TBWA\Media Arts Lab garners nom for Apple, BBDO NY for GE and W+K, Portland, for Nike
While this morning saw Mad Men (AMC) score eight primetime Emmy Award nominations, including for Best Drama, the real ad industry also made its mark with Anomaly, New York, leading the way, scoring two Best Commercial nominations for Budweiser on the strength of “Puppy Love” directed by Jake Scott of RSA, and “Hero’s Welcome” helmed by The Malloys of HSI.
Meanwhile Wieden+Kennedy is looking to start a new Emmy streak. The agency had won the Emmy four straight years until that run was broken in 2013 by Grey New York which copped the Emmy for Canon’s “Inspired” directed by Nicolai Fuglsig of MJZ. Wieden+Kennedy is back in the nominations circle now with, ironically, another Fuglsig-directed commercial, “Possibilities” for Nike.
BBDO New York–which too has an Emmy tradition, including winning the very first primetime spot Emmy Award for HBO’s “Chimps” in 1997 (directed by Joe Pytka of PYTKA)–has earned its latest nomination on the basis of GE’s “Childlike Imagination” directed by Dante Ariola of MJZ.
And TBWAMedia Arts Lab, Los Angeles, and Apple are hardly strangers to Emmy proceedings, having won in ‘98 for “The Crazy Ones” (directed by Jennifer Golub). Now Apple returns to the nominations derby with “Misunderstood” directed by Lance Acord of Park Pictures.
The primetime commercial Emmy winner will be announced and honored at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards ceremony on Saturday, Aug. 16, in the Nokia Theater at LA Live.
First-Time Feature Directors Make Major Splash At AFI Fest, Generate Oscar Buzz
Two first-time feature directors who are generating Oscar buzz this awards season were front and center this past weekend at AFI Fest in Hollywood. Rachel Morrison, who made history as the first woman nominated for a Best Cinematography Oscar---on the strength of Mudbound in 2018--brought her feature directorial debut, The Fire Inside (Amazon MGM Studios), to the festival on Sunday (10/27), and shared insights into the film during a conversation session immediately following the screening. This came a day after William Goldenberg, an Oscar-winning editor for Argo in 2013, had his initial foray into feature directing, Unstoppable (Amazon MGM Studios), showcased at the AFI proceedings. He too spoke after the screening during a panel discussion. The Fire Inside--which made its world premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival--tells the story of Claressa “T-Rex” Shields (portrayed by Ryan Destiny), a Black boxer from Flint, Mich., who trained to become the first woman in U.S. history to win an Olympic Gold Medal in the sport. She achieved this feat--with the help of coach Jason Crutchfield (Brian Tyree Henry)--only to find that her victory at the Summer Games came with relatively little fanfare and no endorsement deals. So much for the hope that the historic accomplishment would be a ticket out of socioeconomic purgatory for Shields and her family. It seemed like yet another setback in a cycle of adversity throughout Shields’ life but she persevered, going on to win her second Gold Medal at the next Olympics and becoming a champion for gender equality and equitable pay for women in sports. Shields has served as a source of inspiration for woman athletes worldwide--as well as to the community of... Read More