Creative collective Wild Gift, founded by production veterans David Mitchell and Tomer DeVito, has signed director Julian Acosta for commercial representation in the U.S. and global markets. A storyteller and musician who side-hobbies as a drummer in a punk rock band, Acosta has a prolific body of work with a raw, very personal and introspective style, a focus on the complexities of the human experience and its fluid use of music. His most recent work includes a music video for Art Rock band Sego, and spots for Nissan and Jeep. He also has directed music videos and documentaries for John Legend and The Roots, Passion Pit, MIA, Foster the People, Ellie Goulding, The Shins and many others, along with commercial campaigns for Xfinity, Porsche, Samsung, the Utah Jazz, Delta Airlines, JBL and Powerade, to name just a few. His spot “Big Noon Energy” promoting Fox Sports college football programming won a Sports Emmy in 2021.
“I’ve known and worked with Julian for many years,” said Mitchell. “We not only share a passion for film, great commercials and punk rock, he’s literally my homie. We’re both from Bakersfield. I’ve watched him cultivate a body of work to become the amazing director he is today. Not only is he plugged into music and movies and storytelling, he totally taps into the diversity of culture today, and the perspectives and voices that make up the mosaic of life in this wild world. He is a director in the fullest sense of the word, able to translate emotion and feeling and nuance to the little screen and the big screen. I am so excited to be working alongside him once again.”
Acosta said, “David and I have been talking for some time, and bottom line, I really like David and wanted to work with him. Also, Wild Gift is such a cool company with great directors who I want to be associated with. It has a nurturing vibe that I feel will allow me to express myself in my directing. I’m a sensitive individual, which is both a blessing and a curse. I like to have a rawness in all my work, including commercials. I reach down into myself and turn inward and pull from my own understanding of who I am and I put that on the screen. I also like adventure, not as in traveling the world, but adventure in the sense of exploring self, in one’s own backyard so to speak. I believe Wild Gift is the perfect home for me and my idiosyncratic vision. I look forward to continuing my journey with David and his talented collective of artists.”
Acosta, who previously was repped in the ad arena by The Directors Bureau, is currently directing episodes of Cathay Film Company’s eight-part limited series Coolie, about a young woman from southern China who marries a political exile working on a sugarcane plantation in 19th century Cuba. His other work in long-form includes directing a livestream of Aberdeen, the acclaimed first-person performance by Matt Sheehy, and What Bitch?, a short biographical family drama that takes place in a Bakersfield thrift store and was screened at festivals before getting picked up by HBO. Acosta’s most recent film is a segment of the omnibus feature The Seven Faces of Jane, which contains eight short films by eight different directors all following a woman named Jane on a life-changing road trip. Produced by Roman Coppola, the feature showcases different styles and interpretations of Jane in each director’s unique voice. Gillian Jacobs stars as Jane, and directs one of the segments, along with directors Xan Cassavetes, Ken Jeong, Gia Coppola, Boma Iluma, Ryan Heffington, Alex Takacs and Acosta.
