Craig Gillespie

Born in Australia, Craig Gillespie moved to the United States when he was 19 years old to attend the School of Visual Arts in New York City where he studied illustration, graphic design and advertising. An internship at J.Walter Thompson soon led to a decade-long career as an agency art director with some of New York’s most prestigious advertising agencies. At DMB&B Gillespie won a Silver Pencil for his work on Burger King and a Silver Lion at the Cannes International Advertising Festival for his work on Pepsi at BBDO. But it was while working at Ammirati Puris & Lintas that he decided to trade in his award-winning career as an agency art director for an award-winning career as a director.

Beginning with the H&R Block spot, “Worried about Bill”, that depicts a man gone crazy from the pressure of filing his taxes, Gillespie’s rise has been meteoric. (Creativity magazine recently described him as “a major commercials funnyman with a future.”) More dark comedy work for H&R Block, followed by character-driven spots for Citibank, Chevy, Budweiser (“Whassup?!”), Holiday Inn Express, Honda and SBC Communications have earned Gillespie America’s highest advertising honors (two One Show Gold’s and a One Show Silver) as well as some of America’s most prestigious commercial accolades, including recognition by the AICP for his Citibank “Delivery Room” commercial for Best Talent/Performance. He has also earned a Clio, a British D&AD, a London International Advertising award and a Communication Arts award, all for campaigns that cause audiences to laugh and wince with recognition at Gillespie’s offbeat, performance-driven spots that draw on the fragility of our humanity. Known for reality-based performances, Gillespie has earned the respect of many of his colleagues who appreciate his sharp comedic sense, strong casting skills and dedication to talent to get the performances he needs, resulting in what can only be described as the unexpected.

Gillespie, who Boards Magazine calculates is one of the top 10 directors worldwide, has been twice nominated by the Directors Guild of America (DGA) for Best Director in 2002 and 2003.

Spike Jonze

For many years, Spike Jonze has been known as an award-winning music video, short film, commercial and feature film director. Spike’s acclaimed original work in commercials has won him much praise. His most recent commercial, IKEA “Lamp“, won the Grand Prix at Cannes and was voted one of the Best Spots of the Year by Adweek. Levi’s “Crazy Legs” received the Bronze Lion at Cannes, won the London International Advertising award for best visual direction and was also voted one of the Best Spots of the Year by Adweek. His commercial for Nike “The Morning After” won Gold at the One Show.

Just as with his commercial achievements, Spike continues to be a pioneer in the world of music videos. Spike’s direction of the Beastie Boys “Sabotage” music video, in the form of opening credits for a fictional 1970’s cop show, received critical praise and numerous awards. Ever since, Spike’s music videos have regularly been nominated for MTV Video Music Awards. Spike’s video for Fatboy Slim’s “Praise You” was named the best video of all time by MTV. Also on that list are his other videos, including “Sabotage“, Weezer’s “Buddy Holly“, Daft Punk’s “Da Funk“, Björk’s “It’s Oh So Quiet” and Fatboy Slim’s “Weapon Of Choice“.

Spike is also widely known as the director of “Being John Malkovich” (which garnered 3 Academy Award® nominations, including Best Director) and “Adaptation” (4 Academy Award® nominations; winner for Best Supporting Actor). Spike also produced Michel Gondry’s feature film, “Human Nature”, based on an original script by Charlie Kaufman, and the “Jackass” TV Series and feature film.

Spike began his career as a photographer and co-directing Blind Video Days (skate video) with Mark Gonzales. Spike continues to work actively in all of these mediums.

Fredrik Bond

Swedish director, Fredrik Bond began his career as a still photographer, eventually studying at NYU Film School after a stint as an offline editor and writer for Swedish TV Channel 1, which took him on a round-the-world trip and gave him his first taste of directing. Upon graduation, Bond returned to Sweden and worked as a freelance director on a number of TV series while writing and developing ideas for youth TV shows. Bond got his first break after co-directing a documentary about photographer David Sim’s work for Levis and went on to form his own production company out of which he financed a series of spec films. Shots magazine quickly recognized his talent and featured him in the magazine’s “New Directors” segment based on his test film, “Bananen”

Since then, Bond has rapidly grown into one of the most sought-after international commercial directors and received numerous distinctions for his work. In 1999, he was one of 30 directors chosen out of 500 to participate in the prestigious “Saatchi and Saatchi New Directors Showcase” screened at the Cannes Advertising Festival and ranked by Campaign magazine as one of the “World’s Hottest New Directors”. Between 2001 and 2002 Bond won 6 Golds, 6 Silvers and 3 Bronzes at the British Television Advertising Awards; 2 Golds, 3 Silvers and 7 Bronzes at Creative Circle; 2 Silver Clios, a Gold and Silver at the One Show; a Silver and 2 Bronzes at the Cannes Lions Festival, as well as Best Director at the 2001 Midsummer Awards in London. These Awards were for his Adidas, KISS FM, Monster.com, Skoda, Supernoodles and Volkswagen commercials. In 2003, he won a Silver Medal from the Art Directors Club in New York for his Hewlett Packard spot, “Digital Crime Fighting”, including Best International spot at the 2003 Creative Circle Awards.

In 2000, Bond’s “Body Rock” music video for Moby was featured in Promo Magazine and credited him as “possessing a hitherto unseen talent for edginess and humor.” The promo was nominated for Best Dance Video at the Cads Awards 2000. Bond was also notably selected as part of “The Creative Future” for 2000 by Creative Review magazine, and his work showcased for one week in London as part of the resulting exhibition.

In 2001, Campaign magazine ranked Bond #1 on the Book of Lists: “The 10 Hottest Commercial Directors”, as well as the “Best of the Best Awards Nominations” list, the “Best of the Best Awards: Best Commercials Director” list and the “10 Hottest Commercial Directors” list in 2002.

Michel Gondry

Michel Gondry was born (May 8, 1963) and raised in Versailles, France, and eventually went to art college in Paris. Now in his early forties, his repertoire is astounding. He has scripted inspiring imagery in the form of commercials, music videos, shorts, feature films, and other media. He is partially credited with reviving the music-video format in the 1990’s. He has been named a genius by too many people to count.

Michel Gondry’s age is deceiving, however: his works are marked with a child-like explorative eye. Like old-school hip-hop Gondry’s works are his playground. He tells stories about people and their lives while questioning our definitions of reality. His characters are honest and human and his worlds playfully reflect the interaction between the worlds we live in: nature, society, and the mind.

His career began in Paris where he studied graphic arts while also drumming in a band called Oui Oui. It was for this band that he made his first videos on 16mm and discovered his passion for directing and experimenting with animation and live action. Michel soon went on to make videos for other bands in France and it was not long before he was on the international circuit. His goal was to complete visual images that would compliment a song, never wanting to look as if they’d just been placed on top of an artist’s work. This unique approach to visual art was a collaboration of elements and ideas generated by Gondry and the musicians with whom he worked. In 1993 he met Bjork, and a long and successful business relationship was formed based on a mutual understanding and respect for each others work. His first video for Bjork was “Human Behaviour” which won every music video award existing! He has made many more videos with Bjork, including “Bachelorette”, he has also done videos for The Rolling Stones, Daft Punk, Foo Fighters, Chemical Brothers, Radiohead and Cibo Matto to mention a few.

Michel’s concepts, combined with his philosophy that one finds beauty in ordinary people, led to his direction of the unique TV commercials such as Levi’s “Drugstore”. Michel was entered into the Guinness book of records as the director of a commercial that has won the most prizes including the Lion D’or at Cannes, three silvers at D&AD and best campaign at the BTAA (all awarded to “Drugstore”). He has since directed many more award winning commercials including, Levi’s “Mermaids” and Smirnoff “Smarienburg”, Polaroid “Resignation” and Nike “Long Run”. Most recently he has directed the Levi’s commercial “A Bold New Breed”.

Gondry is often cited, along with directors Spike Jonze, David Fincher, and Marcus Nispel, as representative of the influx of music video directors into feature film. Gondry made his feature film debut in 2001 with Human Nature, garnering mixed reviews. His second film, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (also his second collaboration with screenwriter Charlie Kaufman), was released in 2004. Eternal Sunshine utilizes many of the image manipulation techniques that Gondry had experimented with in his music videos. Gondry won an Academy Award alongside Kaufman and Pierre Bismuth for the story of Eternal Sunshine. The style of Gondry’s music videos often relies on videography and camera tricks which play with frames of reference.

Gondry also directed the musical documentary Dave Chappelle’s Block Party (2006) which followed comedian Dave Chappelle as he attempted to hold a large, free concert in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. His following film, The Science of Sleep, hit theaters in September, 2006. This film stars Mexican actor Gael García Bernal, and marked a return to the fantastical, surreal techniques he employed in Eternal Sunshine. His next feature, Be Kind Rewind to be released in year 2008.