By Robert Goldrich
LONDON --Stink, London, and DDB London topped the 2006 British Television Advertising Awards (BTAA), being named respectively, the most successful production company and ad agency of the year in the U.K.
Stink’s win came largely on the strength of spots directed by Ivan Zacharias: Honda’s “Impossible Dream” out of Wieden+Kennedy, London, and Sure (in European markets it’s called Rexona) deodorant’s “Stunt City” for Lowe, London. Zacharias is repped stateside by bicoastal Smuggler.
“Impossible Dream” garnered the BTAA honor as best TV commercial of the year, in addition to picking up Gold Awards in three categories–cars, corporate and best spot over 60 seconds.
Meanwhile “Stunt City” also earned three Golds, topping the best :30 or less, toiletries and European categories.
Taking two Golds apiece were: the U.K. Department for Transport’s teen road safety PSA “Cameraphone” (the best :30 or less and public service categories) directed by Chris Palmer of Gorgeous Enterprises, London (Palmer helms U.S. spots via bicoastal Anonymous Content) for Leo Burnett, London; and Stella Artois beer’s “Ice Skating Priests” (the best over :60 and alcoholic beverages categories) directed by Jonathan Glazer of Academy, London, for Lowe, London.
Also scoring Gold in the alcoholic beverages category was Guinness’ much-lauded “noitulovE” directed by Daniel Kleinman of Kleinman Productions, London. Another high-profile ad, Sony Bravia TV’s “Balls,” got Gold in the best 60 seconds or less category. “Balls” was directed by Nicolai Fuglsig of bicoastal/international MJZ for Fallon, London. And rounding out the Gold winners, in the sponsorship bumpers category, was five’s package of “Cow,” “Horses” and “Pigs,” directed and written by Claire Lambert of hybrid production company/agency Devilfish, London.
Review: Writer-Director Andrea Arnold’s “Bird”
"Is it too real for ya?" blares in the background of Andrea Arnold's latest film, "Bird," a 12-year-old Bailey (Nykiya Adams) rides with her shirtless, tattoo-covered dad, Bug (Barry Keoghan), on his electric scooter past scenes of poverty in working-class Kent.
The song's question — courtesy of the Irish post-punk band Fontains D.C. — is an acute one for "Bird." Arnold's films ( "American Honey," "Fish Tank") are rigorous in their gritty naturalism. Her fiction films — this is her first in eight years — tend toward bleak, hand-held verité in rough-and-tumble real-world locations. Her last film, "Cow," documented a mother cow separated from her calf on a dairy farm.
Arnold specializes in capturing souls, human and otherwise, in soulless environments. A dream of something more is tantalizing just out of reach. In "American Honey," peace comes to Star (Sasha Lane) only when she submerges underwater.
In "Bird," though, this sense of otherworldly possibility is made flesh, or at least feathery. After a confusing night, Bailey awakens in a field where she encounters a strange figure in a skirt ( Franz Rogowski ) who arrives, like Mary Poppins, with a gust a wind. His name, he says, is Bird. He has a soft sweetness that doesn't otherwise exist in Bailey's hardscrabble and chaotic life.
She's skeptical of him at first, but he keeps lurking about, hovering gull-like on rooftops. He cranes his neck now and again like he's watching out for Bailey. And he does watch out for her, helping Bailey through a hard coming of age: the abusive boyfriend (James Nelson-Joyce) of her mother (Jasmine Jobson); her half brother (Jason Buda) slipping into vigilante violence; her father marrying a new girlfriend.
The introduction of surrealism has... Read More