Steve Ayson, Niclas Larsson, Taika Waititi round out this year’s field of nominees in the commercials category
By Robert Goldrich
LOS ANGELES --Nisha Ganatra of Chelsea Pictures and Melina Matsoukas of PRETTYBIRD are among the nominees for the DGA Award recognizing Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Commercials for 2020. This marks the first time that two solo female directors broke through with nominations in the spotmaking category in the same year.
The rest of this year’s field of DGA commercial nominees consists of directors Steve Ayson of MJZ; Niclas Larsson, also of MJZ; and Taika Waititi of Hungry Man.
Ganatra earned her first career DGA nomination on the strength of Bodyform/Libresse’s “#wombstories” for AMV BBDO.
Matsoukas’ Guild nod came for Beats by Dr. Dre’s “You Love Me” from agency Translation. This is the third career DGA Award nomination for Matsoukas but first for a commercial. Last year she was nominated for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in First-Time Feature Film for Queen & Slim. Back in 2018, Matsoukas garnered her very first Guild nom, for the “Thanksgiving” episode of the TV comedy series Master of None.
Matsoukas and Ganatra join a select field of women directors to gain Guild recognition in the commercials category–the first being Amy Hill as half of the directorial duo Reiss/Hill in 1999; followed by Katrina Mercadante as half of the team known as The Mercadantes in 2015. That same year, Lauren Greenfield also received a nomination, making her the first individual female helmer to earn that distinction in the commercials competition. Greenfield, however, was no stranger to the nominees’ circle, having broken through for the feature documentary the Queen of Versailles back in 2013.
In 2018, Alma Har’el became the second solo woman director to be nominated for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Commercials since this category was established in 1980. Fast forward to today, and two more solo women directors have made the spotmaking cut.
Har’el of course made a major breakthrough last year when she won the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in First-Time Feature Film for Honey Boy.
MJZ
While scoring a pair of nominations is history making for solo female directors in the DGA commercials category, it’s become fairly routine for production house MJZ which again this year has more than one director nominated for the DGA Award in commercials. This time MJZ leads the production house derby with a couple more nods–for Ayson and Larsson. This marks Ayson’s third career DGA spot nomination and the first for Larsson.
This time around, Ayson was nominated for Nike’s “The Great Chase” out of Wieden+Kennedy, Shanghai. Meanwhile Larsson gains nominee status on the basis of two entries: VW Touareg’s “See the Unseen” for adam&eveDDB. and Volvo’s “The Parents” for Forsman & Bodenfors.
Rounding out this year’s spotmaking field is director Taika Waititi of Hungry Man who is nominated for Coca-Cola’s “The Letter” out of Wieden+Kennedy London. This is the second career DGA nod for Waititi whose first came in the feature film category last year for Jojo Rabbit.
Here’s a full rundown of the nominees for the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Commercials for 2020 (in alphabetical order):
STEVE AYSON
(MJZ)
The Great Chase, Nike – Wieden + Kennedy Shanghai
First Assistant Director: John Lowe
NISHA GANATRA
(Chelsea Pictures)
#wombstories, Bodyform/Libresse – AMVBBDO
NICLAS LARSSON
(MJZ)
See the Unseen, VW Touareg – adam&eveDDB
The Parents, Volvo XC60 – Forsman & Bodenfors
MELINA MATSOUKAS
(PRETTYBIRD)
You Love Me, Beats by Dr. Dre – Translation
First Assistant Director: Paul Norman
Second Assistant Director: Don Johnson
TAIKA WAITITI
(Hungry Man)
The Letter, Coca-Cola – Wieden & Kennedy London
The winners across commercials, TV and feature categories will be announced at the 73rd Annual DGA Awards on Saturday, April 10, 2021, which will be a private virtual event for DGA members.
Review: Malcolm Washington Makes His Feature Directing Debut With “The Piano Lesson”
An heirloom piano takes on immense significance for one family in 1936 Pittsburgh in August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson." Generational ties also permeate the film adaptation, in which Malcolm Washington follows in his father Denzel Washington's footsteps in helping to bring the entirety of The Pittsburgh Cycle — a series of 10 plays — to the screen.
Malcolm Washington did not start from scratch in his accomplished feature filmmaking debut. He enlisted much of the cast from the recent Broadway revival with Samuel L. Jackson (Doaker Charles), his brother, John David Washington (Boy Willie), Ray Fisher (Lymon) and Michael Potts (Whining Boy). Berniece, played by Danielle Brooks in the play, is now beautifully portrayed by Danielle Deadwyler. With such rich material and a cast for whom it's second nature, it would be hard, one imagines, to go wrong. Jackson's own history with the play goes back to its original run in 1987 when he was Boy Willie.
It's not the simplest thing to make a play feel cinematic, but Malcolm Washington was up to the task. His film opens up the world of the Charles family beyond the living room. In fact, this adaptation, which Washington co-wrote with "Mudbound" screenwriter Virgil Williams, goes beyond Wilson's text and shows us the past and the origins of the intricately engraved piano that's central to all the fuss. It even opens on a big, action-filled set piece in 1911, during which the piano is stolen from a white family's home. Another fleshes out Doaker's monologue in which he explains to the uninitiated, Fisher's Lymon, and the audience, the tortured history of the thing. While it might have been nice to keep the camera on Jackson, such a great, grounding presence throughout, the good news is that he really makes... Read More