EBComs Line Veteran Celebrates 25 Years at Camerimage, Executives Talk Future Plans and Expansion

Last year’s awards cycle was a huge success for independent PR firm EBComs, which specializes in behind-the-camera talent. Of the year’s five Oscar nominees in the cinematography category, three were EBComs clients, and the company ended up walking away with two wins: James Friend (Cinematography, No news from the Western Front) and Paul Rogers (editor, All everywhere at the same time). This month the company, run by Australian Meredith Emmanuel, celebrates its 25th anniversary.

Emmanuel founded the independent company in 1998, and its size and ambition have quietly grown. The company is headquartered in Los Angeles and now has a network of offices in Sydney, Adelaide and London. In 2022, Emmanuel expanded the leadership team and promoted three senior team members to partner: Ranjinder Hans, vice president, Talent Relations and Awards; Mackinley Sullivan, Chief Operating Officer; and Mary Keeler, CFO. Over the past three years, the company has grown to represent artist guilds such as the International Cinematographers Guild (IATSE Local 600) and the Australian Academy.

The EBComs leadership team spoke to us here at the EnergaCamerimage Film Festival, focusing on cinematography in Poland, where they often have a commanding presence. We discussed the company’s origins, working with studios to raise the profile of the talent behind the camera, and what’s next for the company, including plans to expand into actor and writer representation.

Camera image runs until 18 November.

DEADLINE: How many people work at EBComs?

MEREDITH EMMANUEL: 17, spread all over the world. Some of them are back office, database management and assistants. The publicists are 10 or 11 and some juniors. It’s a very organic process of how people advance and grow within the organization, and it’s largely determined by where their interests lie. For example, if someone says I like directors, he or she might work in the directing department. Do you like writers? Do it. We’ve had many conversations about author representation. Some of us are excited about it. There is potential for a crossover between fiction writers and people who want to get into screenwriting. We are approached by a lot of screenwriters, but we don’t really know how to represent them yet. But I think it’s an area we’d like to expand into. We decided to try directing and move on. We started with Kate Woods, a very prolific Australian director. We told her we wanted to know more about you and she let us know. I think we have a lot of confidence in the directors now, whereas the first few years were a completely different story. Your brain works differently than everyone else’s.

DEADLINE: Why did you initially decide to focus on talent behind the camera?

Emmanuel: It just comes from my life experience working with artists. I started with musicians who were often session musicians or not necessarily in the spotlight. As I became more familiar with communications and advertising, I realized that there was simply no one telling their stories and that it was just as interesting and valuable to the public. I also think we have a responsibility to educate the public that films are not only made by actors and directors. It’s a whole bunch of incredibly talented people who together make up the wonder of a movie, TV show or other piece of content. I don’t want people to consume blindly.

DEADLINE: I remember last year when you did the Mandy Walker and Elvis Awards story here at Camerimage. What was it like working with the studio to get it off the ground?

Emmanuel: What happens is that during awards season, the studio decides where it thinks it’s going to win the Oscars, and sometimes there’s a nugget of gold that it doesn’t see. So we’ll talk to 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 got better. They are now even hiring dedicated teams and strategists to work on the bottom line. They have learned that it is just as important. Some studios don’t pay attention to this, but we remind them. We often inform studios about what they have and why it is so special.

It started with Rachel Morrison’s campaign for Muddy, the first time a woman was nominated for the cinematography Oscar. We recognized the opportunity eighteen months later. She had this little Oscar film with her Muddy. But by the time it came out, so would she Black Panther came out and she became the first woman to direct a Marvel film. With these two factors we can harness the power of Black Panther to underline her history as a cameraman Muddy. We worked hard to convince Netflix and Disney to let us collaborate on stories for Rachel.

DEADLINE: The history of EBComs is closely linked to the growth of Camerimage. This festival has become a very important award ceremony for studios. When and how did you get here?

Emmanuel: I have been coming here for 15 years. I was 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 to find out and I came back with three recommendations of people to sign. They signed it and succeeded. Before this trip I was sent to Cannes, where the cameramen were valued but subordinate to the director and actors. When I came here and saw her so celebrated and appreciated, I realized it was a unique presentation. I went back to LA and said you guys are crazy not to go to this festival as cops. You have to be at this festival, because that’s where you’re going to sign all your great talent. It took four or five years for anyone to come. I have been complaining about this for so many years. Finally someone from DDA came. They are here this year and they are here every year now. We slowly convinced studios, agencies and publications that this is where they should be. It took about five or six years before I could get anyone to take it seriously. And to this day we continue to teach.

DEADLINE: It’s rare for an indie of your caliber to be so international. How did this happen and why?

Emmanuel: I have been thinking about this since 1998, before I started the company. And it depends partly on what makes me happy. I always knew I wanted to end my days in Australia, even though I lived in Los Angeles for 16 years straight and then six months of the last 16 years. But I also lived in London and have a strong connection to Europe. Therefore, it seemed logical to me that we were present in Europe, America and Australia. And you know, we feel the satisfaction of running a business where publicists have the freedom to work from home, raise a child and have a roof over their head, but still enjoy the thrill of travel .

DEADLINE: What’s next?

Emmanuel: There are many things we want to achieve on our wish list. We just started talking to our first actor. We will always be a company behind the camera. But we also experiment. You can’t just stay in your shell. You have to try some things and sometimes you fail to figure out what you don’t want to do.