Gravy Films has added directorial duo Trent and Marlena Jaklitsch, a.k.a. Trent and Marlena, to its commercial roster for U.S. representation. Partners in work and life, Trent and Marlena live in Brooklyn, NY. Trent has been on the Gravy roster for five years as a solo director and now joins forces with Marlena as a directorial team. This marks Marlena’s first spotmaking representation.
With combined backgrounds in creative advertising and visual arts, Trent and Marlena infuse emotional realism, unexpected charm and a keen cinematic perspective into their projects. The duo shoots collaboratively marrying Marlena’s experience as a writer and creative at DDB, Arnold, and Saatchi & Saatchi on brands such as John Freida, Hershey, New York Lottery and Metro by T-Mobile with Trent’s deep understanding of visual storytelling as a graduate of NYC’s School of Visual Arts and winner of the Young Directors Award at Cannes in 2015. The duo connects with cast, crew and agency creatives alike to produce the best content they can from an agency, story and visual standpoint.
Brent Stoller, Gravy owner and EP, cited Trent and Marlena’s “unique perspective and a strong understanding of the filmmaking process–plus they’re just a pretty fun pair.”
Trent and Marlena join a Gravy directorial lineup which includes Big Red Button, Cameron Harris, Crobin Leo, Laura Murphy and Michael Sugrue.
Apple’s “Fuzzy Feelings” Wins Primetime Commercial Emmy Award
Apple’s “Fuzzy Feelings” won the primetime commercial Emmy this evening (9/7) during the first of two Creative Arts Emmy Awards ceremonies being held this weekend in the Peacock Theater at LA Live. The yuletide film out of TBWAMedia Arts Lab was directed by Lucia Aniello via Hungry Man in tandem with stop-motion animator Anna Mantzaris of Passion Pictures.
“Fuzzy Feelings” introduces us to an office worker by day and stop-motion artist by night. As an employee, she works for a boss whom she’s grown to hate. So at night, her stop-motion creations put him in dire straits. The young woman makes her stop-motion fare by deploying the iPhone 15 Pro camera and a MacBook Air with M2 to edit it. However, when the woman's day job takes a turn and she starts to see her boss in another light, so too do her stop-motion endeavors as we see the value of working towards a kinder world, and what better time to start than during the holiday season?
Director Aniello is no stranger to the Emmy proceedings. As creator of the HBO Max series Hacks, she has won two Emmys (writing and directing) as well as a DGA Award. This year she is nominated for three more Emmys on the strength of Hacks--Outstanding Comedy Series as well as writing and directing for a comedy series.
This marks the second straight year that an Apple film has won the coveted primetime commercial Emmy. Back in January 2024, Apple’s “The Greatest,” directed by Kim Gehrig of Somesuch, came away with the Emmy.
This time around, “Fuzzy Feelings” topped a field of nominated commercials consisting of: Apple’s “Album Cover” from Apple’s in-house creatives and directed by David Shane of O Positive; Uber One | Uber Eats’ “Best Friends,” also... Read More