PRETTYBIRD, the production company helmed by Paul Hunter, Kerstin Emhoff, and Ali Brown, has brought award-winning director A.V. Rockwell aboard its roster for U.S. commercial and music video representation.
Rockwell’s feature film debut, A Thousand and One, which she wrote and directed, won the U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. Starring Teyana Taylor, the film was released theatrically by Focus Features in March 2023 and has fast become a critic favorite.
Rockwell has also previously directed an episode of Lena Waithe’s television show Boomerang. Rockwell’s award-winning short film Feathers was released by Searchlight Pictures and is streaming on the Criterion Channel, along with her collection of 10 short films titled Open City Mixtape. She was named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film,” and her distinctive voice has been celebrated for addressing issues of race, identity, and systemic oppression.
Ali Brown, PRETTYBIRD president, said, “I am so excited to have A.V. join the roster. I have been following her work for years and have always been in awe of her ability to tell stories rooted in truth with intensity and intimacy–in both her written and visual language. She is a force in every way who is only beginning to unleash her power.”
At PRETTYBIRD, Rockwell joins a roster of filmmakers including Academy Award-winning duo Daniels (Everything Everywhere All At Once), Janicza Bravo (Zola), and comedy duo Tim & Eric.
Rockwell, who’s repped in the U.K. commercialmaking market by Somesuch, is an alum of SHOOT’s 2017 New Directors Showcase and Saatchi & Saatchi’s New Directors Showcase. She has been honored by ADC with the Young Guns 16 Award and the inaugural Diageo-Young Guns Diversity & Inclusion Award, in addition to earning the Clio Music Award for her short film The Gospel. Rockwell also won for Breakthrough Cultural Excellence at the inaugural NOWNESS Awards.