Los Angeles – Team One and Saatchi & Saatchi LA host the Los Angeles edition of the Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors’ Showcase (NDS) at The Ace Hotel in downtown LA on Wednesday, July 16. The popular event kicked off at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity and will continue on as a global road show in select cities. Screenings in Milan and London occurred in the beginning of July. Future events include the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) in New York on Thursday, July 17, and Shanghai Center Theater on Tuesday, October 21. For more information on the LA Showcase, please visit http://ndsla14.eventbrite.com.

Now in the 24th edition, the annual Saatchi & Saatchi NDS has carved out a reputation for acting as a barometer of who are the hot directors to watch, and provides young talent the opportunity to debut on a global platform through the NDS event in Cannes. Saatchi & Saatchi’s Worldwide Creative Board, of which Team One’s Chief Creative Officer Chris Graves is a member, invites directors from around the world to submit for NDS consideration. The final 2014 selection included 19 films by 18 directors.

This year the reel features a typically eclectic mix of music videos, animated shorts, humor, erotica, surrealism and the grotesque. Directors featured in the 2014 Showcase come from Denmark, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Switzerland, the UK and the US. Alumni from previous installments of the NDS include Spike Jonze, Jonathan Glazer, Tarsem, Michel Gondry and Jason Reitman.

The Los Angeles screening of the 2014 NDS in the Ace Hotel will be introduced by a short film of the live NDS ‘Feel the Reel’ event in Cannes on June 19, 2014. After the screening of the Showcase reel, a panel discussion will follow featuring famed director and NDS alumni Jason Reitman, and three of this year’s NDS director finalists including Tarik Abdel-Gawad with “Box,” and Ian & Cooper with ”Joel Compass ‘Back To Me.’” The discussion will be moderated by Michael Sagol, Executive Producer at Caviar Content. A before-and-after reception will accompany the screening and panel discussion. Please follow along to the LA event with #NDSLA14, and globally with #feelthereel. 

Chris Graves, Chief Creative Officer at Team One and member of Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide Creative Board said, "I love selecting the finalists for The New Directors’ Showcase every year, and now to be able to bring a piece of the Cannes Lions Festival home to LA is an additional honor. I am looking forward to introducing these talented directors to key people from the worlds of advertising, film, media and production." 

The 18 directors and their films are:

Ainslie Henderson: Moving On

Alberto Belli: It’s Not Porn (Accomplice Media, Santa Monica, US)

Alvise Avati: Beans (Cinesite VFX, London, UK)

Donato Sansone: GrotesquePhotobooth (Milkyeyes, Torino, Italy)

Ed Morris: Cybersmile #dontretaliate (Rattling Stick, London, UK)

Emile Sornin: Disclosure ‘Grab Her’ (Division Paris, Paris, France)

Ian & Cooper: Joel Compass ‘Back To Me’ (Prettybird, Culver City, US) 

Josh Cole: Rudimental ‘Not Giving In’ (Stink, London, UK)

Kibwe Tavares: Jonah (Nexus Productions, London, UK) 

Kyra & Constantin: Rollin’ Wild

Simon Bonde & Peder: Ghost of a Smile (Uitch Iscratch, Copenhagen, Denmark) 

Tarik Abdel-Gawad: Box (Bot & Dolly, San Francisco, US)

Tatia Pilieva: First Kiss (Durable Goods, Venice, US) 

The Sacred Egg: Breach ‘Jack’ (Riff Raff Films, London, UK) 

Tripp Crosby: Conference Call in Real Life (Green Tricycle Studios, Cumming, GA, US) 

Truman & Cooper: Kid Wise ‘Hope’ (Colonel Blimp, London, UK)

Us: The Sunday Times ‘Icons’ (Academy Films, London, UK)

Vania Heymann: Bob Dylan ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ (Prettybird, Culver City, US)

Vania Heymann: Walking Contest (Prettybird, Culver City, US)

Directors’ reels are viewable at: http://www.youtube.com/nds

More Information about New Directors’ Showcase:

The Showcase reel was curated by Andy Gulliman, Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide Film and Content Director, who added: “We want to be introduced to a new generation with a fresh approach and attitude. We want to find young talent that can manage a traditional format and stand out from the crowd. We want to give great work great exposure.” 

Saatchi & Saatchi creatives Linda Weitgasser & Alexandra Sattlecker the theme of this year’s NDS - ‘Feel the Reel.’  ‘Feel the Reel’ makes the Showreel the hero of the NDS this year. Weitgasser and Sattlecker partnered with Juliette Larthe of PRETTYBIRD who brought together Studio XO, Marshmallow Laser Feast, and Berlin collective Elektropastete to create the innovative ‘Feel the Reel’ experience in Cannes.  During the Cannes NDS event the audience wore Sensory wristbands developed by Studio XO (Nancy Tilbury and Benjamin Males), which monitored their emotional engagement with the Showreel of Directors, using XOX a new wearable emotional sensor platform from the team at Studio XO. 

The emotional data was captured from the wristbands and projected at the audience through data visualized by Marshmallow Laser Feast (MLF) and Electropastete on screens around the Showreel. PRETTYBIRD’s Juliette Larthe was Executive Producer of the 2014 NDS event in Cannes, and has worked on the event with Saatchi & Saatchi since 2011 when she first introduced MLF to choreograph the live shows in Cannes. MLF have acted as Creative Directors or the NDS Cannes event since 2011. 

The ‘Feel the Reel’ identity and logo were created by Farrow, and the soundscape created specially for the event was composed by Finn McNicholas. The live show in Cannes was co-directed by Studio XO and MLF, with creative direction from Robin McNicholas and Barney Steel of MLF.  MLF computational design was by Raffael Ziegler and Max Mittermeier, with motion graphic artists Ersin Han Ersin and Mike Tombeur. 

Journalists can download photographs of the ‘Feel the Reel’ live event at:  http://www.saatchi-worldwide.com/nds/2014/images

Image credit: Tarik Abdel-Gawad 'Box'