The lineup for the Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors Showcase, now in its 31st year, was unveiled during last week’s Cannes Lions Festival.
Kate Stanners, chairwoman and global chief creative officer at Saatchi & Saatchi, said, “This has been a tumultuous year for our industry and creativity around the world. The pandemic may have paused the world, but it accelerated creativity and catapulted our talent and industry forward. This year’s selection of work tells the stories, moods and themes of the pandemic through a raw and earnest lens.”
Here’s a rundown of this year’s filmmakers who made the cut for the Saatchi Showcase:
Tyler Davis
Recognized entry: “Service”
Davis is an actor, comedian, filmmaker and musician in L.A. by way of Chicago. Davis is originally from Ohio. He co-wrote and performed in the 2020 CBS Showcase and is now on the creative team for 2021. Back in Chicago, he starred in two mainstage sketch revues with The Second City Chicago as well as created online sketches for Comedy Central. He’s a production consultant and guest star on the Showtime series Work In Progress, provides the voice of Jonnit on the podcast Campaign Skyjacks and recently had a short made during quarantine featured on CBS’s The Greatest At Home Videos. His U.S. roost for representation is Tessa Films.
Will Dohrn
Idles’ “War”
Dohrn makes commercials, short films and music videos. Dohrn is interested in provoking thought around our lived spaces, people and structures, using inventive and unique visual devices to create impactful, feeling driven stories and art. The London-based director is repped by Ground Work.
Ad&Ouss
“Drive Them Crazy”
This directorial duo consists of Adrien Lagier and Ousmane Ly. Self-taught, the directors quickly evolved and became a reference in the hip-hop music video industry, thanks to their creative approach, breaking traditional rap codes. They have worked with the biggest French musicians and even got nominated for the best music video French awards for their artwork “Rêves Bizarres” featuring Orelsan and Damso. In 2020 they started to direct commercials, bringing their fresh and French touch to clients like Free (Freebox Pop) and Puma (with Neymar Jr). That same year they created their own production company, Adeus. Supporting young talented directors alongside prestigious artists, they kept their dynamic and innovative feel, developing also a more luxurious direction collaborating with brands such as Louis Vuitton and Bulgari.
Yosuke Kobayashi & Daigo Hariya
“viewers:1”
Kobayashi and Hariya first met when they were in university and created independent films at the film club. After their graduation, Hariya mainly produced TV programs while Kobayashi produced commercials. They continue creating sci-fi films in their spare time.
Nata Metlukh
“Awkward”
Metlukh is a Ukrainian-born animation artist based in San Francisco. She creates visually bold, character driven works featuring urban lifestyle and absurdity. Her animated films and gifs have been recognized by major film festivals and received several awards.
Haley Elizabeth Anderson
Hennessy’s “Unfinished Business”
Anderson is a filmmaker, writer, and photo-based visual artist from Houston,. She recently graduated from New York University’s Graduate Film Program as a Dean’s Fellow. With roots across the American South and Gulf Coast, and a background in playwriting and poetry, her work revolves around fragile, indefinable emotions in coming-of-age experiences and memories; race and familial mythology, and the ever-growing class-divide through mundane but significant moments of human vulnerability and intimacy. Although her work is often a meditation on personal histories and identity, she is interested in examining these ideas within a global landscape, experimenting with natural environments and cinematic language. Before moving to New York, Haley worked in casting. Her experiences street-casting a Terrence Malick project in Austin, Texas led her to further develop her love for collaborating with first-time actors, a process that drives part of her aesthetic: a hybrid of narrative film and non- linear, experimental documentary. Most recently Anderson has started working with brands having made seminal pieces with proactive messages for both Levi’s and Hennessy. Her work has been featured at the Barbican in London, The Shed in New York, Le Cinema Club, the Criterion Channel, International Film Festival Rotterdam, and Sundance. She is repped in the ad arena by Pulse Films.
Nelson de Castro
Waze & Odyessy’s “Always”
Director de Castro’s career took off in 2013 after winning OK Go’s Music Video challenge for their song “I’m Not Through” sponsored by the Saatchi and Saatchi New Director’s Showcase. Since then, he has continued to shoot acclaimed videos for a host of notable artists including Hook ’n Sling, Broken Bells and George Michael. His work has been featured at Camerimage, the Berlin Music Video Awards and the Kinsale Shark Awards; along with nominations for UKMVA Best New Director and Best Pop Video for artists George Ezra, Hook ’n Sling and Waze & Odyssey, which also earned a Special Jury award this year at SXSW.
Jesse Lewis-Reece
“Eyelash”
Lewis-Reece is a writer/director from Brighton, graduating from the prestigious Bournemouth Film School in 2016. His work focuses on authentic human emotion, with an interest in grounded realities. His film Eyelash is an adaptation of spoken word poet Neil Hilborn’s beloved poem, “OCD.” The short film deals with issues of mental health, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, and romantic relationships, as we follow a couple navigating the giddy beginning, tumultuous middle, and devastating end of a love story, colored by the specific, challenging, and often debilitating experiences of a person with OCD. In the last year Lewis-Reece is looking forward to developing his career, moving into the commercials arena, and to continue with his longer-form projects. He is handled by production houses Loveboat in the U.S. and You Are Here in the U.K.
Meat Dept
Igorrr’s “Very Noise”
Meat Department is composed of three friends (David Nicolas, Laurent Nicolas and Kevin Van Der Meiren). The trio created a world of weird and wonderful characters. Music videos for Mr Oizo and idents for Adult Swim have helped them fine tune their unique style of hyper-real, burlesque and elegant CG. “Black Holes,” their most well known short-film, was selected to the Sundance Festival and presented worldwide on the festival circuit. They have also produced “Very Noise,” a psychedelic clip for the artist Igorrr that has created quite a buzz on social media. Most recently, Meat Dept. released the episode “Automated Customer Service” for the Netflix series “Love, Death and Robots.”
Scott Lazer
“Commute”
Lazer is an award-winning filmmaker and creative director whose repertoire transcends genre, form, and media. Raised in the American South, his films often explore communities and subcultures inspired by his upbringing between Louisiana, North
Carolina and West Virginia. His work in scripted and non-scripted narrative filmmaking, eschews a signature visual style, crafting each project with an approach that uniquely serves the story he wants to tell. His work has been featured on HBO, The New York Times, NOWNESS, Vimeo Staff Picks Best of the Year, and many others. He is on the roster of Pomp&Clout.
Kevin Phillips
Lumineers’ “Gloria”
Phillips was born in New Jersey as the second son of a chocolatier and copywriter, Phillips’ short film “Too Cool for School” was accepted into the 2015 Cannes Semaine de laCritique. “Super Dark Times,” his feature debut, premiered at the International Films Festival in Rotterdam and the Tribeca Film Festival in 2017. Highly acclaimed, the film went on to participate in more than a dozen festivals around the world, garnering awards including Best Feature Film at the Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival in Switzerland. He was nominated at the 2017 Independent Spirit Awards as someone to watch. He followed it up with the lauded visual album The Lumineers - III, which premiered at TIFF in 2019 as well as
SXSW where one of its chapters, “Gloria,” won the award for Best Director. He is currently in pre-production on his follow up feature film, “Doctors,” an adaptation of the Dash Shaw graphic novel.
Kyndra Kennedy
“Black.Matters”
Kennedy is a writer/director who co-founded KYNA Media Films with cinematographer and editor Kenneth Cuadrado. KYNA Media Films an award winning, independent film production company based in North Hollywood, Calif. It has created visuals for major record labels including Darkchild Records, Island Def Jam, RCA, and Capitol Records. KYNA MEDIA has won in international short film festivals, including Moment Invitational Film Festival in 2019 and 2020, In 2020 the poetry-driven, social justice short film, “Black.Matters” won the grand prize in the Musicbed Reopen Challenge and My RØDE Reel. “As minority filmmakers, we recognize our responsibility in telling stories that represent and amplify the voices of underrepresented people and communities.”
Saad Moosajee
Thom York’s “Last I Heard”
Moosajee is an artist and director known for his genre bending visual style. He crafts dreamlike worlds characterized by intricate and emotional images. His videos for Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, Mitski, and Joji have pushed the boundaries of visual storytelling through experimental techniques in animation and art direction. Moosajee received the Special Jury Recognition Award for Animation at SXSW 2020. His work has screened at The Hammer Museum and Museum of Moving Image, in addition to being awarded by The One Club, D&AD, and UKMVAs. He was named as a Forbes 30 Under 30 and an ADC Young Gun in 2020. He is on the roster of Pomp&Clout.
The Fridman Sisters
WhatsApp’s “Sunbeams”
Lina and Maira Fridman grew up between their parents’ darkroom and art studio, where they nurtured their fascination for visual art. After seven years working as production designers, the Fridmans moved into directing and soon established a highly cinematic and art directed style. They draw inspiration from their dreams and references collected through their travels worldwide to create an immersive visual universe. They have lent their holistic vision to Whatsapp, Nike and directed Airbnb’s launch to the public market in a project that featured location filming across every time zone. The Fridman Sisters are repped by Stink Films.
Brock Neal Roberts
“Talk Show”
Roberts is a young director, hailing from North London. His work portrays textured and dream-like takes on reality, crafting videos with flair and imagination. Taking notes from classical innovators such as Alan Clarke but combining these influences with modern day casting, cinematography and editing to fuse style and substance within his storytelling, Roberts has collaborated with a wide range of artists including Sam Fender, Arlo Parks, Berwyn, Jeshi and Eli Brown. Recent accolades include a Kinsale Shark Award for Best New Director, and UKMVA nominations for Best RnB Video and Best New Director. He is with Agile Films, London.
Kristoffer Borgli
“EER”
Borgli grew up in a small suburb outside of Oslo, where skateboarding and making videos dominated his youth. His debut feature film, “DRIB,” premiered at SXSW in 2017--a fiction/documentary hybrid that re-enacts the story of a failed violent marketing scheme for a fictitious well-known energy drink. This satirical take on advertising was written and directed by Borgli In 2018, his short film, “A Place We Call Reality,” received the Norwegian Film Critic Association Award for Best Short of the year. Borgli has helmed films for clients including Sweetgreen, Twizzlers, and Massage Envy. He has worked with agencies such as Droga5, BBH, and Fallon. Borgli’s short film, “Former Cult Member Hears Music For The First Time” was an official selection for Sundance. Borgli’s latest short “Eer” premiered on Nowness on January 18, 2021. Borgli is on the roster of production house Furlined.
Diana Kunst
Rolling Stones’ “Criss Cross”
Acclaimed photographer and filmmaker Diana Kunst is guided by her roots as a still photographer: light, framing, and composition work in service of the story and extolling the virtues and weaknesses of human existence. Her talent is fueled by curiosity and passion for exploring new territories. Raised in Spain by a Philippine mother and a Basque father, Kunst embarked on her own journey at 18, living in London, NYC and the Philippines. This has propelled her to develop challenging projects in both film and photography, using her passion for immersing herself in the unknown. Kunst has worked with A-list talent such as A$AP Rocky, FKA twigs, Rosal a, James Blake, Madonna, Eva Mendes, James Harden, Kevin Durant and Lykke Li, as well as clients including Honda, Gucci, Mango, Schweppes, Converse, New Balance, Lacoste, Tous, and L’Óreal. She is on the roster of Object & Animal.
Sil & Jorik
“Wasterminster”
Studio Birthplace (founded by directing duo Sil & Jorik) is a creative studio dedicated to improving awareness and inspiring change across a multitude of ecological and humanitarian issues. This collective of filmmakers and technologists combine an array of visual talents, from breathtaking cinematography and high end VFX work, to AR and mobile gaming, in an attempt to shine a light on the climate crisis and marginalized communities in the most remote corners of the world. Studio Birthplace and Sil & Jorik are exclusively represented in the UK by Park Village.
Kid Studio
Disclosure’s “Energy”
Kid. is a creative studio based in Toronto with a focus on the intersections of music, art, and culture. The studio includes co-directors Glenn Michael and Christo — where each has made a name for themselves through their cinematic and diverse approach to video direction. Since their start, they’ve worked with artists such as Big Sean, 6lack, Drake, Migos, Future, and French Montana. They have also branched off into commercial work with brands such as Nike, LG, Mitsubishi, and Converse.
Netti Hurley
“Women Walking”
Hurley’s participatory documentary style accompanies her subjects on experiences outside of the conventional ideas of beauty and normality. Her empathetic lens moves past the curtained edge of society and its taboos in the lives of a London sex worker and porn star in ‘Misha’ and ‘Big Titty Kitty,’ both presented with a tender realism and unpatronizing humor. These explorations result in beautifully intimate portraits that are deeply human in their vulnerability. Hurley’s approach is uniform across all her work as she uses the camera to reveal elements of her subject to themselves and the audience, seemingly in real time. A unique style quickly gaining notoriety as she has created films for Nike, Puma, Tommy Jeans, Adidas, Stella McCartney, Beats, Loewe and music videos for some of the UK’s most exciting young artists. In 2018, her debut film, “Coping,” premiered on Dazed. Shortly after, the release of “Black Rose” by British rapper Ghetts, was praised for its “...powerful, positive message and cinematic excellence.” Hurley recently joined the roster at production house Stink Rising for spots, branded content and music videos.
Sam Gainsborough
“Facing It”
Mixed media director Gainsborough graduated from the esteemed NFTS animation course, with his final film “Facing It” winning numerous international awards. The following years have seen Gainsborough go from strength to strength, finessing his technical ability which spans across 2D, CG, stop motion and live action. Whether its irreverent comedy or emotional storytelling, his films have a conceptual brilliance which incorporate clever tricks and techniques to capture the audience. Gainsborough is handled by production house Blinkink.
Arnaud Bresson
“Zombies”
Bresson is a young director and artistic director represented by DIVISION. He studied at ECV in Bordeaux, school of art, design and animation. He starts his career working as an assistant director for Fleur & Manu whom he met during his studies. In 2018 he directed a music video, “Monochrome,” for the young singer Ama. In 2019 he released a music video for RL Grime ft Graves, “Arcus,” and a music video for Headie One & Fred Again, “Gang.” In 2020 he won the award for Best New Director at the UKMVA for his music video “After Life” for the Flatbush Zombies & James Blake. Bresson recently directed a music video for the English artist Beabadoobee.
Alex Lill
The Weeknd’s “Heartless (Live)”
Lill is known for his genre-defining music videos for artists such as The Weeknd, Sampha, Joey Bada$$, Lil Yachty and Melody’s Echo Chamber. His naturalistic filmmaking style evolved from making skate videos as a teenager in California; learning how to edit in camera helped to evolve his distinct style and put him on the radar of assorted musicians. After funding his first music videos with high-school bake sales, his talent was picked up by Mac DeMarco and they collaborated to make the visuals for ‘My Kind of Woman,” resulting in a surreal noir starring Mac as a cross-dressing starlet. Lill’s Shakespearean “Devil/Back Around” video for the L.A. trio Dessert drew industry praise and mainstream audiences. The video stars wrestler Manny Yarbrough in a collage of music, sound and tragedy. Lill then went on to make work for Joey Bada$$’ track “Hilary Swank” and Sampha’s “Blood on Me,” among others. Most recently, he has directed The Weeknd in a number of hig-hprofile live performances, including for The American Music Awards, The MTV VMAs and “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” Repped via Anonymous Content.
Ciaran Casey
“First time Holding My Son, Theo”
Casey, founder of Wilsain Media, is an award winning filmmaker from Roscommon, Ireland. From videography to animation, he has always had a drive to create content that evokes emotion. At 19, he enrolled in Pulse College for film production, graduating his first year with an essential amount of experience on set, and working with some top artists such as Chris O’Dowd, Gavin James and Hudson Taylor, et al. This led him to launch Wilsain Media, and to start working on video for businesses and artists around Ireland. He continues to grow as a film director after releasing “Vultures Short Film” that raises awareness about the effects and repercussions of knife crime.