By Carolyn Giardina
FRANKFURT --The Volkswagen Golf GTI ad “True Men” from bicoastal/international @radical.media and DDB Group Germany, Berlin, collected five of 15 awards handed out last week at the vdw (Association of German Advertising Spot Producers) Awards, which attracted more than 400 to a gala celebration in Frankfurt on the eve of the eDIT Filmmakers Festival (see related story, p. 1). That included trophies for direction, presented to director Steve Miller; copywriting, to Ulrich Lützenkirchen; cinematography, to director of photography Martin Ruhe; costume design, to Nicole Fischnaller; and music, to UK trio 22-20s.
The spot shows the life span of the car through kids in what appears to be home movies. “This was the 25th anniversary of this model–so kids at the time are now adults,” director Miller explained. “I wanted to have the aesthetic represent the idea of home movies, but not have that be a theme to the spot–just in keeping with the theme as more personal and more emotional. We just showed boys in a natural medium and since we were kind of talking about a particular time, ’73-’76, it made sense to go with a more dated medium. We used 16mm and Super 8, in keeping with that era. We also shot 35mm for 16.”
The evening’s other big winner was the effective animation “Sounds of Summer” for Mercedes-Benz Cabriolets via Spring & Jacoby, Hamburg, and Hamburg-based production company Sehsucht, which collected three trophies including best commercial; animation, awarded to directors/animators Timo Schaedel and Ole Peters; and sound design, presented to sound designer Wenke Kleine-Benne of NHB, Hamburg.
@radical.media, also, along with ALMAP BBDO Brazil and PepsiCo, collected the vdw Award for top international spot, which is conferred annually on the best commercial of foreign production that was seen on German television or cinemas. This year’s winning spot was Pepsi’s “Surf,” which was directed by Tarsem of @radical.media and featured surfers playing soccer while on their boards riding waves.
Vdw Awards were also bestowed on Jono Griffith and Teun Rietveld, in the category of editing, for Asics, “Attacks,” via Neue Sentimental Film Berlin via Berlin’s Aimaq Rapp Stolle; Ole Peter for visual effects on Mju-Mini Digital’s “New Eyes V Chain Reaction,” via Sehsucht and FCB Wilkens, Hamburg; and Stefan Bednarczyk, Morten Holst and Kasper Gattrup for their performances in Volkswagen’s VW Sharan “Machos,” for soup.film, Berlin, and DDB Group Germany, Hamburg.
West’s “Demo” via Berlin-based production company Jo!Schmid and Hamburg-based agency Jung von Matt for the Reemtsma Tobbacco Group collected two awards: the make-up honor was presented to Dagmar Riha and scenery to Birgit Kniep-Gentis.
Lastly, with a nod to the future, the award for best student commercial was presented to Alexander Kiesl, Steffen Hacker and Oliver Staubi of the Film Academy Baden-Württemberg in Ludwigsburg for Xbox “Racing Beats.”
The Association of German Advertising Spot Producers was founded in 1966. The 38 members currently in the association represent roughly 75 percent of Germany’s national advertising spot volume, which equates to annual sales of approx. 250 million euros.
Review: Writer-Director Andrea Arnold’s “Bird”
"Is it too real for ya?" blares in the background of Andrea Arnold's latest film, "Bird," a 12-year-old Bailey (Nykiya Adams) rides with her shirtless, tattoo-covered dad, Bug (Barry Keoghan), on his electric scooter past scenes of poverty in working-class Kent.
The song's question — courtesy of the Irish post-punk band Fontains D.C. — is an acute one for "Bird." Arnold's films ( "American Honey," "Fish Tank") are rigorous in their gritty naturalism. Her fiction films — this is her first in eight years — tend toward bleak, hand-held verité in rough-and-tumble real-world locations. Her last film, "Cow," documented a mother cow separated from her calf on a dairy farm.
Arnold specializes in capturing souls, human and otherwise, in soulless environments. A dream of something more is tantalizing just out of reach. In "American Honey," peace comes to Star (Sasha Lane) only when she submerges underwater.
In "Bird," though, this sense of otherworldly possibility is made flesh, or at least feathery. After a confusing night, Bailey awakens in a field where she encounters a strange figure in a skirt ( Franz Rogowski ) who arrives, like Mary Poppins, with a gust a wind. His name, he says, is Bird. He has a soft sweetness that doesn't otherwise exist in Bailey's hardscrabble and chaotic life.
She's skeptical of him at first, but he keeps lurking about, hovering gull-like on rooftops. He cranes his neck now and again like he's watching out for Bailey. And he does watch out for her, helping Bailey through a hard coming of age: the abusive boyfriend (James Nelson-Joyce) of her mother (Jasmine Jobson); her half brother (Jason Buda) slipping into vigilante violence; her father marrying a new girlfriend.
The introduction of surrealism has... Read More