Dante Ariola of bicoastal/international MJZ won the Directors Guild of America Award for best commercial director of 2006 during the 59th annual DGA Awards dinner and ceremony on Saturday (2/3) at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Beverly Hills.
A four-time nominee (the first three coming for best spot director of ’00, ’02 and ’04), Ariola broke into the winner’s circle for the first time on the strength of three spots: Travelers’ “Snowball” for Fallon Minneapolis; Johnnie Walker’s “Human” from Bartle Bogle Hegarty, London; and Coca-Cola’s “First Taste” for Wieden+Kennedy, Amsterdam.
Upon coming up on stage to the podium to accept the award, Ariola said, “A little scary. I don’t have a speech….Being in this room is an honor. I’d like to thank the DGA and everyone at MJZ.”
He then acknowledged several people, including MJZ principal David Zander, executive producer Jeff Scruton, rep Steven Monkarsh, and Debbie Turner who runs MJZ’s London office. Ariola also expressed appreciation for his producer Patricia Hill and offered a personal thanks to his mom.
Shortly afterwards SHOOT caught up with the director, who offered an additional thanks to the ad agency teams he worked with on the entered spots, noting that the DGA Award is recognition for them as well. “I’m happy for those creative people because their good work is being honored,” said Ariola. “They were a pleasure to work with, good people, several whom I consider my friends. It shows that the process doesn’t have to be a nightmare, there doesn’t have to be a hellish battle, to get good product and good results.”
Ariola is also grateful that the DGA opened up the awards competition to foreign entries in 2003. Two of his entered commercials were for agencies from outside the U.S. Noting that this is a global business, he said it’s great that the DGA recognized that fact.
As for the experience of going up on stage before his peers, Ariola related, “It was surreal. I’ve been here three other times without my name being called but I still had a great time hanging out with all the directors I respect. I was never disappointed to not win. I’m not competitive when it comes to this kind of stuff. To hear my name felt surreal–and it felt good. It was an amazing experience.”
Ariola topped a field of nominees that also consisted of: Bryan Buckley of bicoastal/international Hungry Man; David Gray of Hungry Man; Tom Kuntz of MJZ; and Joe Pytka of Venice, Calif.-based PYTKA.
This marked the fourth time in five years that MJZ has had more than one nominee for the coveted DGA honor–and the second consecutive year that an MJZ helmer earned best commercial director distinction. Last year for best commercial director of ’05, four of MJZ’s directors were nominated (Craig Gillespie who won the award, Spike Jonze, Rocky Morton and Rupert Sanders). For the ’04 honor, MJZ had two nominees–Ariola and Fredrik Bond. And for best helmer of ’02, Ariola and Gillespie garnered nominations.
The DGA Awards are in their 59th year. The DGA opened the annual competition to commercial directors in 1980.
Feature attraction For the second straight year, the DGA Awards’ feature film category was of particular interest to the spotmaking community in that the husband-and-wife directing team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris–whose commercial production home is Bob Industries, Santa Monica–received their first career nomination for the theatrical motion picture Little Miss Sunshine.
Last year, Hungry Man director Bennett Miller was nominated in the category for his acclaimed feature directorial debut Capote.
While Dayton and Faris didn’t win the DGA Award–which was bestowed upon Martin Scorsese for The Departed–they were deeply honored by the nomination.
Presenting them with the nomination medallion was actor Steve Carell, one of the cast members in Little Miss Sunshine.
Carell humorously recalled his first meeting with Dayton and Faris. “We spoke at length about Little Miss Sunshine,” he said. “It became clear that they were caring, generous and kind individuals– and I knew they would never succeed in Hollywood. But I needed a job.”
He also praised the film’s theme of family. “The film’s humanity is a reflection of their own,” Carell said.
Dayton and Faris then came on stage, and talked about the movie while referencing their commercialmking background.
Dayton began, “On our press tour, we were often asked why, having come from music videos and commercials, did our movie look so plain?”
Faris continued. “We knew the job was to balance this very fragile tone.” And Dayton added, “balancing the characters”
Faris concluded that they aimed to “achieve a certain kind of simplicity”–which clearly was the right approach. The comedy has received critical success, winning top honors at the Producers Guild Awards, and is nominated for four Academy Awards including best picture.
Before leaving the stage, the pair expressed their appreciation to a list of collaborators as well as everyone at Bob Industries.
–additional reporting by Carolyn Giardina
