Bicoastal production house Assembly has signed director Jeffrey Fleisig whose credits include spots for the likes of Volkswagen, Carlsberg, Verizon, McDonald’s, Staples, ESPN, Axe, Wendy’s, Dell, Budweiser, Sprite, Sony, AT&T, Ford and Chrysler. In 2008, Fleisig helped to launch what became the popular Progressive Insurance campaign featuring Flo, the upbeat store employee character portrayed by actress Stephanie Courtney. To date, he has shot over 75 ads featuring the now-iconic brand spokeswoman.
Fleisig spent nearly the past decade at production company Über Content. Over the years his work has earned honors from the Cannes Lions, D&AD and the AICP Show, among other competitions.
In 2015, Fleisig directed his first short film, Love & A Lug Wrench, a dark comedy about love gone terribly wrong. The film, which features outstanding performances from Ben Wilson and Abby Miller (Aquarius, Justified, Mad Men), was recently invited to screen at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, the Soho Film festival and the LA Comedy Film Festival.
Fleisig is known for his work in humor, dialogue and conceptual fare. The director said he was drawn to Assembly’s savvy and support, citing such key players as company founder Michael Salzer, EP Gloria Colangelo and newly appointed EP/head of sales Becky Donahue.
Full Lineup Set For AFI Fest; Official Selections Span 44 Countries, Include 9 Best International Feature Oscar Submissions
The American Film Institute (AFI) has unveiled the full lineup for this year’s AFI Fest, taking place in Los Angeles from October 23-27. Rounding out the slate of already announced titles are such highlights as September 5 directed by Tim Fehlbaum, All We Imagine As Light directed by Payal Kapadia, The Luckiest Man in America directed by Samir Oliveros (AFI Class of 2019), Zurawski v. Texas from executive producers Hillary Clinton, Chelsea Clinton and Jennifer Lawrence and directors Maisie Crow and Abbie Perrault, and Oh, Canada directed by Paul Schrader (AFI Class of 1969). A total of 158 films are set to screen at the 38th edition of AFI Fest.
Of the official selections, 48% are directed by women and non-binary filmmakers and 26% are directed by BIPOC filmmakers.
Additional festival highlights include documentaries Architecton directed by Victor Kossakovsky; Cheech & Chong’s Last Movie directed by David Bushell; Devo directed by Chris Smith about the legendary new wave provocateurs; Gaucho Gaucho directed by Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw; Group Therapy directed by Neil Berkeley with Emmy® winner Neil Patrick Harris and Tig Notaro; No Other Land directed by a Palestinian-Israeli team comprised of Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor and Hamdan Ballal; Pavements directed by Alex Ross Perry; and Separated directed by Errol Morris. Notable narrative titles include Black Dog (Gou Zen) directed by Guan Hu; Bonjour Tristesse directed by Durga Chew-Bose with Academy Award® nominee Chloë Sevigny; Caught By The Tides directed by Jia Zhangke; Hard Truths directed by Mike Leigh with... Read More