MJZ leads the way with two of its directors--Fredrik Bond and Spike Jonze--scoring nominations for the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Commercials for 2019. This marks Bond’s ninth career nomination, and Jonze’s fourth.
Jonze won the DGA Award last year for Apple’s “Welcome Home.” He has three DGA career nods for commercials, and a fourth in the feature competition for Being John Malkovich in 1999.
All of Bond’s nods have come for his commercialmaking.
Yet the commercial nominee this year with the richest DGA Awards lineage is none other than Sir Ridley Scott of Scott Free (TV, features) and RSA Films (commercials, branded content). Back in 2017, Scott had bestowed upon him the 35th Directors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award, presented by Christopher Nolan, Billy Crudup and Michael Fassbender. Scott was also nominated for DGA’s Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures Award for Thelma & Louise in 1992, Gladiator in 2001, Black Hawk Down in 2002 and The Martian in 2016.
Rounding out the field of spotmaking nominees this year are: Mark Molloy of Smuggler, and Dougal Wilson of Furlined. Both Molloy and Wilson garnered their first career Guild nominations.
Wilson’s nod came for AT&T’s “Train” out of BBDO New York.
Molloy was nominated for Apple’s “Underdogs.”
Scott’s spot nomination was on the basis of Hennessy X.O.’s “The Seven Worlds” out of DDB Paris.
Jonze became a DGA nominee for the fourth time on the strength of Medmen’s “The New Normal” from agency Mekanism, and Squarespace’s “Dream It.”
Bond’s ninth DGA nod came for three spots: HP Elite Dragonfly’s “Lighter Than Air” from MediaMonks, Coca-Cola Light’s “Take It Lightly” out of Ingo, Stockholm, and Apple iPhone’s “Nap.”
The winner will be announced and honored at the 72nd Annual DGA Awards on Saturday, January 25, 2020 at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.
Here’s a full rundown of the nominees for the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Commercials for 2019 (in alphabetical order):
FREDRIK BOND
(MJZ)
Lighter Than Air, HP Elite Dragonfly - MediaMonks
Unit Production Manager: Line Postmyr
First Assistant Director: Peter Kohn
Take it Lightly, Coca-Cola Light - Ingo
Nap, iPhone - Apple
Unit Production Manager: Line Postmyr
First Assistant Director: Peter Kohn
Second Assistant Director: Heather Anderson
SPIKE JONZE
(MJZ)
Dream It, Squarespace – Squarespace
First Assistant Director: Thomas Smith
The New Normal, Medmen – Mekanism
First Assistant Director: Thomas Smith
Second Assistant Directors: David Marnell, Jeff Tavani
MARK MOLLOY
(Smuggler)
Underdogs, Apple – Apple
RIDLEY SCOTT
(RSA Films)
The Seven Worlds, Hennessy X.O. - DDB Paris
DOUGAL WILSON
(Furlined)
Train, AT&T - BBDO NY
First Assistant Director: Peter Kohn
Second Assistant Director: Aaron Fitzgerald