Director Christine Jeffs has signed with Xenon, the N.Y.-based house headed by exec producer/founder Doug Robbins, for exclusive U.S. spot representation. Jeffs was formerly repped in the ad arena by bicoastal Saville Productions. The director has been active in both feature films and commercials.
Jeffs has been active in feature films and commercials. On the former front, her credits include: American indie Sunshine Cleaning (2008), starring Amy Adams, Emily Blunt and Alan Arkin, in which, to raise the tuition to send her son to private school, a thirty-something single mom starts an unusual business–a biohazard removal/crime scene clean-up company; Sylvia (2003), a British motion picture starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Daniel Craig, which explored the relationship between poets Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes; and Rain (2002), a family drama about the collapse of a marriage and the dissolution of a mother-daughter relationship. Rain–Jeffs’ feature screenwriting and directing debut–was selected for its world premiere in the Directors Fortnight at the 2001 Cannes International Film Festival.
Currently Jeffs is in development on a romantic comedy, Wonderful Tonight, with Castle Rock Entertainment.
As for commercials, Jeffs’ currently airing work includes Kohl’s and North Shore LIJ Health System from DeVito Verdi. Other U.S. ad credits are Seasonique and the U.S. Census, among others. Internationally her spots span such clients as Baileys, Land Transport NZ, Bank of New Zealand, and the New Zealand Police. Jeffs’ commercial work has earned her a shelf full of awards including a Cannes Bronze Lion, New Zealand’s CAANZ creative excellence Axis Award for direction three years consecutively, and a number of Australian awards.
Jeffs began her career in New Zealand as an assistant editor on feature films and documentaries including Crush (1992) starring Marcia Gay Harden, Absent Without Leave (1992), Ruby and Rata (1990) and Send a Gorilla.
Jeffs wrote, directed and edited the short film Stroke (1994), which centers on a lone swimmer who gets revenge on a group of lane swimmers who disrupt her tranquility. Stroke was screened at festivals worldwide including Cannes and Sundance
When not behind the lens, Jeffs lives on a ranch in Auckland, N.Z., with her partner John Toon, cinematographer of Sunshine Cleaning and her other films.
Jeffs joins a Xenon creative directorial roster that includes Jamie Way, Ash Beck, Vico Sharabani, Three Volts and Stacy Toyama.
Directing and Editing “Conclave”; Insights From Edward Berger and Nick Emerson
It’s been a bruising election year but this time we’re referring to a ballot box struggle that’s more adult than the one you’d typically first think of in 2024. Rather, on the industry awards front, the election being cited is that of the Pope which takes front and center stage in director Edward Berger’s Conclave (Focus Features), based on the 2016 novel of the same title by Robert Harris. Adapted by screenwriter Peter Straugham, Conclave stars Ralph Fiennes as the cardinal leading the conclave that has convened to select the next Pope. While part political thriller, full of backstabbing and behind-closed-door machinations, Conclave also registers as a thoughtful adult drama dealing with themes such as a crisis of faith, weighing the greater good, and engaging in a struggle that’s as much about spirituality as the attainment of power.
Conclave is Berger’s first feature after his heralded All Quiet on the Western Front, winner of four Oscars in 2023, including for Best International Feature Film. And while Conclave would on the surface seem to be quite a departure from that World War I drama, there’s a shared bond of humanity which courses through both films.
For Berger, the heightened awareness of humanity hit home for him by virtue of where he was--in Rome, primarily at the famed Cinecittà studio--to shoot Conclave, sans any involvement from the Vatican. He recalled waking up in Rome to “soak up” the city. While having his morning espresso, Berger recollected looking out a window and seeing a priest walking about with a cigarette in his mouth, a nun having a cup of coffee, an archbishop carrying a briefcase. It dawned on Berger that these were just people going to... Read More