It's a rare caliber of director that can offhandedly call mammoth jobs like Coca-Cola "It's Mine" and Monster.com "Daybreak" 'small' without coming off as insufferably egotistical. But MJZ's Nicolai Fuglsig gets away with it, through a mix of guileless, boundless enthusiasm and unflinching self-criticism. As happy as he is with Herculean event spots like Guinness "Tipping Point" (undoubtedly one of the production monsters of the year), he's equally, and somewhat remarkably, dismissive of most of his oeuvre this year.

Self-critiquing aside, Fuglsig had a massive 12 months with work like the time-traveling set piece "The Journey" for Motorola and "It's Magic" for JCPenney, depicting a whimsical magic trick-filled New York day. Also add to the mix a fully-CG, sci-fi football extravaganza "Until Then" for Puma through Copenhagen-based Nobody (who reps him for Scandinavia and Germany), and, of course, the aforementioned epics for Coca-Cola and Monster.com. The Directors Guild of America (DGA) duly acknowledged his efforts this year, anointing him with the best director award. But Fuglsig's ambitions are not to be contained by the small screen; the former photojournalist and new father is currently writing his feature debut in Brazil.

We hear congratulations are in order...
On the DGA or the baby? The baby? Ah, okay! It's the first for sure and maybe the last, I don't know (laughs). It's great; it's a big change in my life because I'm a big career guy so it was a big surprise, how much of a commitment it was.

Describe the film you're working on...
It's this big Brazilian/American heist movie loosely based on a true story. I'm flying out to Brazil next week for a month to finish the screenplay with the writer. We're going to deliver to the studio here around June or July. It's very exciting.

Have you been gearing up for this?
Yes, I've wanted it for a long time. I've had an agent for a few years and I was very frustrated by the scripts that came in. They didn't really suit me, so I started developing my own stuff that I fell in love with. Then studios got really excited about it. It's the first time in seven years that I'm taking three months off to pursue a personal project.

So does this mean you won't be doing commercials any longer?
No, I'll always do commercials because I love the format and the collaboration with creatives. There are a lot of people and agencies that I've been dying to work with.

How has your photographic background influenced your commercial work?
I feel I make things look real but with a quirky twist. 'Heightened reality' is what some people have called my style. I like that and that's also what I'm doing with the movie. It's very real, but it doesn't have to be like dogme - handheld, just photo-journalistic style.

How about highlights of this year for you?
There hasn't really been anything this year [in 2008]. Guinness was the last exciting thing I did and it sounds strange as it was quite a while ago. Then there have been some small, small projects: a Super Bowl spot for Coke, a Monster.com thing. [They were] smaller jobs but also fun. I love the big things like Guinness and Sony ["Balls" for Bravia].

It's funny how you call Coca-Cola and Monster.com little jobs...
(Laughs) Yes, for me they were smaller projects. I read this interview with the guy from Coca-Cola; he said ["It's Mine"] was one of the biggest ads they've ever done.

What do you like about the big jobs?
The challenge. I like the massive scale and [creating] something original. I enjoy the research, the collaboration and working on something for a much longer time.

How was working on the Guinness spot?
I think it's the last thing I did that was a seriously big creative challenge for me. I was out on location for over a month. I did a lot of shooting, I had a giant crew; it was like doing a mini-movie. And we had the budget of a mini-movie too, although it pisses me off that people say it was a $20 million job. It absolutely did not [cost that much], we had one million pounds. I'm so happy I won the DGA award, because that's a filmmakers' award. I was very happy that they at last acknowledged that job for its directorial achievement and its craft.

What was the DGA win like?
I told David Zander not to send anything in. Even though I had the Guinness, the JCPenney and the Motorola [spots] I said, "No, I don't want to send them in. I don't feel like it's my year and I'm very focused on my movie." Then the bastard (laughs), sent them in anyway, called me and said, "Nicolai, you're nominated and you're up against the usual suspects, Frank, Fredrik, Noam and Dante." Suddenly I came and won; that was nice, it was a complete surprise.

For Nicolai Fuglsig, this is the year of...?
This is the year of the next step for me. This is one of the most important things I'm doing in my life because I'm trying to lay down the foundations for what I'm going to do for the next 40 years. It's a big transition point. But without commercials, what I've done there and will continue to do, I wouldn't be able to do what I'm venturing into now. The next step is also where I have been before for sure.

INFORMATION
Production affiliations: Repped worldwide for commercials by MJZ, except in Germany and Scandinavia where he's repped by Nobody in Copenhagen.

Nobody http://www.nobodycph.com