Dec 5, 2024
What’s the best brand funded film of 2024? Well, you could check out things like TribecaX, or my fave, the BrandStorytelling Awards, which honor the best work of the year. But guess what? None of these awards feature the best brand funded film in their line-ups. In fact, the best brand funded film of the year – and it’s not a close contest – will most likely get more love from the Oscars than from any other award, but no one that I know is even talking about the fact that the film is funded by a brand.
My award for best brand funded film of the year goes to Emilia Pérez, the Spanish-language musical directed by Jacques Audiard, and funded/produced by Saint Laurent productions, the production company of Yves Saint Laurent and their creative director, Anthony Vaccarello. It’s a co-production with Why Not Productions, Page 114, Pathé, and France 2 Cinéma, but that doesn’t make it any less of a brand film – in fact, I’d argue that these kinds of co-productions are the best kinds of brand funded cinema, and the future of the field at large.
 The fact that the film is brand funded isn’t hidden. You can find info about this on the YSL website, theWikipedia page for the film, and in the credits, and it was mentioned when it premiered at Cannes. And most (all?) of the fashion worn in the film is from YSL. It’s not subtle, and the costumes and how they change are central to the evolution of the story and the characters (read about it in WWD here). But aside from some mentions in fashion publications, I haven’t found many articles or reviews that mention this fact. I didn’t even know about this until a friend (h/t Kim Brizzolara) told me earlier this week.
This reminds me of last year’s best brand funded film - Perfect Days by Wim Wenders. What? You might ask. Yep, that was funded by the Tokyo Toilet Project which is funded by Toto, along with Fast Retailing, which is the owner of Uniqlo. Koji Yanai, who is the son of the founder of Fast Retailing and a senior executive there came up with the idea of putting amazing toilets all around Tokyo for the Olympics. But when those were hit by the Covid pandemic, he needed another way to get the word out about Tokyo’s amazing toilets, and he called up an executive at Dentsu, the major ad agency, who suggested they make a film. He gave a list of major directors to Yanai, and it happened that Yanai had been a fan of Paris, Texas so they invited Wim Wenders to take a look, and that’s how we ended up with a great, Cannes-premiering, Oscar-nominated brand funded film about public toilets. You can read about that in the NYT here. Again, one where the brand is featured in unique ways you won’t forget, but people barely know that a brand was involved with the production.
 That might sound counterintuitive. Why would a brand be okay with being less prominent? Well, several reasons. First, there’s the obvious/easy part about being involved with a premium project and getting to walk the red carpet, show off to your friends, and be “in the mix” with the cultural zeitgeist. And it doesn’t hurt for employee recruitment and retention – it feels good to work at a place that supports quality artwork. But there’s more than that. While the branding might be subtle, it’s super smart. The fans know about your involvement, and not being heavy-handed about it is much cooler to those fans than being too obvious. Trust me, people who care about fashion recognize Vaccarello’s work, and the vintage styles being shown. That’s how you build a “cult” brand – by giving subtle nudges to your core audience. Those in-the-know, know. And they appreciate it.
But it’s not so subtle that the casual fan won’t notice it, or that even a “regular Jane” won’t notice it and pay attention either. You can’t watch Perfect Days and not wish for better public toilets, especially if you live in a toilet-hell, like NYC. And once you figure out the magic of a Toto toilet, trust me, you’ll want one (convert here). And each of these brands probably got more earned media from being associated with these projects than anything else they did that year – and that press wasn’t in the usual places. It’s not often that the Arts Section of the NYT is writing about toilets, or the Fast Retailing company.
In the case of YSL, they’re also hitting another core audience – lovers of high culture, which is part of their brand identity. And they’re now known for supporting auteurs – this same program has made films with Pedro Almodovar (my vote for worst brand film of 2023/4 was his Strange Way of Life, but I had to see it anyway), David Cronenberg, Paolo Sorrentino, Jean-Luc Godard, Gaspar Noé, Abel Ferrara, and others – all great company (albeit all men, whassup with that??). Supporting great artists is also a great strategy.
That’s a strategy our client, WeTransfer, is using with WePresent. They support not just great directors, but also great artists of all types. They supported Riz Ahmed and Aneil Karia for their film The Long Goodbye, which not only doesn’t feel like any brand film (it tackles immigration, racism, killings…), but also won the Oscar for Best Live Action Short in 2022. This year, they have The Brown Dog by Nadia Hallgren and Jamie-James Medina as well, which is also in the Oscar screening room now (ahem, voters).
Or look at Indeed (another client, we choose well), who are going into their fifth season of their Rising Voices program which supports emerging, diverse artists making creative fiction shorts. They don’t just give them money, but also pair them with Lena Waithe and her company Hillman Grad Productions and 271 Films, to help make sure the films are excellent. And oh, guess what, a few of those films are also qualified for Oscar consideration, too. (BTW, if you are in LA and want invites to see The Brown Dog this Friday night, or one of the Indeed shorts on the 16th, DM me for details). That’s also the case for Emilia Pérez, which is in the running for 4-6 Oscar categories now. Fun fact about Indeed - they just had their 20th Anniversary, and this program is so important to them that they mentioned it as one of their three signature programs in their press release about their anniversary. That seems like proof of the importance and impact of brand storytelling to me.
At a time when it’s getting harder to find support for quality filmmaking, it’s both disconcerting and awesome that brands are the ones stepping up to support great filmmakers, taking risks and making cool work. Disconcerting because supporting great work shouldn’t be left to brands alone. But awesome because it’s not just helping great filmmakers to make films (established and emerging), but their marketing support is also helping them to be seen, which is tough in an attention economy. It’s also awesome because it’s the future of film (it’s also its past, as this isn’t new, but that’s another post). This hybrid funding, where it’s a mix of traditional film funders and brands, is something we’ve been assisting our clients with for a while now (see REI Co-Op Studios, for example), and the trend is catching on in a big way. So, perhaps all of these brand awards should take notice of this trend as well and invite some truly great films to their awards – if they’re good enough for Cannes and the Oscars, they should be good enough for brand awards, too.
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Film
Portrait's Creative Talent List for 2024: Our friends at Portrait Creative Network want to help you keep track of the people behind this year’s best creative work with Portrait's Creative Talent Lists for 2024. You've heard about these docs, features and shows all year. Now learn about the talent behind them. Browse by role, save contacts, and send private messages. Apply now to get full access to the lists. (BN)
17th Hamptons Doc Fest Dec 5-11: I mentioned this last week, but in case you live in the NYC area and missed it - consider attending the Hamptons Doc Fest. As I mentioned last week, I'm headed to the opening weekend, but now I am also moderating the Q&A for the screening of UNION on Friday night. Hope to see you there. - Providing a festive opening to the holiday season, Hamptons Doc Fest celebrates its 17th year with a seven-day festival screening 32 documentary films from December 5-11 in Sag Harbor, both at the Sag Harbor Cinema and the Bay Street Theater. The Pennebaker Career Achievement Award will be given to Michael Moore, and this year’s Impact Award is given to the Ford Foundation’s JustFilms. Find out about the awards and the line-up at the fest's website. (BN)
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The Brown Dog
The Brown Dog on WePresent: Another repeat from last week, but if you haven't seen it yet - please check out The Brown Dog, by directors Nadia Hallgren and Jamie-James Medina and presented by WePresent of WeTransfer (our client). The Brown Dog is an animated short starring the late Michael K. Williams and Steve Buscemi, and it's Executive Produced by Chiwetel Elijofor, Idris Elba, along with Steve Buscemi. My favorite part - aside from working with these great filmmakers - is that the film was scored by one of my favorite musicians, Tyshawn Sorey.
The film premiered at both the American Black Film Festival and Tribeca (same week), and qualified for the Oscar (TM) race for Best Animated Short when it won an award at the great IndyShorts Film Fest (ahem... voters, check it out). After a great festival run and many event screenings, the film launched recently on WePresent for free, and with a great intro essay by Kelefa Sanneh of The New Yorker. While I am clearly biased, I can't recommend this film enough - check it out and please help us spread the word. (BN)
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Image: Shadi Chamany; Orange Blob swimming: Me.
It's been a long time since I featured a "pool of the month" in the newsletter, and when I attended DocNYC, a reader stopped me and asked when I'd be posting the next pool, and also gave me great advice on a pool to try out in California. So, without further ado, here's another one of my favorite pools in the world- Wylie's Baths, in Sydney Australia. This is another one of those crazy awesome pools in Australia that's built right into the side of the Ocean. Like Bondi, which I covered before, it's naturally fed by the salt water streaming in. but this one has an active reef inside the pool. That's right, you swim with the fishes - and a resident Octopus (didn't see them, unfortunately). And a lot of sea urchins, which they warn you to avoid, and the lifeguards go in with buckets every hour to scoop them out and place them back into the ocean.
The waves here crash into the pool at high tide much more seriously than at Bondi - we watched two separate people get swept out of the pool and onto the adjacent rocks, which are quite sharp. They were bloodied up, but rescued by the lifeguards, and were back to swimming soon. At one point, it got too strong for most people to swim, and all but a few swimmers escaped to the pool deck - also carved into the natural stone - or to the surrounding patio above. There's a small entrance fee, but it's open to the public year-round, and worth every penny. You can hang out most of the day, enjoy a few swims, a coin operated warm shower, and a small coffee shop with good food (but no alcohol). It was one of the best swims of my life, and it's a little hard to choose which is better - Bondi or Wylie's, to be honest. I guess I'll have to go back and swim the both a few hundred more times to make that decision. But I did get this great gift from my wife - the artwork posted here - which is an original piece by PopAboutDesign, which is probably a sign of which one was her favorite and her guess at mine.
GSH = Articles written by Sub-Genre's Gabriel Schillinger-Hyman, not Brian Newman (BN)
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