PRETTYBIRD scores two nods for work from director Melina Matsoukas, including a history-making DGA Award-winning spot
Apple entered the primetime commercial Emmy nominees’ circle for the third consecutive year–this time for two spots: AirPods Pro’s “Jump” directed by Sam Brown of Imperial Woodpecker for TBWAMedia Arts Lab; and Apple Watch Series 6’s “It Already Does That” directed by Craig Gillespie of MJZ.
This marks the second time in three years that Apple has had two Emmy nominees. In 2019, Apple scored with MacBook’s “Behind the Mac–Make Something Wonderful” and iPhone’s “Don’t Mess with Mother.” Last year, Apple “only” had one spot nominated: “Bounce” for AirPods.
Also making a major splash this Emmy season was Melina Matsoukas of PRETTYBIRD who directed two nominated pieces–“Better | Mamba Forever,” a Nike tribute to the late, great Kobe Bryant for Wieden+Kennedy; and Beats by Dr. Dre’s “You Love Me” from agency Translation, LLC.
The latter back in April earned Matsoukas the DGA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Commercials, making her the first woman and first person of color to win the Guild’s spot honor. If “Better/Mamba Forever” or “You Love Me” end up winning the primetime commercial Emmy, she would become the first woman of color to have directed work earning the prestigious TV Academy honor. She would, however, not be the first woman to have directed an Emmy winner. That distinction belongs to Lauren Greenfield for directing Procter & Gamble/Always’ “#LikeAGirl which won the Emmy in 2015. At the time Greenfield was with Chelsea Pictures. She is now with Girl Culture Films, a shop which she co-founded.
Rounding out this year’s field of primetime commercial Emmy nominees were: another Nike ad from Wieden+Kennedy, “You Can’t Stop Us,” directed by Oscar Hudson of Pulse Films; and “Alexa’s Body” for Amazon Alexa, directed by Wayne McClammy of Hungry Man for agency Lucky Generals.
Here are the official TV Academy listings of the nominations for the primetime commercial Emmy:
Emmy Nominations–Outstanding Commercial
AirPods Pro — “Jump” – Apple AirPods
TBWAMedia Arts Lab, Ad Agency
Imperial Woodpecker, Production Company
“Alexa’s Body” – Amazon Alexa
Lucky Generals, Ad Agency
Hungry Man, Production Company
“Better | Mamba Forever” – Nike Wieden+Kennedy, Ad Agency
PRETTYBIRD, Production Company
It Already Does That – Apple Watch Series 6
Apple, Ad Agency
MJZ, Production Company
You Can’t Stop Us – Nike Wieden+Kennedy, Ad Agency
Pulse, Production Company
“You Love Me” – Beats by Dr. Dre
Translation, LLC, Ad Agency
PRETTYBIRD, Production Company
The primetime commercial Emmy winner will be announced and honored during the Creative Arts Emmy awards proceedings in September (date to be announced). The 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards will be hosted by Cedric the Entertainer and air Sunday, September 19, on CBS, and be streamed on Paramount+.
Carrie Coon Relishes Being Part Of An Ensemble–From “The Gilded Age” To “His Three Daughters”
It can be hard to catch Carrie Coon on her own.
She is far more likely to be found in the thick of an ensemble. That could be on TV, in "The Gilded Age," for which she was just Emmy nominated, or in the upcoming season of "The White Lotus," which she recently shot in Thailand. Or it could be in films, most relevantly, Azazel Jacobs' new drama, "His Three Daughters," in which Coon stars alongside Natasha Lyonne and Elizabeth Olsen as sisters caring for their dying father.
But on a recent, bright late-summer morning, Coon is sitting on a bench in the bucolic northeast Westchester town of Pound Ridge. A few years back, she and her husband, the playwright Tracy Letts, moved near here with their two young children, drawn by the long rows of stone walls and a particularly good BLT from a nearby cafe that Letts, after biting into, declared must be within 15 miles of where they lived.
In a few days, they would both fly to Los Angeles for the Emmys (Letts was nominated for his performance in "Winning Time" ). But Coon, 43, was then largely enmeshed in the day-to-day life of raising a family, along with their nightly movie viewings, which Letts pulls from his extensive DVD collection. The previous night's choice: "Once Around," with Holly Hunter and Richard Dreyfus.
Coon met Letts during her breakthrough performance in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe?" on Broadway in 2012. She played the heavy-drinking housewife Honey. It was the first role that Coon read and knew, viscerally, she had to play. Immediately after saying this, Coon sighs.
"It sounds like something some diva would say in a movie from the '50s," Coon says. "I just walked around in my apartment in my slip and I had pearls and a little brandy. I made a grocery list and I just did... Read More