; and finally, the ground breaking 360 degree, first person POV VR project AGENT EMERSON by Ilya Rozhkov, now available on VR platforms everywhere. We look forward to continuing our work together!


Now on to 2020, where we are excited to have started off the year with a cool slate of indie features, as well as a new 4 part docu series for Amazon! We are also excited about the expansion of our facility which now includes available picture editorial space in our new building next door!


As always, you can check out our website for more details and we’d also love for you to follow us on Facebook and Twitter where we regularly post interesting Monkey news, pictures and other fun project-related stuff. The Monkey crew and I would like to wish you all a very safe, prosperous, and creative New Year. Happy Holidays and happy filmmaking! Until next time...

Monkeylands 2019 Year In Review

01 Jan, 2020
01 January 2020 Hello and Happy New Year Clients, Colleagues and Friends! Now that 2020 has arrived, we’d like to share some highlights of the past year. As always, we feel blessed and honored to be working with such wonderful and creative talents. We are fortunate to be able to be a part of your projects and to continue to do what we love for a living! 2019 began on a high note with Chinonye Chukwu’s CLEMENCY (starring Alfre Woodard) winning the Grand Jury Prize (Dramatic) at the Sundance Film Festival. Now in limited theatrical release, it has been nominated for three 2020 Film Independent Spirt Awards and currently has a 92% rating on Rotten Tomatoes . Another film that was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance was Britt Poulton and Dan Madison Savage’s THEM THAT FOLLOW which later received a theatrical run. We are proud and humbled to be a part of bringing their visions to life!  The start of 2019 also saw the debut of our second Dolby Atmos Stage, Plata, which we christened mixing season 1 of the new series TRINKETS and the original feature SECRET OBSESSION, both for Netflix. We look forward to working on season 2 of TRINKETS in the new year!

Monkeyland's 25th Anniversary: 2018 Year In Review

31 Dec, 2018
31 December 2018 Hello once again Clients, Colleagues and Friends! 2018 marked a milestone for Monkeyland as we've just wrapped up our silver anniversary celebrating our first 25 years! It’s been our pleasure and privilege to work with such creative talent which allows us to continue to do what we love so much. 2018 has been a fun, busy and rewarding year and as is our custom, we’d like to share some of the highlights from our corner of the audio world.  January means the Sundance Film Festival. We are proud to have two features we recently completed in competition next month: CLEMENCY by screenwriter and director Chinonye Chukwu and THEM THAT FOLLOW by screenwriters and directors, Britt Poulton and Dan Madison Savage. Also making its world premiere as an Official Selection this year is Gregg Araki’s new STARZ Original series NOW APOCALYPSE. We’re thrilled to continue our long standing creative partnership with Gregg and are grateful to be part of this groundbreaking series. In addition, Stuart Swezey’s music documentary DESOLATION CENTER has been nominated for the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary Feature at the 2019 Slamdance Film Festival. We wish all of our talented filmmakers the best of luck! Another highlight at the beginning of each year is the annual MPSE Golden Reel Awards. This year, we were honored with a 2018 win for the HULU documentary BECOMING BOND (by Josh Greenbaum) as well as being nominated for the Netflix Original Feature IMPERIAL DREAMS (by Malik Vitthal) and the Netflix Original documentary series FIVE CAME BACK (by Laurent Bouzereau, produced by Amblin Television). Receiving the accolades from our fellow post sound colleagues is especially meaningful, and we are grateful to be in such wonderful company.

Monkeyland 2017 Year In Review

01 Jan, 2018
Monkeyland Audio 2017 Year in Review 31 December 2017 Hello once again Clients, Colleagues and Friends, It’s hard to believe our 24th year has come to a close! As is our tradition, here’s a look back at some of the past year’s highlights shared with you all. In our line of work, the beginning of each year means awards season and gearing up for Sundance! We were proud to see the CNN feature documentary “Legion of Brothers” get it’s premiere at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. This was our 6th feature documentary we have posted with Primetime Emmy Award Winning Director Greg Barker and his team. The Monkeyland team was proud to be nominated this year for three Motion Picture Sound Editors' Golden Reel Awards for Best Sound Editing for their work on the feature films “Rattle The Cage” and “The Thinning”, as well as the feature documentary “Passage To Mars”. We were also thrilled to have been nominated for a Best Sound Ariel Award (Mexico’s equivalent to the Academy Award) for our work on the feature film “Me Estás Matando Susana” starring Gael Garcia Bernal. 2017 marked the completion of Monkeyland’s newest mixing stages including our purpose built dual operator, Avid S6 equipped Dolby Atmos™ Stage Anejo and the newly updated Stage Reposado. In July, our friends at Pro Sound News featured us in the article: “ Monkeyland Audio Grows In Stages .”

Monkeyland Audio 2016: The Year In Review

01 Jan, 2017
31 December 2016  Hello once again Clients, Colleagues and Friends, As our 23rd year comes to a close, we would like to look back at our whirlwind 2016 filled with great projects and wonderfully creative clients. We are extremely grateful that we can continue doing what we love to do with equally passionate filmmakers. As we look forward to another successful year, we would like to reflect back on some of the highlights from this year. Sundance 2016: The year got off to a great start with a few of our films headed to Park City. “First Girl I Loved,” our 2nd film for director Kerem Sanga premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and won the Audience Award for the “Best of Next" category. Also making it’s premiere at Sundance was Stephen Kijack’s rock doc "We Are X," which follows the legendary Japanese rock band 'X Japan’. In February, the Monkeyland team was honored with two MPSE awards for Best Sound Editing, both in the Direct to Video- Live Action category when Michael Johnson’s “All the Wilderness” and Jay Martin’s “7 Minutes” tied for the win! In March, Director Anne Hamilton’s 1980’s Fairytale Thriller “American Fable” premiered at the SXSW Film Festival and was subsequently picked up for distribution by IFC Films with plans for a February 2017 theatrical release.

Monkeyland Brings Home MPSE Award, Festival Season Recap

29 Feb, 2016
Congratulations to the entire Monkeyland Audio staff and creative sound team for the BEST SOUND EDITING: Direct To Video Live Action Feature Golden Reel Award they received this past weekend at the 63rd Annual Motion Picture Sound Editor's Awards.

Monkeyland 2015 Year In Review

30 Dec, 2015
As has been our end of year tradition, we look back on another busy year filled with great projects and clients. Once again we find ourselves extremely blessed and grateful to continue to work and grow in this field we love so much. As we prepare to embark on our 23rd year in business, here's a quick look back at 2015.  2015 started out fast and furious as we were mixing two films headed off to Sundance: the Romanian film "Pioneer's Palace", and Director Bobcat Goldthwait's feature documentary "Call Me Lucky". In January, the Monkeyland team was also nominated for an MPSE award for their sound work on the 2014 release of the film "Wer". This year's nod marked Monkeyand's 13th MPSE nomination in the past 6 years, including 2 wins. March 1, 2015: Mix Stage #Reposado comes online at Flower Street:

Monkeyland Editors Nominated For MPSE Award For 6th Consecutive Year!

14 Jan, 2015
Monkeyland is proud and honored to once again be recognized by the Motion Picture Sound Editors with a nomination this year in the Direct To Video Live Action category for the film "WER". Today the MPSE released the nominations for the 62nd MPSE Golden Reel Awards, which honors the best feature film, television, animation and computer entertainment sound work of the year. After working with the filmmakers on Paramount's 2012 box office hit "The Devil Inside", Monkeyland once again teamed up with Writer/Director William Brent Bell and Producers Matthew Peterman and Morris Paulson on "Wer". Released in 2014 by FilmDistrict/Universal, the film stars A.J. Cook, a defense attorney who begins to suspect that her client, who is charged with the murders of a vacationing family in France, might me more than meets the eye. This year's nod marks Monkeyand's 13 nomination by the MPSE in the past 6 years. We couldn't be more grateful to our loyal clientele and colleagues who have enabled us to continuously work in this field that we love so much while also being recognized for our hard work and dedication to our craft by our peers. Previously, the Monkeyland Audio team won a Golden Reel in 2013 for their work on the TV Movie "Seal Team Six: The Raid on Osama Bin Laden", and in 2012 for the Computer Episodic series "Aim High". Monkeyland was also nominated in 2013 for a Primetime Emmy award for outstanding sound editing for a miniseries, movie or special, also for "Seal Team Six".  Congratulations also to our extremely talented intern ShaSha Dong, who was nominated by the MPSE this year for the Verna Fields Award for Student Filmmakers, for the short film "Sin Frontera". A big congrats as well to all of the other extremely talented nominees in all categories. We are looking forward to celebrating with everyone at the MPSE awards ceremony on February 15. You can catch the entire list of nominees here.

Monkeyland Audio 2014: Year In Review

23 Dec, 2014
Hello Friends & Colleagues, Monkeyland's 21st year is quickly coming to a close which means it's time for our annual look back at some of the highlights and moments that made up our 2014. All of us at Monkeyland are extremely grateful we've been able to spend yet another year pursing our love of sound and expanding our craft while continuing to work with both our loyal longtime clientele and new clients alike. T  he year started off fast and furious. Three of our films were headed to the Sundance Film Festival with lot's of mixing still to be done! While Gregg Araki's "White Bird In A Blizzard" had finished mixing in December, we were still mixing "We Are The Giant", our fourth feature doc working with Director Greg Barker, and "Imperial Dreams", all headed to mid January premieres in Park City. Meanwhile, we had just started sound editorial and mixing for 6 episodes of a new ABC mini series "The Assets"

ABC Primetime Shows Mixing At Monkeyland, Premiere Sunday Night

27 Sep, 2014
Be sure to catch the season premieres of the hit series "Once Upon A Time", followed by "Resurrection" as they make their 2014 fall season debuts on ABC tomorrow night.

Another Busy Month At Monkeyland: August Recap

26 Aug, 2014
It's been another busy and exciting month at Monkeyland with a slew of new film and television projects wrapping up and headed for release... This week alone saw the completion of 2 indie features: "A Sort of Homecoming" mixed by Mark Rozett on Stage A, and "All She Wishes" mixed by Trip Brock on Stage F. Meanwhile, mixer Kelly Vandever was putting the finishing touches on the TV movie "The Brittany Murphy Story" which premieres on Lifetime Saturday, September 6. All sound design, supervision, foley and ADR were also handled by the talented Monkeyland staff...
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