By Robert Goldrich

LOS ANGELES --

MJZ topped the production house tally with two directors scoring nominations today (1/10) for the DGA Award recognizing outstanding Directorial Achievement For Commercials in 2022–Juan Cabral and Craig Gillespie. This marks the sixth DGA spot nomination for Gillespie who won the honor in 2006. This is the second career DGA commercialmaking nomination for Cabral who first scored a nod in 2016.

This time around, Cabral’s nomination came on the strength of John Lewis’ “For All Life’s Moments” out of adam&eveDDB, and Apple Airpods’ “Share the Joy” from TBWAMedia Arts Lab.

Gillespie meanwhile landed his latest DGA nom for Jimmy John’s “Problem” out of agency Anomaly, Nissan’s “Thrill Driver” for TBWAChiatDay NY, and Apple Watch Series 7’s “Hard Knocks.”

Gillespie and Cabral are joined by another previous DGA nominee–David Shane of O Positive–and two filmmakers who each garnered their first career Guild nominations, Kim Gehrig of Somesuch and Ivan Zacharias of SMUGGLER.

This is Shane’s second career DGA nod, the first coming in 2019. This time around he’s nominated for three entries–ITVX’s “Smile” from agency Uncommon, Native’s “Traffic Stop” for M/H, and iPhone 13 Pro’s “Detectives.”

Gehrig broke into the DGA nominee ranks with a pair of films, Apple’s “Accessibility” and Apple iPhone’s “Run Baby Run.”

And Zacharias is in the running for iPhone’s “Data Auction” from TBWAMedia Arts Lab, and Upwork’s “This Is How We Work Now” for agency Alto.

Women nominees
Gehrig joins a select field of women directors to gain recognition in the commercials category with nominations–the first being Amy hill as half of the directorial duo Reiss/Hill in 1999, followed by Katrina Mercadante as half of the team known as The Mercadantes in 2015. That same year, Lauren Greenfield also received a nomination, making her the first individual female director to earn that distinction in the commercials competition. Greenfield, however, was no stranger to the nominees’ circle, having broken through for the feature documentary The Queen of Versailles back in 2013.

In 2018, Alma Har’el became the second solo woman director to be nominated for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Commercials since this category was established in 1980. Har’el of course made a major breakthrough in 2020 when she won the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in First-Time Feature Film for Honey Boy.

In 2021, two more solo women directors garnered DGA spot nominations–Nisha Ganatra and Melina Matsoukas. The latter wound up winning for Beasts by Dr. Dre’s “You Love Me.” This was Matsoukas’ third career DGA nomination–the first coming in 2018 for an episode of the comedy TV series Master of None, and then in 2020 for Queen & Slim in the Outstanding Directorial Achievement in First-Time Feature Film category.

And last year, Kathryn Bigelow garnered a DGA commercials nomination. This was her first spot nod from the Guild but third overall nomination. She won the marquee feature film DGA Award in 2010 for The Hurt Locker. Three years later she was nominated for Zero Dark Thirty.

Spot rundown
Here’s a full list of this year’s DGA Award nominees for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Commercials for 2022 (in alphabetical order):

JUAN CABRAL
(MJZ)
“For All Life’s Moments,” John Lewis – adam&eveDDB, First Assistant Director: Ben Glickman
“Share the Joy,” Apple AirPods – TBWAMedia Arts Lab

KIM GEHRIG
(Somesuch, Inc.)
“Accessibility,” Apple – Apple (Direct), First Assistant Directors: Michael Estrella, Second Assistant Director: Brian Steffen, Second Second Assistant Director: Shauna Frontera
“Run Baby Run,” iPhone – Apple (Direct), First Assistant Director: Matias Nilsson, Second Assistant Director: Carl Jackson, Second Second Assistant Director: Michael Paulson

CRAIG GILLESPIE
(MJZ)
“Hard Knocks,” Apple Watch Series 7 – Apple, First Assistant Director: Christian Van Fleet
“Problem,” Jimmy John’s – Anomaly, First Assistant Director: Christian Van Fleet, Second Assistant Director: Greg Moutran, Second Second Assistant Director: Christopher Maltauro
“Thrill Driver,” Nissan – TBWAChiatDay NY, First Assistant Director: Francois Caillaud, Second Assistant Director: Rob Topp, Second Second Assistant Director: Michael Dudley

DAVID SHANE
(O Positive, LLC)
“Detectives,” iPhone 13 Pro – Apple, First Assistant Director: Greg McCollum, Second Assistant Director: Heidi Vanderjagt
“Smile,” ITVX – Uncommon
“Traffic Stop,” Native – M/H

IVAN ZACHARIAS
(SMUGGLER)
“Data Auction,” iPhone – TBWA Media Arts Lab, First Assistant Director: Brian Carmody
“This Is How We Work Now,” Upwork – Alto

The winners across film, TV, documentaries and commercials will be announced and honored at the 75th Annual DGA Awards on Saturday, February 18, 2023 at The Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills. 

 

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