This year’s field of DGA Award nominees for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Commercials for 2017 includes a past winner, a second helmer also with two career nominations, a duo gaining its first ever nod, and two other first-timers.

Martin de Thurah of Epoch Films won the DGA Award in 2014; this is his second nomination. Miles Jay also has two career nominations, the first coming back in 2016.

The duo entering the DGA nominees’ circle for the first time is MJZ’s Hoffman/Metoyer, consisting of Will Hoffman and Julius Metoyer. 

Also garnering their first career nominations are Isaiah Seret of Biscuit Filmworks, and Alma Har’el of Epoch Films.

The latter is one of a select few women directors to gain Guild recognition in the commercials category--the first being Amy Hill as half of the directorial duo Riess/Hill in 1999; followed by Katina Mercadante as half of 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. She, however, was no stranger to the nominees’ circle, having done so in the Feature Documentary category for The Queen of Versailles in 2013. (Greenfield continues to direct commercials and branded content via Chelsea Pictures, and just debuted her Generation Wealth documentary at Sundance.)

Now Har’el becomes the second solo woman director to be nominated for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Commercials since this category was established in 1980. This accomplishment adds to her serving as an example--or for that matter, a champion--of inclusiveness. She founded the Free the Bid program a year-plus ago and it has helped to give female directors a voice in advertising. The non-profit initiative advocates on behalf of women directors for equal opportunities by asking ad agencies to include a woman director on every triple-bid project, production companies to sign more woman directors, and marketers to seek one woman’s bid on each of their commercial productions.

Epoch’s Har’el garnered her first career Guild nod for Procter & Gamble’s “Love Over Bias” out of Wieden+Kennedy. The spot gave P&G’s “Proud Sponsor of Moms” campaign a new twist, addressing that even though sports arguably provide more of a level playing field than many sectors, there are still forms of bias which athletes must overcome. This film is part of P&G’s Winter Olympics campaign.

Asked to reflect on what her first career DGA Award nomination means to her personally and professionally, Har’el shared, “I showed the commercial to my Mom and it couldn’t have been more perfect. Every director has a moment that she realizes she is really a director and it wasn’t just a dream. Nominations like this make people around you celebrate that with you. It’s cool to see the people that are part of your success care and know how hard you worked for it. This recognition means a lot to me. Out of the 34 Lifetime Achievement Awards that were given by The DGA between 1953-2017, none were given to women. So it doesn’t get lost on me that being nominated in any category as a woman is still an achievement in itself. My wish is to always inspire more women filmmakers to keep going and I know that the work we are doing at Free The Bid will bring even more opportunities for women directors to shine hard and more recognition of their work in 2018.”

Har’el also shed light on P&G’s “Love Over Bias” which she said was done in collaboration “with a passionate creative team.” She related, “Came into the ‘Thank you, Mom’ campaign after it already had four spots and each one of them was done by some of my favorite directors working today--from Lance Acord to Alejandro Innaritu. I wanted to make sure that it will stand on its own, not just as another chapter. The message of ‘Love Over Bias’ resonated with each one of us very strongly and we wanted to send this message now more than ever. The biggest challenge were not the technical aspects of shooting Olympic Skiers or getting a child’s bed onto a top of a mountain for her to jump on. The biggest challenge was that we were about to tackle race, religious choice, gender, disability, sexual orientation and class bias in a two-minute film. How do you do that in an honest way that touches the heart of those issues and goes deep enough without being exploitative? How do you constantly balance your creative decisions, your brand’s marketing needs and the social consciousness behind this message? What made it possible was that I had the best partners to have those conversations with. W+K and P&G supported us, the casting process of using many people who really live under those society biases and the discussions we had following that shaped a lot of our creative approach. I feel lucky I was part of it and it reinforced my belief that honest messaging is possible for certain brands.”

Regarding her production house roost, Har’el said there’s “some good synchronicity” between the DGA Awards and the role Epoch has played in her career. “The first and only time I came to the DGA Awards was in 2014 with my friend Martin de Thurah who won that year. I met [Epoch founder] Mindy Goldberg that night, we fell in love like only two lady bosses can and then I joined Epoch. Now four years later, I’m joining Martin and we’re both nominated in this category so that’s pretty dope. Epoch has been a real home to me. Some people believe that in order to make great work, you need to work with assholes from time to time. Epoch is the ultimate proof that it’s a myth. They make exceptional work year after year and I love every person that works there. I call each one of them my friend.”

Martin de Thurah
As for de Thurah, he summed up his feelings about once again being a DGA Award nominee. “Anybody who works hard is happy to get recognition. What we do goes through many heads and eyeballs so there are intentions and sometimes good results. I’m very happy to be in the company of these brilliant directors and thank you very much to the DGA.”

He earned his current nomination on the strength of StubHub’s “Festival” and “Machines” out of Goodby Silverstein & Partners, and WealthSimple’s “Mad World” from the client’s in-house agency.

The director shared that selecting what work to submit for Guild judges to consider this time around was quite simple. “These are the only spots I did in the U.S. last year so I had nothing else to choose from.”

He is the lone director in this latest crop of nominees to have won the DGA Award, that honor having come four years ago for Hennessy’s “The Man Who couldn’t Slow Down” for Droga5, New York; and Acura MDX 2014’s “Human Race” for Mullen LA.

Miles Jay
For Miles Jay of Smuggler, his second career DGA nomination served as a measure of affirmation that the first “was not a fluke.” That initial Guild nod came for a :90 version (cut from a six-minute short) of AT&T/ESPN’s It Can Wait from ESPN Creative Works, which introduced us to Fletcher Cleaves, a promising high school football player who shortly after being awarded an athletic scholarship to attend Lambuth University sustained serious injuries in an automobile accident which left him a paraplegic. Right before the tragic collision, it turns out the driver of the other vehicle was looking down at a text message on her cell phone.” Jay’s piece takes us through Cleaves’ recovery and we find him six years after the accident moving into his own apartment to lead an independent life. 

“I am really proud of that piece,” said Jay, “but in the back of your mind you think that things just came together for that. Will I get anther story this powerful? It’s not often you get such a gem.”

Jay, though, has proven that he was capable of turning out more gems, this time around garnering a DGA nomination for Bose QuietComfort 35 Headphones out of Grey; and Squarespace’s “Who is JohnMalkovich.com” and “Calling JohnMalkovich.com” (winner of the primetime commercial Emmy Award) from NY agency John X. Hannes. 

“I had never done a comedy spot before--and with a major actor [Malkovich],” related Jay. “I did a romantic comedy short [The Statistical Analysis of Your Failing Relationship] which won a narrative short award at Tribeca. Being able to successfully go out of my comfort zone with all three of these nominated pieces was a healthy thing. My approach was to keep things really simple. I think people today are so bombarded that they appreciate something simple to digest, that engages and entertains them.

Jay teamed with Smuggler partners/EPs Patrick Milling Smith and Brian Carmody to select the three entries submitted for DGA judges to consider. The director credited them and Smuggler for “the insane amount of support they’ve put behind my career. They know when an idea is good and they have the confidence to fully support it. When they see something worthwhile, they’re all in with a ‘let’s go do that’ attitude. They took the same approach to me before I joined them. I remember meeting with the Smuggler guys who saw my work, talked to me and 12 hours later said they wanted me for their roster. They said, ‘Let’s go do this.’”

Hoffman/Metoyer
MJZ’s directorial duo Hoffman/Metoyer scored its first DGA Award nomination on the strength of Kitchen Aid’s “Anthem” out of DigitasLBi, and Ford’s “Go Further” from agency GTB.

Hoffman observed that the two entries reflect “the types of films we like to make, things that are communicated visually that you can’t really put into words. It’s the language of the film medium. There’s no voiceover in the Ford spot and it’s minimal in Kitchen Aid, providing a slight guiding mood but not the core feeling.”

“Anthem” likens the kitchen to a sanctuary, a playground, a special place for different reasons and purposes. Hoffman described the Kitchen Aid piece as “inherently poetic,” conveying the sensations felt in the kitchen. Meanwhile, the visuals in the Ford spot promote a “get going” vibe, bringing us into the realm of electric cars, biking and ride sharing.

Hoffman and Metoyer said that generally there is no strict division of labor between them on a project. “We go through it all together,” explained Metoyer. “We comb through it all together, We challenge each other every step of the way, working so that the idea and final product are the best they can be.”

Metoyer noted that 2017 was “our busiest year. We put a lot of effort into our commercialmaking careers and will continue to work hard. The DGA nomination is in some respects a reflection of what hard work can do, a reflection of you get out what you put in.”

Hoffman and Metoyer first came to SHOOT’s attention when they were two-thirds of the Everynone trio, which gained inclusion into our 2012 New Directors Showcase. At that time, they were teamed with Daniel Mercadante.

Everynone turned out to be a mini-spawning ground for DGA nominees. Mercadante teamed with the aforementioned Katina Mercadante to form The Mercadantes, a duo which earned a Guild commercials nom in 2015.

And now Hoffman and Metoyer have their own DGA nomination, happy to continue the MJZ’s Guild award lineage as directors from that company have had at least one DGA nominee for many years running. “Both Julius and I are grateful for how MJZ has pushed us over the years,” said Hoffman. “They challenge your comfort zone. We’re not making the same thing over and over again. MJZ gets us to think a little bit more outside ourselves. They’ve been a driving force behind us, providing a level of expertise, and a level of talent we are blessed to get the opportunity to work with.”

Isaiah Seret
Seret too is with a company, Biscuit, that maintains a strong DGA Award lineage, including multiple nominations and a pair of wins for Noam Murro, and a win two years ago for Andreas Nilsson.

Seret finds that lineage inspiring, recalling that “after Andreas won the DGA Award, he told me, ‘You’re on the same path. You are doing the same sort of quality work I showed up here [Biscuit Filmworks] with originally.’ To hear that from a next-level director was very encouraging to me.”

It was also prophetic as Seret is now a DGA nominee, earned on the basis of Samsung’s “Growing Up” and “I Love You” for Wieden+Kennedy, Portland, Ore., and Kohler’s “Never Too Composed” from DDB Chicago.

For Seret, the DGA nomination carries considerable weight. “I started in music videos and slowly worked my way into commercials. When I would see the work and the directors nominated for the DGA, I thought it would be amazing to be able to direct some of those spots. I hadn’t seen any of those boards, not even getting the chance to compete for and lose them. It represented a higher level of commercials that I aspired to. I view DGA as the award that really matters for directors. You are judged by your peers. It’s the benchmark of what it means to be in the game, basically, as a high-level commercial director. My goal was to be thought of for some of the best work that advertisers and agencies have to offer. My goal was not a nomination or an award. Still, the nomination means a lot. I even lost out on a couple of the jobs that other nominees were recognized for. This definitely marks a sense of arrival for me. It’s an important milestone.”

At the same time, the DGA nod is much more than a personal milestone. “The most exciting part was sharing it with my collaborators. There’s an intimacy in the creative process, building these worlds with other artists, people opening up their hearts and minds to give their best to the work. Expressing gratitude to my collaborators has been the best part of all this. Writing to thank the DP, production designer, agency collaborators for helping to achieve something has been the most rewarding part of the nomination.”

Also gratifying is being part of such an impressive group of DGA-recognized directors. “I am a friend of a number of the nominees,” noted Seret. “It’s always nice to be in such good company--especially Alma who I don’t know all that well. She deserves the nomination on the basis of the creative merit of her work. She’s also done a tremendous amount to improve the creative field in the industry by pushing for diversity [through Free The Bid]. She deserves a big shout-out.”

Award winners will be announced and honored at the 70th annual DGA Awards on Saturday, Feb. 3, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills.