The Directors Guild of America (DGA) has named its nominees for best commercial director of 2007: Dante Ariola, Fredrik Bond, Frank Budgen, Nicolai Fuglsig and Noam Murro.
Ariola, who won the DGA Award last year, Bond and Fuglsig are all with bicoastal/international MJZ. Budgen directs via Gorgeous Enterprises, London, and is handled stateside by bicoastal Anonymous Content. And Murro is with Biscuit Filmworks, Los Angeles.
MJZ’s strong showing continues an impressive DGA Awards run for the company. This marks the fifth time in six years that MJZ has had more than one nominee for the coveted DGA commercial director of the year honor. And scoring three of the five nominees this time around doesn’t even represent the high water mark for the production house. In the competition for the DGA Award recognizing the best director of 2005, MJZ had four of the five nominees (Craig Gillespie, who won the award, Spike Jonze, Rocky Morton and Rupert Sanders). Last year, MJZ had two nominees–Ariola, who won the award, and Tom Kuntz. And MJZ had a pair of nominees for the ’04 (Ariola and Bond) and ’02 honors (Ariola and Gillespie).
MJZ directors have won the DGA Award each of the last two years–Ariola as best director of ’06 and Gillespie for ’05.
Two who take the fifth
This latest DGA nomination represents the fifth of Ariola’s career. He has earned his most recent one on the strength of three commercials: Sony PlayStation 3’s “Grenade” from TBWAChiatDay, Los Angeles, Wrigley’s “Flare” via Energy BBDO, Chicago, and Nike’s “Addicted” from Wieden+Kennedy, Amsterdam.
Meanwhile Biscuit’s Murro has built a most impressive DGA Awards tradition of his own. This marks the fifth time in the last six years that he has been nominated for the DGA honor. Murro won the DGA Award as best commercials director of ’04. This time around, Murro is nominated for: Volkswagen Golf’s “Night Drive” out of DDB London; Orbit Gum’s “Affair” from Energy BBDO Chicago; and the National Basketball Association’s “Remember” for Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco.
Bond, Budgen, Fuglsig While Murro and Ariola are past DGA Award winners, the rest of the field consists of Bond, who has two career nominations, and a pair of first-time DGA Award nominees, Budgen and Fuglsig.
Bond’s latest nomination comes on the basis of the California Milk Processor Board’s “Straw” for Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco, and JC Penney’s “Aviator” from Saatchi & Saatchi New York.
Budgen becomes a DGA Award nominee on the strength of Sony Bravia’s “Playdoh” for Fallon, London (produced by Gorgeous) and Live Earth’s “S.O.S., Save Our Selves” (produced by Anonymous and Gorgeous) via Young & Rubicam, Chicago.
Fuglsig is nominated for Guinness’ “Tipping Point” and Motorola’s “Journey,” both from Abbot Mead Vickers/BBDO London, and JC Penney’s “It’s Magic” out of Saatchi & Saatchi New York.
The DGA Awards are in their 60th year. The DGA opened the annual competition to commercial directors in 1980. This year’s DGA Award winners–spanning theatrical features, TV, documentaries and commercials–will be announced and honored during a gala evening ceremony in Los Angeles on Saturday, January 26.
Among this year’s feature film DGA Award nominees are the Coen Brothers for No Country For Old Men. The Coens are handled for commercials by Company, a Los Angeles-based house headed by executive producer Robin Benson.
Supreme Court Allows Multibillion-Dollar Class Action Lawsuit To Proceed Against Meta
The Supreme Court is allowing a multibillion-dollar class action investors' lawsuit to proceed against Facebook parent Meta, stemming from the privacy scandal involving the Cambridge Analytica political consulting firm.
The justices heard arguments in November in Meta's bid to shut down the lawsuit. On Friday, they decided that they were wrong to take up the case in the first place.
The high court dismissed the company's appeal, leaving in place an appellate ruling allowing the case to go forward.
Investors allege that Meta did not fully disclose the risks that Facebook users' personal information would be misused by Cambridge Analytica, a firm that supported Donald Trump 's first successful Republican presidential campaign in 2016.
Inadequacy of the disclosures led to two significant price drops in the price of the company's shares in 2018, after the public learned about the extent of the privacy scandal, the investors say.
Meta spokesman Andy Stone said the company was disappointed by the court's action. "The plaintiff's claims are baseless and we will continue to defend ourselves as this case is considered by the District Court," Stone said in an emailed statement.
Meta already has paid a $5.1 billion fine and reached a $725 million privacy settlement with users.
Cambridge Analytica had ties to Trump political strategist Steve Bannon. It had paid a Facebook app developer for access to the personal information of about 87 million Facebook users. That data was then used to target U.S. voters during the 2016 campaign.
The lawsuit is one of two high court cases involving class-action lawsuits against tech companies. The justices also are wrestling with whether to shut down a class action against Nvidia.... Read More