By Robert Goldrich

SANTA MONICA, Calif. --

Courtney Hoffman has joined the directorial roster of RadicalMedia for U.S. representation spanning commercials and branded content. Hoffman made her first major industry mark as a costume designer with work that included a number of Super Bowl commercials as well as such features as The Hateful Eight (director Quentin Tarantino), Baby Driver (Edgar Wright), Palo Alto (Gia Coppola) and Captain Fantastic (Matt Ross). For the latter Hoffman earned a Costume Designers Guild Award nomination in 2017.

Hoffman comes aboard RadicalMedia having already made some substantive inroads into directing. She wrote and helmed The Good Time Girls starring Laura Dern, a short film which gained acclaim upon its release in 2017, catching the eye of Steven Spielberg who hired her to direct what was then a project in development at DreamWorks. Hoffman is also slated to next year direct The Sisters of Scott County for J.J. Abrams and his production company Bad Robot. Hoffman wrote The Sisters of Scott County which she described as a women-centric version of the Smokey and the Bandit moonshine-and-trucking movie franchise.

Recently Hoffman made her commercial directorial debut with a global campaign for WhatsApp, produced by London-based studio Lief for BBDO Berlin. Hoffman recently connected with Lief for commercial representation in the U.K., shortly before securing RadicalMedia as her first ad roost in the U.S.

The WhatsApp “Message Privately” campaign consists of three spots showcasing the app’s end-to-end encryption feature which ensures that only you and the recipient can view your messages. Not even WhatsApp has access to the conversation. The commercials present slices of life with style, vibrancy and a lighthearted sense of humor–all in the context of relatable human behavior, infusing the storytelling with universality. “Double Date” takes us to an awkward restaurant scene where one couple dominates the discussion. Rather than delivering a nudge or kick, the quieter twosome WhatsApp each other privately under the table, then share a knowing glance. In “Dream Job,” a woman while in the office restroom is notified via the app that she’s landed a career-changing gig. She then proceeds to take a victory exit lap out of the workplace. And the third spot, “Secret Language,” uncovers the behind-the-scenes education that went into a young man learning the language of a Nigerian loved one.

Offering support to Hoffman’s directorial pursuits in the ad arena has been director Alma Har’el. The two first came together when Hoffman served as costume designer on Procter & Gamble’s “Love Over Bias” commercial which in 2018 earned Har’el her first career DGA Award nomination. Har’el sought out Hoffman for the P&G Winter Olympics spot upon seeing her costume design for Captain Fantastic. During that P&G collaboration Hoffman struck up a rapport with Har’el. (In 2020 Har’el won her first DGA Award but in an entirely different category, honored for Outstanding Achievement of a First-time Feature Director on the strength of Honey Boy.) 

Hoffman shared that she has long admired Har’el who founded Free The Bid which evolved into Free The Work as an initiative to help generate job opportunities for female and minority directors as well as other artisans from underrepresented groups. On an individual level, Hoffman credited Har’el with recommending her for the WhatsApp project. Lief founder/executive producer Margo Mars also championed Hoffman for the global campaign. Hoffman found her experience on WhatsApp, including her collaboration with the BBDO team, to be creatively empowering. “I loved the challenge to tell full, ambitious, visual stories in 30 seconds and I hope this proves that when you give women a chance, that fresh, exciting, new perspectives can be unleashed.”

Hoffman noted that costume design can be a viable spawning ground for directors. “Costume designers are storytellers in their own right,” she affirmed, citing actors who often share that they cannot fully define their performances and shape a character until they are in costume. As a costume designer, Hoffman got the opportunity to work with stellar filmmakers, observing and learning from them on set and location. She added that such notable directors as Janicza Bravo started as costume designers.

Hoffman served as a costume designer for a dozen-plus years, sharing that this was one of the few roles women were allowed to inhabit 10 to 15 years ago. She embraced the opportunity with an eye toward it opening up other opportunities for her down the road. In her case, that translated into becoming a director. 

Hoffman not only was an accomplished costume designer but portrayed one on the big screen in a scene with Leonardo DiCaprio in Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time…In Hollywood. In addition to her aforementioned feature directing exploits, Hoffman is in creative show development for FX Networks, Sony and NBCUniversal.

Having feature and TV/streaming irons in the fire, though, is a bit of a waiting game. “I started to feel starved of being on set, of being a filmmaker,” she said. This in part fueled her interest in directing commercials and branded content. As a costume designer, Hoffman experienced firsthand the creative opportunities afforded by commercials. As a director she would have access to state-of-the-art tools and toys, getting the chance to play in “an amazing sandbox” for storytelling and breakthrough imagery.

In the big picture, though, The Good Time Girls loomed large. She wrote and helmed that short as part of the AFI Women’s Directing Workshop. “It gave me a safe space to explore directing. I was at the height of my career as a costume designer with Baby Driver. I had been working to get to that place. But when I did The Good Time Girls, a real light bulb went off. I could no longer limit my storytelling to costumes. I had to be involved in the entire narrative. There was no turning back after that.”

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