Her feature debut, "A Thousand and One," won the U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival
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.
First-Time Feature Directors Make Major Splash At AFI Fest, Generate Oscar Buzz
Two first-time feature directors who are generating Oscar buzz this awards season were front and center this past weekend at AFI Fest in Hollywood. Rachel Morrison, who made history as the first woman nominated for a Best Cinematography Oscar---on the strength of Mudbound in 2018--brought her feature directorial debut, The Fire Inside (Amazon MGM Studios), to the festival on Sunday (10/27), and shared insights into the film during a conversation session immediately following the screening. This came a day after William Goldenberg, an Oscar-winning editor for Argo in 2013, had his initial foray into feature directing, Unstoppable (Amazon MGM Studios), showcased at the AFI proceedings. He too spoke after the screening during a panel discussion. The Fire Inside--which made its world premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival--tells the story of Claressa “T-Rex” Shields (portrayed by Ryan Destiny), a Black boxer from Flint, Mich., who trained to become the first woman in U.S. history to win an Olympic Gold Medal in the sport. She achieved this feat--with the help of coach Jason Crutchfield (Brian Tyree Henry)--only to find that her victory at the Summer Games came with relatively little fanfare and no endorsement deals. So much for the hope that the historic accomplishment would be a ticket out of socioeconomic purgatory for Shields and her family. It seemed like yet another setback in a cycle of adversity throughout Shields’ life but she persevered, going on to win her second Gold Medal at the next Olympics and becoming a champion for gender equality and equitable pay for women in sports. Shields has served as a source of inspiration for woman athletes worldwide--as well as to the community of... Read More