BestFriend, a bicoastal production company launched by industry vet Zak Thornborough, has added automotive/lifestyle director Nicolai Iuul to its roster. This marks Iuul’s first official U.S. commercial representation.
Iuul’s initial campaign out of BestFriend is a multiple-spot Jaguar campaign created for agency Spark44. Additionally, he just wrapped Ducati’s latest motorbike launch and the campaign debuting the new Dodge Hellcat, which he filmed at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway last month.
Iuul first cut his teeth in film working as a producer in his native Denmark and then London. He made a successful transition to directing. His instinctive eye for the cinematic naturally gravitated towards cars and the lifestyles that surround them, and he was selected to helm a branded show to launch eBay’s automotive offering. Iuul’s affinity for the genre was apparent, leading him to shoot approximately 50 films for the brand across a range of locations.
“The fact that Nicolai has years of experience as a producer gives him an added edge,” said Thornborough. “He approaches each project with an understanding of the requirements and full respect for the creative process. It’s an invaluable combination.”
Iuul has automotive ad credits spanning such clients as the Dodge Demon, along with campaigns for Mercedes, Toyota, Audi, Mitsubishi, Infiniti and Fiat. His work in the luxury market includes capturing the high-performance handling of 15 supercars across a snow-lined racetrack in his “Winter Academia” spot for Lamborghini, and showcasing the Ducati Scrambler on a full-throttle ride through Joshua Tree in the short film Desert Sled.
In recent years, Iuul has delved deeper into narrative work that lives somewhere between documentary and lifestyle. His versatility working across these worlds has led him to collaborate with clients like Levi’s, Glad and Sonos.
Jennifer Kent On Why Her Feature Directing Debut, “The Babadook,” Continues To Haunt Us
"The Babadook," when it was released 10 years ago, didn't seem to portend a cultural sensation.
It was the first film by a little-known Australian filmmaker, Jennifer Kent. It had that strange name. On opening weekend, it played in two theaters.
But with time, the long shadows of "The Babadook" continued to envelop moviegoers. Its rerelease this weekend in theaters, a decade later, is less of a reminder of a sleeper 2014 indie hit than it is a chance to revisit a horror milestone that continues to cast a dark spell.
Not many small-budget, first-feature films can be fairly said to have shifted cinema but Kent's directorial debut may be one of them. It was at the nexus of that much-debated term "elevated horror." But regardless of that label, it helped kicked off a wave of challenging, filmmaker-driven genre movies like "It Follows," "Get Out" and "Hereditary."
Kent, 55, has watched all of this — and those many "Babadook" memes — unfold over the years with a mix of elation and confusion. Her film was inspired in part by the death of her father, and its horror elements likewise arise out of the suppression of emotions. A single mother (Essie Davis) is struggling with raising her young son (Noah Wiseman) years after the tragic death of her husband. A figure from a pop-up children's book begins to appear. As things grow more intense, his name is drawn out in three chilling syllables — "Bah-Bah-Doooook" — an incantation of unprocessed grief.
Kent recently spoke from her native Australia to reflect on the origins and continuing life of "The Babadook."
Q: Given that you didn't set out to in any way "change" horror, how have you regarded the unique afterlife of "The... Read More