The Directors Guild of America (DGA) has named its nominees for best commercial director of 2007: Dante Ariola, Fredrik Bond, Frank Budgen, Nicolai Fuglsig and Noam Murro.
Ariola, who won the DGA Award last year, Bond and Fuglsig are all with bicoastal/international MJZ. Budgen directs via Gorgeous Enterprises, London, and is handled stateside by bicoastal Anonymous Content. And Murro is with Biscuit Filmworks, Los Angeles.
MJZ’s strong showing continues an impressive DGA Awards run for the company. This marks the fifth time in six years that MJZ has had more than one nominee for the coveted DGA commercial director of the year honor. And scoring three of the five nominees this time around doesn’t even represent the high water mark for the production house. In the competition for the DGA Award recognizing the best director of 2005, MJZ had four of the five nominees (Craig Gillespie, who won the award, Spike Jonze, Rocky Morton and Rupert Sanders). Last year, MJZ had two nominees–Ariola, who won the award, and Tom Kuntz. And MJZ had a pair of nominees for the ’04 (Ariola and Bond) and ’02 honors (Ariola and Gillespie).
MJZ directors have won the DGA Award each of the last two years–Ariola as best director of ’06 and Gillespie for ’05.
Two who take the fifth
This latest DGA nomination represents the fifth of Ariola’s career. He has earned his most recent one on the strength of three commercials: Sony PlayStation 3’s “Grenade” from TBWAChiatDay, Los Angeles, Wrigley’s “Flare” via Energy BBDO, Chicago, and Nike’s “Addicted” from Wieden+Kennedy, Amsterdam.
Meanwhile Biscuit’s Murro has built a most impressive DGA Awards tradition of his own. This marks the fifth time in the last six years that he has been nominated for the DGA honor. Murro won the DGA Award as best commercials director of ’04. This time around, Murro is nominated for: Volkswagen Golf’s “Night Drive” out of DDB London; Orbit Gum’s “Affair” from Energy BBDO Chicago; and the National Basketball Association’s “Remember” for Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco.
Bond, Budgen, Fuglsig While Murro and Ariola are past DGA Award winners, the rest of the field consists of Bond, who has two career nominations, and a pair of first-time DGA Award nominees, Budgen and Fuglsig.
Bond’s latest nomination comes on the basis of the California Milk Processor Board’s “Straw” for Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco, and JC Penney’s “Aviator” from Saatchi & Saatchi New York.
Budgen becomes a DGA Award nominee on the strength of Sony Bravia’s “Playdoh” for Fallon, London (produced by Gorgeous) and Live Earth’s “S.O.S., Save Our Selves” (produced by Anonymous and Gorgeous) via Young & Rubicam, Chicago.
Fuglsig is nominated for Guinness’ “Tipping Point” and Motorola’s “Journey,” both from Abbot Mead Vickers/BBDO London, and JC Penney’s “It’s Magic” out of Saatchi & Saatchi New York.
The DGA Awards are in their 60th year. The DGA opened the annual competition to commercial directors in 1980. This year’s DGA Award winners–spanning theatrical features, TV, documentaries and commercials–will be announced and honored during a gala evening ceremony in Los Angeles on Saturday, January 26.
Among this year’s feature film DGA Award nominees are the Coen Brothers for No Country For Old Men. The Coens are handled for commercials by Company, a Los Angeles-based house headed by executive producer Robin Benson.
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More