Gentlemen, the directing duo comprised of Brett Snider and Billy Federighi, has joined GO Film. The helming team comes over from production house Bandito Brothers, which had represented them since early 2009.
Gentlemen entered the spotmaking arena back in ’07, winning ad contests for Doritos and Converse. Doritos’ “Mousetrap” aired during the ’08 Super Bowl telecast, ranking number four on the USA Today Ad-Meter. That same year Gentlemen–who at the time were on the roster of production company Uber Content–earned inclusion in SHOOT‘s New Directors Showcase. “Mousetrap” went on to be featured in various “best of Super Bowl” shows, including the CBS special Super Bowls’ Greatest Commercials: 2010.
Gentlemen’s earlier alluded to Converse spec–which they wrote, directed and edited prior to “Mousetrap”–won that brand’s worldwide contest and ran nationally.
The directorial duo has since gone on to turn out real-world work, often marked by quirky comedy, for such clients as Mercedes-Benz via Merkley + Partners, New York, Kellogg’s for Leo Burnett, Chicago, Kraft for Draftfcb, Chicago and CiCi’s for Deutsch LA.
Snider and Federighi first met at Columbia College in Hollywood. After some detours, they came together to try their hand at directing, the first splash being the 16mm spec for Converse.
Sean Baker Wins Marquee Feature Honor At DGA Awards For “Anora”
Sean Baker won the marquee feature prize at the 77th Directors Guild of America (DGA) Awards on Saturday night (2/8) for Anora. This makes Baker the frontrunner to win the Best Director Oscar. Only eight times over the past 76 years has the DGA Award winner not gone on to win the Oscar. That happened most recently in 2020 when Sam Mendes won the DGA Award for 1917 while Bong Joon-ho scored the Oscar for Parasite. Baker topped a field of nominees which also included Jacque Audiard for Emilia Pรฉrez, Edward Berger for Conclave, Brady Corbet for The Brutalist, and James Mangold for A Complete Unknown. Another DGA theatrical motion picture award--named after the late filmmaker Michael Apted in recognition of outstanding achievement by a first-time feature director went to RaMell Ross for Nickel Boys. On the TV side, winners included Frederick E.O. Toye who topped the dramatic series category for the โCrimson Skyโ episode of Shลgun; Lucia Aniello who scored the comedy series honor for the Hacks episode titled โBulletproofโ; Steven Zaillian for the limited series Ripley; and Liz Patrick for the variety series Saturday Night Live (โJohn Mulaney/Chappell Roanโ episode). The documentary winners were Brendan Bellomo and Slava Leontyev for Porcelain War. Topping the commercials category was Andreas Nilsson of Biscuit Filmworks on the strength of spots for Apple, Andrex, Hennessy and Virgin Media (see separate story here). Judd Apatow served as emcee for the DGA Awards before an audience of more than... Read More