Trans-Atlantic production house Eleanor Films has bolstered its offer with a series of signings demonstrating founder Sophie Gold's determination to provide an ever greater line-up to agencies and clients alike.

Eleanor Films has strengthened its offer with a series of eye-catching signings and, during a memorable catch-up with DAVID in Cannes, company president Sophie Gold reported that this raft of new talent is already paying dividends as her company is involved in more conversations and participating in more pitches than ever before.

Not only that, she tells us that another notable signing is on the way! In the meantime though, let's take a look at the new collection of directors who have begun plying their trade under the Eleanor banner.

First, we point our spotlight at Berro - a Brazilian duo who offer further proof, as if it was needed, that the South American country is the world's most creative nexus of talent. João Bessa and Roberto Peccioli are described by Eleanor's entertaining announcement as pulsing with energy in a series of metaphors that makes it clear their talent is high voltage.

Berro

We can see that for ourselves in this terrific Brazilian spot from 2024 which elevates a script that could easily have become a humdrum ad into an eye-catching bonanza of kinetic fizz. We would say that it is typical of their oeuvre, but identifying the opportunities provided by scripts is not so much an oeuvre as as evidence of a broad skill set.

Next up is another boy from Brazil, Kayhan Lannes Özmen. As the astute reader will deduce from his name, Özmen is half Turkish and has spent much of his life travelling between Brazil, the USA and the UK, giving him, in the words of Eleanor, "a life of cultural movement that gave his work its particular sense of distance and intimacy."

Kayhan Lannes Özmen

This dynamic commercial for Undo– a sportswear brand – illustrates this claim perfectly, as it contains a potpourri of different film techniques that aggregate into an intriguing whole. There is a clear sense that he is, like the president of the company whose roster he has just joined, fully in charge of his domain, as he sprinkles all kinds of cultural influences throughout his work.

Sydney-based Will&Sej are another directorial pairing who've caught Sophie Gold's curatorial eye and her company's announcement describes them as a duo "whose work bends genre with uncommon precision, turning familiar cinematic languages into strange, funny, and unmistakably authored commercial storytelling."

The release continues with this lyrical description of their work: "The films may be grotesque, tactile, surreal, or wildly funny, but they never feel random. There is structure beneath the mess. A logic beneath the escalation. A cinematic intelligence guiding every disgusting reveal, awkward pause, strange prop, and visual punchline."

Will&Sej

This short but sweet ad for eBay offers a distillation of the controlled chaos which that eloquent passage refers to. It captures a great deal in just 15", arguably the most important length in modern advertising, and it captivates in just two seconds which is a vital accomplishment in an era of such fragile attention.

Finally, for now, we get to Sarah McColgan, an LA-based filmmaker and photographer who first caught Sophie Gold's attention when she worked as a cinematographer on an Eleanor project. We learn from the announcement of her arrival that McColgan "makes beauty misbehave", another phrase loaded with pleasingly ambiguous meaning.

Sarah McColgan

This ad for Apple Music is largely a rendition of 'Heartbreak Anniversary' by Giveon, but it enables McColgan to showcase her skills as she incorporates Apple's familiar production design while sustaining the integrity of the performance, something that ultimately works in the brand's favour.

This quartet of signings demonstrates a bullishness at Eleanor which in turn demonstrates Sophie Gold's optimism of a bright future, and that is something that's in short supply at the moment, so we applaud her chutzpah and look forward to learning whom her next signing will be... her hints suggest another badass signing.

To learn more about Eleanor and their new signings (and existing roster)... visit their website where you'll also find contact details.