Production company B-Reel has added director Kief Davidson to its commercialmaking roster. He comes over from Believe Media and earlier this year earned a Best Short Subject Documentary Oscar nomination for Open Heart, which centers on eight Rwandan children who embark on a life-or-death journey to Sudan in order to have high-risk heart surgery performed at The Salam Centre, Africa’s only hospital offering free cardiac procedures for families in need. Open Heart is now airing on HBO.
Known for his storytelling and ability to elicit performances from real people, Davidson has been active in commercials, directing campaigns for GE, Absolut, American Express and Cadillac.
Currently, Davidson is directing Beyond the Brick, the first official feature-length film on the global phenomenon of LEGO, slated for theatrical release in 2014. Davidson’s prior films include the feature documentaries Kassim the Dream (a winner at the AFI Film Festival) and The Devil’s Miner (a winner at the Tribeca Film Festival and nominated–with fellow director/writer Richard Ladkani–for the DGA Award in 2006)
“Kief’s approach and sensibilities in filmmaking are in line with the evolution of advertising,” said Susan Anderson, managing director and executive producer, B-Reel.
With offices in Los Angeles, New York City, London, Barcelona, Berlin and Stockholm, B-Reel maintains three divisions: Commercials and Branded Content; Digital; and Feature Films.
B-Reel’s directorial roster for commercials includes: Drake Doremus, Anders Hallberg, Filip Tellander, Miles Jay, Steven Tsuchida, Josh Miller, Kief Davidson, Patrik Bergh, Tom Malmros, Emil Moller, Johan Perjus, Jens Sj�gren, Anders Forsman, Mikael Marcimain and Jon+Torey.
DGA Spot Nominees: Lance Acord, Kim Gehrig, Tim Heidecker & Eric Wareheim, Andreas Nilsson, Ivan Zacharias
This year’s field of nominees for the Directors Guild of America (DGA) Award recognizing Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Commercials consists of a filmmaker who’s won the honor each of the last two years, another past winner, a five-time nominee, a helmer who’s just picked up his second career nod, and a duo garnering their very first Guild nomination. The latter is the directorial team of Tim Heidecker & Eric Wareheim of production house PRETTYBIRD. The director now going for her third consecutive DGA Award win is Kim Gehrig of Somesuch. The other past winner is Andreas Nilsson of Biscuit Filmworks. Nilsson won the honor in 2016 and now has three career nominations. Lance Acord of Park Pictures just earned his fifth career DGA Award nomination in the commercials category--his four prior nods coming in 2004, 2012, 2013 and 2017. And scoring his second career DGA nod is Ivan Zacharias of SMUGGLER who was previously nominated in 2023. The work Gehrig earned her third straight nomination on the strength of three entries: SiriusXM’s “A Life in Sound” for agency Uncommon; Nike’s “Am I A Bad Person?” for Wieden+Kennedy, and the Apple client-direct spot titled “Find Your Friends.” Nilsson’s latest nomination came for Hennessy’s “Board Game” out of Wieden+Kennedy London; Andrex’s “First Office Poo” for FCB London; the client-direct Apple spot “One More”; and Virgin Media’s “Whizzer” for VCCP London. Acord’s fifth career nod is for Volkswagen’s “An American Love Story” out of agency Johannes Leonardo. Zacharias’ second career nomination is for Apple’s “Flock” out of TBWAMedia Arts Lab. And the duo of Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim nabbed their first... Read More