Johnny Walker "Crossroads", directed by Academy Films' Walter Stern.

Academy Films
Academy maintained its rep for A-list visual work in ’09. Walter Stern turned CCTV into cinema for Nike 5 (“Show Time”) and helmed a moody classic, Johnnie Walker “Crossroads”(pictured), while Jonathan Glazer returned to the fold with a menacing video for the Jack White-fronted The Dead Weather. The rest of the roster fared well in a tough year: Kim Gehrig scored varied creative with Sony, Lastminute.com and Amnesty, and newcomer Corin Hardy directed wonderfully deranged videos for Paolo Nutini and The Prodigy, plus a beautiful BBC Poetry Season campaign. Meanwhile, Academy’s year-old branded content division produced a rom-com miniseries for O2 with veteran TV writer/director Gordon Anderson. In ’09 The Glue Society and 300mL joined for UK rep and EP Sally Campbell departed.

www.academyfilms.com

ACNE Film & Digital
Multi-disciplinary Swedish creative outfit ACNE makes its debut appearance on our list thanks to an interesting mix of offbeat commercial work and stylish digital advertising. After a brief partnership with RSA Films in ’08, the 13-year-old company opened an LA office with EP Fran McGivern to increase its profile stateside. Digital highlights from ’09 include the charming Saab Change Perspective campaign (pictured), Doritos’ Crash the Superbowl for Goodby and the 3D-animated The Roar Off challenge for Axe and BBH, London. Meanwhile the film division produced an eclectic mix of wry comedy (Tele2 “Shepherd”), animation (Corn Pops “The Spooning”) and assured visual work (Nike “Ronaldo Fans”).

www.acne.se

Anonymous Content
In a year when bid pools overflowed with A-listers, Anonymous remained on top with its wealth of marquee talents. David Fincher helmed another high-octane epic for Nike (“Alter Ego”), Garth Davis elevated US Cellular with the striking “Shadow Puppets” and “Fish”, and Andrew Douglas directed a series of playfully graphic spots for Sprint’s Now Network. Anonymous also signed hot feature director and Boards favorite Cary Fukunaga, who went on to deliver one of the year’s best with Levi’s “America” (pictured). Oh and how could we forget to namecheck Jake Nava, the man behind Beyoncé’s cultural juggernaut “Single Ladies” – which, according to Kanye, is one of the best videos OF ALL TIME!

www.anonymouscontent.com

B-Reel
Just as traditional companies look toward digital production, so too are digital prodcos making moves into traditional, live-action filmmaking. Partnering with St. Paul Films, the Stockholm- and New York-based company opened B-Reel Films and spent the year expanding its roster and cornering hot digital creative. With Asylum 626 (pictured), B-Reel brought Goodby’s digital horror franchise for Doritos to the live action and social networking realms. They created the live, interactive reality show “Sweden’s Sleepiest Contest” for Ikea and Forsman & Bodenfors, UGC light trails for Talk Talk and CHI & Partners and the Axe Crisis Relief site, where men were judged on their tresses by 100 women.

www.b-reel.com

Biscuit Filmworks USA
What can we say? Agencies love Noam Murro. In 2009, the Biscuit co-founder continued to make his presence felt on both sides of the Atlantic, helming the multi-story Imagine saga for HBO (pictured), VW’s musical “Positive Thinking” and the ridiculous Axe “Maracas”. Aaron Ruell turned his wry eye toward NBC (“House Arrest”, “Onion Chopper” and “Shut In”) while Tim Godsall brought a bizarro touch to VIFF “Sex” and “Subtitles”. Though he didn’t spend much time in the States, Steve Rogers had a banner year in Oz with consistently clever work such as James Boags “Pure Waters”. In October, Biscuit ended a six-year partnership with Independent, leading to speculation that the company will open in London.

www.biscuitfilmworks.com

Blink Productions/Blinkink
In 2009, London-based Blink and its animation arm Blinkink continued to amass a roster of conceptually-minded talent from the music video world, such as Adam Hashemi, Andreas Nilsson and OneInThree. But Blink’s break-out star from ’09 was easily David Wilson, whose inventive mix of traditional animation and live action landed him on our Directors to Watch list. Dougal Wilson added a few quirky commercials to his reel, including the endlessly watchable “Yeah Yeah Yeah La La La” for Coke, COI “Breathe” (pictured) and Heinz “Bottle”. Newcomer Benito Montorio kept tensions high with the slick BBC “Riot” while D.A.D.D.Y. helmed the hilarious British Biscuit Advisory Board campaign for Rocky.

www.blinkprods.com
www.blinkink.co.uk