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Eight’s burgeoning directors are stars in the making

Australasian production company Eight’s newest directing talent are once again in the spotlight after receiving four new talent nominations across two award shows. 

Having arrived at Eight with a few music videos and a couple of beauty ads, Australian director Courtney Brookes has been shortlisted for New Director of the Year for this year’s Shots Awards and the New Talent Award for CICLOPE Asia for her Bumble campaign ‘Girls Will Be Girls’. These latest nominations are in addition to nominations for Best Direction and Best Production Design at both AWARD Awards and CAANZ Axis.

On ‘Girls Will Be Girls’, Brookes says: “Every part of the process was as fun and colourful as the final film and it is a delicious cherry on top to have this work recognised by AWARD. Big shout outs to the judges, my incredible team at Eight who are always charging forward with me no matter how bold the idea, and my insanely talented team of collaborators and friends who made this project authentic, a bit cheeky, and unashamedly female.”

Eight’s most recent recruit TOURIST (Director Mitch Green and DP Louis English), has also been shortlisted twice in this year’s CICLOPE Asia New Talent category for the BMW campaign ‘Make Life A Ride’ and the Crust Pizza campaign ‘It’s Not Pizza’. 

Similarly, young gun Director Jay Topping’s star is rising exponentially. His Jimmy Brings campaign was featured in Campaign Brief’s The Work, helping Eight take out equal 2nd Production Company of the Year. 

And after joining Eight with just a short film on his reel, Kiwi director Jamie Lawrence is now representing Eight on the world stage, having directed the coveted Air New Zealand campaign ‘Reasons to Fly’, and then jumping straight into directing the latest Lotto New Zealand campaign.

Jamie Lawrence

Executive Producers and Eight owners Katie Millington and Lib Kelly say: “Unearthing and nurturing new talent is what we’re good at and what we enjoy most. It’s a tough slog and a serious investment, but it’s undoubtedly the most rewarding part of the job to see the industry catch on and to watch new directors bask in the hard-earned limelight. 

“It’s easy to spot the ones who will undoubtedly bring something fresh and brilliant, but it’s tough to predict whether the ever-changing advertising industry will embrace them or not and for that reason it’s always a gamble.”

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