Bradford Young–an accomplished cinematographer whose lensing of Denis Villeneuve's Arrival earned an Oscar nomination in 2017–has now also gained recognition from a different set of peers for his directorial talent, winning the DGA Award in the Commercials category during a gala ceremony at the Beverly Hilton on Saturday night (3/12).
Young–whose production company affiliations are Serial Pictures in the U.S. and Somesuch in the U.K.–scored the DGA Award for his U.K. Channel 4 Paralympics promo spot “Super. Human.” out of agency 4Creative, London. The spot shows that this special breed of athlete is not only “super” but deeply “human” as Young delves into what the pursuit of the Paralympian dream entails–the adversity faced, the sacrifices made, the doubts behind the strength.
While Young couldn’t be on hand for the DGA Awards proceedings at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, he still contributed to history as just the second person of color to win the DGA honor for commercialmaking–the first being Melina Matsoukas of PRETTYBIRD who received the award last year.
Young topped this year’s field of nominees which also consisted of: Steve Ayson of MJZ; Kathryn Bigelow of SMUGGLER; Henry-Alex Rubin, also of SMUGGLER; and Ian Pons Jewell of RESET.
Young, Bigelow and Jewell are first-time nominees in the Commercials category. However, Bigelow overall has three career nominations–the other two coming in the theatrical feature competition. She became the first woman to win the marquee DGA feature honor for The Hurt Locker in 2010. Three years later she was again nominated for Zero Dark Thirty.
Ayson meanwhile has garnered four career DGA nominations for his commercialmaking–the first coming in 2013, then in 2019 and again last year.
Jez Oakley served as Young’s first assistant director on “Super. Human.”
