Veteran Below-The-Line Firm EBComs Celebrates 25 Years At Camerimage, Execs Talk Future Plans And Expansion
EXCLUSIVE: Last year’s awards cycle was a big one for indie public relations firm EBComs, which specializes in behind-the-camera talent. Out of the year’s five cinematography Oscar nominees, three were EBComs clients, and the company ultimately walked away with two wins —James Friend (cinematography, All Quiet On The Western Front) and Paul Rogers (editing, Everything Everywhere All at Once). This month, the company, headed by Aussie native Meredith Emmanuel, celebrates its 25th anniversary.
Emmanuel launched the indie firm in 1998, which has quietly grown in size and ambition. The company, headquartered in Los Angeles, now spans a network of offices in Sydney, and London. In 2022, Emmanuel expanded the leadership team, promoting three senior team members to partners: Ranjinder Hans, Vice President, Talent Relations and Awards; Mackinley Sullivan, Chief Operating Officer; and Mary Keeler, Chief Financial Officer. Over the past three years, the company has expanded to repping artists’ guilds, including the International Cinematographers Guild (IATSE Local 600), the Art Directors Guild (IATSE Local 800), and the Australian Academy.
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The EBComs exec team spoke with us here on the ground at Poland’s cinematography-focused EnergaCamerimage Film Festival, where they often have a commanding presence. We discussed the company’s origins, working with studios to enhance the profile of behind-the-camera talent, and what’s next for the company, including plans to expand further into representing directors, actors, writers, and other craftworkers.
Camerimage runs until Nov 18.
DEADLINE: How many people are on staff at EBComs?
MEREDITH EMMANUEL: 17, spread around the world. Some of those are back office, database management, and assistants. In terms of publicists, there are 10 or 11, and some junior ones. It’s very organic how people come up and grow through the organization, and it’s determined a lot by where their interests are. For example, if somebody says I love directors, they can work in the directing department. Do they love writers? Go for it. We’ve had a lot of conversations about representing writers. A couple of us are passionate about doing that. There’s potential for a crossover between narrative writers and people who want to go into screenwriting. We get approached by many film writers, and we just haven’t quite figured out how we represent them. But I think that’s an area we would like to expand into. We decided to try directors and go above the line. We started with Kate Woods, a very prolific Australian director. We told her we wanted to learn on you, and she allowed us to do that. I think we feel very confident with directors now, whereas the first few years were a whole different ball game. Their brains work differently than anybody else.
DEADLINE: Why did you originally decide to focus on behind-the-camera talent?
EMMANUEL: It comes just from my life experience working with artists. I started with musicians who were often session players or people who weren’t necessarily in the limelight. As I became more familiar with communications and publicity, I realized there was just no one telling their stories, and they were just as interesting and valuable for audiences to know. I also think we have a responsibility to educate audiences about the fact that films aren’t just made by actors and directors. It is a whole surface of people and incredibly talented people that make the miracle of a film, TV show, or any kind of content come together. I don’t want people to consume blindly.
DEADLINE: I remember how you guys created the awards narrative for Mandy Walker and Elvis last year here at Camerimage. What was the process of working with the studio to set that up?
EMMANUEL: What happens is that when it comes to award season, the studio decides where they think they’re going win the Oscars, and sometimes may have a piece of gold there that they don’t see. And so we will go in and talk with the studios very early in the cycle and say, look, do you realize what you’ve got here? And often they don’t, sometimes they do. But they’ve gotten better. They even hire special teams and strategists to work below the line now. They have learned that it is equally important. Some studios don’t pay attention, but we remind them. We are often educating studios about what they’ve got and why it is so special.
It started with Rachel Morrison’s campaign for Mudbound, which was the first time a woman was nominated for the cinematography Oscar. The possibility was something we recognized 18 months out. She had this small Oscar film with Mudbound. But right around the time it was coming out, she would also have Black Panther come out, and she was the first woman to shoot a Marvel film. With those two factors, we could use the power of Black Panther to underscore her story as the cinematographer of Mudbound. We worked hard to convince Netflix and Disney that they should allow us to work together on stories for Rachel.
DEADLINE: The history of EBComs is intimately tied to the growth of Camerimage. This festival has become a very important awards stop for studios. When and how did you start coming here?
EMMANUEL: I’ve been coming here for 15 years. I got sent here on a whim by a talent agency that hired me in 1999 or 2000 to do PR for them. They sent me here for the first time just to suss it out, and I went back with three recommendations of people that they should sign. They signed them and had success. Before that trip, I’d been sent to Cannes, where the cinematographers were valued but were secondary to the director and the actors. To come here and see them so celebrated and appreciated, I realized that this was a unique proposition. I went back to LA and said you’re all crazy that you don’t go to this festival as agents. You need to be at that festival because that’s where you’re gonna sign all of your great talent. It was four or five years before anyone came. I finally got someone from DDA to come. They’re here this year, and they’re here every year now. Slowly, we have convinced studios, agencies, and publications that they should be here. It took about five or six years of me banging on about it before I could get anyone to take it seriously. And to this day, we’re still educating all the time.
DEADLINE: It’s rare for an indie your size to be so international. How did that happen and why?
EMMANUEL: I’ve been thinking about it since 1998 before I started the company. And it’s partially driven by what makes me happy. I always knew I wanted to finish my days in Australia despite the fact I’ve lived in Los Angeles for 16 years continuously and then half the year for the last 16 years. But I’ve also lived in London and have a strong connection to Europe. So it made sense to me that we had a presence in Europe, America, and Australia. And, you know, we get the satisfaction of running the business where publicists have the freedom to work from home, raise a kid, and keep a roof over their head, but still get that excitement of traveling.
DEADLINE: What’s next?
EMMANUEL: We’ve got a ton on the wish list we want to accomplish. We’ve just started talking to our first actor. We will always be a below-the-line, behind-the-camera company. But we experiment, too. You can’t just stay in your shell. You’ve gotta try a few things and sometimes fail at a few things to find out what you don’t want to do.
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