New York Festivals® International Advertising Awards will honor director Bob Giraldi of bicoastal Giraldi with one of the first ever NYF Living Legend Awards. The filmmaker, whose work spans commercials, music videos, shorts, and features, is scheduled to receive the honor on Thursday, May 5, at the 2011 International Advertising Awards “The New York Show.” Earlier that day he will present a keynote speech, “MY LIFE IN TWENTY–A Lifetime Making TV Commercials & Teaching Others How to Do it Better.”
The NYF Living Legend Award recognizes prominent industry luminaries whose personal excellence and extraordinary contributions have advanced the field of advertising, made a lasting impression on the creative community, and who continue to influence the profession in a significant way.
Giraldi made his first industry mark on the agency side of the business. One of the original Mad Men, he served as a creative director at Young & Rubicam, New York. During his tenure he won numerous awards, and in the middle of the early advertising creative revolution he earned the distinction of being named as one of “101 Stars Behind 100 Years of Advertising.” He made a smooth transition to the director’s chair and has directed more than 4,000 commercials thus far in his career. Giraldi’s advertising campaigns include the Pepsi-Cola campaign with Michael Jackson and Lionel Ritchie, as well as commercials for the Miller Brewing company featuring celebrities such as Dick Butkus, Bob Uecker, John Madden, and Rodney Dangerfield.
Giraldi’s unique visual and musical storytelling abilities set the tone in the early days of MTV music videos. His video for Michael Jackson’s “Beat It,” won numerous awards including that year’s coveted American Music Award, the Billboard Music Award and the People’s Choice Award. Giraldi has worked with such music legends as Pat Benatar, Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, Ricky Martin, Hall & Oates and Will Smith.
Giraldi’s feature film, Dinner Rush, with Danny Aiello, John Corbett and Sandra Bernhard, appeared on a number of 2001’s Top 10 lists such as Newsweek and was selected for the prestigious New Directors/New Films Series at MoMa. Among all the awards it was also listed by Roger Ebert as “One of the Best 100 Films in the Last 10 Years.” Giraldi also is the director of Jon Cryer’s Hiding Out.
On the short film front, Giraldi’s The Routine, premiered at Sundance and won Best Drama at the Los Angeles International Short Film Festival. His My Hometown is now in the Baseball Hall of Fame’s permanent collection, and two short films; Dream Begins, and A Peculiar City, both integral parts of New York’s national Olympic bid, are now in MoMA’s permanent collection. The director’s latest short, The Grey Coat, is a N.Y. story of a hardworking immigrant Korean family being extorted by two dirty cops and the emergence of an unlikely hero.
Of being selected to receive Living Legend Award, Giraldi related, “I’m humbled, I’m honored, and I’m happy to be recognized — It gets better all the time, just like a 1991 Brunello di Montalcino.”
SAG-AFTRA Calls For A Strike Against “League of Legends”
"League of Legends" is caught in the middle of a dispute between Hollywood's actors union and an audio company that provides voiceover services for the blockbuster online multiplayer game.
The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists called a strike against "League of Legends" on Tuesday, arguing that Formosa Interactive attempted to get around the ongoing video game strike by hiring non-union actors to work on an unrelated title.
Formosa tried to "cancel" the unnamed video game, which was covered by the strike, shortly after the start of the work stoppage, SAG-AFTRA said. The union said when Formosa learned it could not cancel the game, the company "secretly transferred the game to a shell company and sent out casting notices for 'non-union' talent only." In response, the union's interactive negotiating committee voted unanimously to file an unfair labor practice charge against the company with the National Labor Relations Board and to call a strike against "League of Legends" as part of that charge.
"League of Legends" is one of Formosa's most well-known projects. The company provides voiceover services for the game, according to SAG-AFTRA.
SAG-AFTRA has accused Formosa of interfering with protections that allow performers to form or join a union and prevent those performers from being discriminated against — a move the union called "egregious violations of core tenets of labor law."
Formosa did not immediately respond to a request for comment. "League of Legends" developer Riot Games said that the company "has nothing to do" with the union's complaint.
"We want to be clear: Since becoming a union project five years ago, 'League of Legends' has only asked Formosa to engage with union... Read More