Anthony Atanasio + Valerie Martinez are a husband-and-wife directing team known for their refined and innovative approach to commercial filmmaking. Over the past decade, they have created visually striking campaigns for some of the world’s most recognized brands, including Levi’s, Diesel, Etihad, Audi, Hermès, Nike, and Nintendo, featuring talent such as Nicole Kidman, Chris Hemsworth and Ken Watanabe. 


With a strong foundation both in camera and post production techniques, their work is often praised for its technical precision and creative depth. Critics have noted their ability to 

"quietly push the technical boundaries of advertising

," delivering commercials that balance technical mastery with thoughtful storytelling.

Across their broad range of projects, Atanasio + Martinez’s consistent focus on narrative structure, visual composition, and atmosphere sets their work apart. 

As they move into a new phase of their career, the duo is expanding into feature films and series, bringing the same attention to detail and fresh perspective to longer-form storytelling. Whether in commercials or their new ventures, Atanasio + Martinez continue to approach each project with quiet confidence, always focused on creating memorable, elegant and visually compelling work.

Atanasio + Martinez

From globe-spanning campaigns to high-octane genre sequences, his reel includes award-winning films and commercials 

, Amazon, BMW Rocket League, Mercedes, Cadillac, Panasonic, Aldi, Blackmagic, and animated sequences for Marvel's 'Ant Man'. Whether it’s fire, fights, or full-blown chase scenes, Benjamin knows how to bring it all together, fast-paced, high-stakes, and always cinematic. 

Benjamin is a filmmaker with a sharp eye for cinematic detail and thrives at the intersection of technology, storytelling and stunts. Influenced by video games, Hollywood blockbusters, and comic book worlds, his work reimagines reality through the lens of heroes, action, and myth.

Having previously worked as a VFX supervisor, Benjamin creates playful fantastical worlds with a lot of heart and a sense of play. His signature? Epic visuals, dynamic camera moves, and lighting that hits just right. His background in parkour and stunts gives him a kinetic sense of motion and physicality that carries through every shot.

Benjamin Kratzin

Bertil Nilsson is an award winning London-based photographer and filmmaker known for his work with movement and nature.

Having shot for Barbican, Erased Tapes Records, Nowness and Giorgio Armani, Bertil first started photographing circus artists and world-class talents in dance, leading to several printed publications and commissions. 

Bertil's long-standing personal series 'Figures' is Directors Notes and Vimeo Staff Picked series of portrait films, often from the world of ballet, dance and the circus. 

'Naturally' - Bertil’s deeply personal second book - is the result of three years of adventures into the wild, creating spontaneous and expressive scenes for his collaborators to perform in.

Bertil excels with his beautifully honest approach to filmmaking, his intellectually curious spirit, and his bloody-minded pursuit of telling stories, even if it means climbing to the top of mountains to do so.

His recent fantastic short REPAIR premiered in the international competition at Clermont-Ferrand earlier this year where it was  nominated for the Best Queer Short award. It was selected for BFI Flare, London Short Film Festival and Outfest LA. Alongside his  shorts he is currently  developing original films and series. 

Bertil Nilsson

Brian Vincent Rhodes is a Detroit artist turned filmmaker, excelled as a fine artist before venturing into engineering and industrial design for companies like Chrysler, NASA, and Apple. His filmmaking journey began after winning a competition at Apple, leading him to USC’s School of Cinematic Arts. Rhodes garnered international recognition as a BAFTA finalist for his groundbreaking film 

and, more recently, as the lead storyboard artist on the upcoming Netflix/MACRO feature, 

. He is storyboarding an upcoming live-action feature film and directing animated commercials.

Brian Vincent Rhodes

Christopher is a film director working across advertising, music videos, fashion films, experimental and long form projects.

His multidisciplinary approach sees him comfortably and successfully navigating various different genres, from comedic to dramatic and conceptual works. Each project is approached with a unique style and craft drawn from the concept. An instinctive eye for emotive and realistic performances and detailed cinematic visuals result in timeless and memorable work.

Notable works include the internationally acclaimed music video for Cut Copy’s ‘Free Your Mind’ which stars Alexander Skarsgard as a reluctant cult leader, a short film ‘The Dinner’ for Dress Up fashion label which was nominated in the Berlin Fashion Film awards, his well loved music video homage campaign for Aldi ‘Fresh’, an experiential event and film exploring sensory deprivation for Lynx ‘Pitch Black’, and his infamous Cannes young director award winning viral spot for ford staring a pair of talking cane toads who get high on their own supply. An ad that apparently even Jonah Hill thought was hilarious.

Recently his work for Xero, Specsavers and BWS again showcase his ability to easily slide between various styles and techniques from heavy VFX and design to traditional visual narrative. Alongside commercials, Chris is currently developing original features projects. 

Christopher Hill

Deepsheep is the moniker of Parisian animator, motion designer and illustrator Alice Bibette, whose skills are channeled through beautiful & poetic concepts across branded content, online videos and animated sequences in TV and film documentaries.

Previous clients include Al Jazeera, Cambridge University, Tate Britain, Elephant, Konbini, Nucco, United State Institute of Peace and Sotheby’s. Deep Sheep is highly collaborative, technically minded and original animation director with an illustrative design sense across short form, with a keen interest in building her long form and documentary animation in tandem. 

In her own words: "I just really like to draw and I like my drawings to move”.

Deepsheep 

Female filmmaker duo integrating cinematic moments and visual storytelling and strong VFX leanings. This is the work of Valentina Bertani + Federica Intelisano; the eclectic and bold artists known together as Dirk + Diggler. Valentina’s deftness behind the camera and Federica’s vast post production prowess resonate throughout every project of their multi-genre body of work.

Having started in music videos before joining forces and taking the plunge together into commercials and fashion films for the likes of Gucci, Zalando, Adidas, Samsung, Pirelli, Audi, Unicef, Müller, Bvlgari, Kartell, Heineken, Valentino and more. 


In 2016 Valentina directed the 2nd unit of the feature film “Tini: the new life of Violetta”, an international Disney production. She also shot a documentary starring the singer Luciano Ligabue for Fox Channel that tells the story behind one of his records. 

Her feature film debut “The crown shyness”, premiered at the 79th Venice film festival and is now available in the UK on BBC iplayer. 

Federica Intelisano is a Director, Editor and Creative VFX Artist with an eye for blurring the lines between genres. She works between LA, NYC and Milan where she leads her post- production Studio along side directing. Working mostly in commercials, she also creates video art, short movies, documentaries and fashion films. Her commercial work includes brands such as Nike, Versace, Valentino, Instagram, Gatorade, ESPN, Hugo Boss, Prada, Armani, TOD’s and more. 
Her work has been screened at over 50 festivals worldwide including Los Angeles FFF, Aesthetica Short Film Festival, Chicago FFF, and she won the gold award for best editing at Ciclope Film Festival. Federica spent time on the team of the International Filmmaking Academy where she had the opportunity to improve her style and expertise working with Oscar Award-Winning Directors such as Francis Ford Coppola, Bèla Tarr, Jane Campion and Cristian Mungiu.

Dirk + Diggler

An award-winning live-action and animation director, Effie's work manages to capture lightness, charm and humour no matter the genre or technique. Traditionally a stop-frame animator, the levity Effie brings to her story is seen time and time again across in her commercials, music videos and short films, which have been published in the likes of Rolling Stone Magazine, BFI Showcase, Short of the Week, ABC and The Fader.

Effie's talents were brought into direct six episodes of the online comedy series All In a Day's Work S2 for Mailchimp and It's Nice That. 


Effie helped celebrate the fifty-year anniversary of Yusuf / Cat Steven's seminal album ‘Tea for the Tillerman', by directing the music video of a reimagined version of Wild World. Drawing inspiration from the 1942 classic movie Casablanca, and with a child-only cast, Effie takes us into a dreamy 1940s world, as Yusuf’s stunning rendition of his own 1970s track guides our thoughts towards hope and the belief in better.

Other stand-out films from Effie's reel include “The Little Elephant” by George Hadjipieris, Athens Concert Hall 'Paddington Bear’ and her works for 'Laughing Cow' and 'McDonalds', which are full to the brim with care, craft and charm.

Effie is currently developing feature and series projects in animation and live action with A.R.C. 

Effie Pappa

With vast experience shooting high profile campaigns across the world, Eli Sverdlov is a director who is widely respected for his unique and original style. Often bringing a sense of magic and playfulness to his work, Eli is highly skilled at telling stories of a fantastical nature with post-production integration. 

Amongst his most recent work include brand films and commercials for Huawei, LV=, Duracell, Pelephone, Jim Beam, Coca-Cola, collaborating with the likes of Gal Gadot and Mila Kunis. His wide and diverse body of work also includes films for Fiat, Subaru, Mitsubishi, Orange, Huggies and many other International brands.

Eli is known for his unique visual world-building and collaborative work ethic, alongside a strong grasp of post-production that allows him to excel across multiple genres of storytelling. 

Eli Sverdlov

A Running Commentary is thrilled to announce our collaboration with Eric Lynne, who is set to direct his debut feature 'Lush Epic' alongside A.R.C, with screenplay locked and key talent attached to the 75-minute/16mm project.

Eric joined up with A.R.C in the winter of 2024/25 and the partnership immediately gave rise to 'Always Get Back Up' for Lenovo Legion, an expressionistic smashfest set to Keralan rapper Hanumankind's 'Big Dawgs'.

He has delivered some of the most iconic advertising moments of recent years through his ability to draw out characterful and alive performances in projects of superb craft and singular rhythm. From the vfx-flush to the deftly comic, his work has won multiple gold and silver Cannes Lions and D&AD pencils—plus top prizes at Arrows, Clios, One Show, Creative Circle and many other major festivals.

He has shot for brands including VW, Heineken, MTV, Ikea, Viagra, Baileys, and Citroën, as well as iconic Xmas ads for Harvey Nichols and John Lewis. The Guardian wrote of the latter in 2022: 'This was the first true John Lewis Christmas ad and the one that every subsequent campaign has cribbed from'. AdAge wrote that Eric has 'honed a fine-tuned reel that displays a thoughtful balance of carefully-conducted comedic nuance, photography and art direction'. 

Eric's first short film Neighbor screened in hundreds of cinemas across the UK, playing before features including There Will Be Blood and No Country for Old Men. The Guardian called the short 'hilarious'. Writing about Neighbor in The Times, cinema legend Ken Russell blessed it as 'really witty'. Neighbor won Eric the D&AD award for best new director. 

His second short film Rob and Valentyna in Scotland was awarded at the Sundance Film Festival and played in MoMA and Lincoln Center's prestigious series New Directors/New Films. It won a BAFTA/LA award. IndieWire called the film 'terrific' and 'delicious' and The Boston Globe wrote that 'Lynne creates a lovely symphony of sideways glances and things unsaid...as resonant as a good short story'.

Eric has a 35mm photography project (25 rolls, 45 months) forthcoming and makes lo-fi psych rock music videos under a pseudonym. He was born in New York City and lives in France.

Eric Lynne

Jack Bowden is a London-based director who is well known for bringing a fresh and highly visual angle on his films. Ranging from lifestyle commercials, to product films, fashion films to music videos, his work is always fresh and bold, colourful and dynamic with engaging and fun camera choreography.

Recently Jack has directed films for clients such as Sohonet, Primark, New Look, Nike, Missguided, Boohoo and music videos for artists including Alewya, Ama Lou, Sam Tompkins, Tender, Bassette, A-L-X and Florrie.

Jack Bowden

Revered documentary features and series director Jesse Vile joins A.R.C for commercials representation.

Jesse Vile is a director known for his emotionally resonant storytelling, strong visual language, and cinematic precision. With a long established background in documentary filmmaking, his work has premiered at BFI London, Hot Docs, and DOC NYC, earning praise for its craft, empathy, and immersive quality.

His acclaimed films include the award winning 

, a moving portrait of the virtuoso guitarist battling ALS; 

, part of ESPN’s Emmy-winning 30 for 30 series; and 

, a global hit for Netflix. Other highlights include 

 (ID Films). Most recently, he directed 

, a Netflix original series executive produced by Guy Ritchie and Simon Chinn, which debuted at #1 on the platform in 2025.

Over the past two decades, Jesse has worked with major global platforms including Netflix, Amazon Studios, Discovery+, ESPN Films, and ID, and collaborated with talent such as Guy Ritchie, Simon Chinn, and Doug Liman.

Now joining A Running Commentary, Jesse brings this experience to commercial and branded storytelling. Whether crafting nuanced portraits or visually-driven campaigns, he approaches each project with curiosity, clarity, and a commitment to emotional truth.

As he expands into the world of advertising, Jesse continues to bridge the gap between narrative authenticity and brand storytelling, delivering work that is polished, powerful, and grounded in real feeling.

Jesse Vile

A highly technical shooter with a post-savvy approach, Julien is a visual stylist with bold cinematics having directed and photographed across sports, automotive, fashion and celebrity brands. 

Shooting all across the world, Julien has recently shot for the likes of Mercedes Benz, Peugeot, Issey Miyake, Thierry Mugler, BMW, Asics, Levi’s, ATP World Tour, L’Agent, Azzaro, Europebet and CR7 Denim.

Julien's photographic background broadens his nous to find exciting visuals no matter the job, whether working with underground electronic musicians, world number one Novak Djokovic or A-list Spanish actor Alex Brendemuhl.

Julien lives in Barcelona, travelling the world on commercials, and is in post-production on his second short film - the sci-fi drama 'To The Lights'.

Julien Zenier

Kirk Hendry is a BAFTA nominated New Zealand-born, London-based filmmaker. He works in both live-action and animation, and his style is as diverse as it is unique. In the early days of his career, having worked as the lighting director and lead compositor for BAFTA winning and Oscar nominated director Sylvain Chomet, his keen eye for design, clever techniques and mind for story became evident. 

Kirk’s debut feature film, Kensuke’s Kingdom, which he co-directed with Neil Boyle, is based on the classic book of the same name by acclaimed author Sir Michael Morpurgo, was released in cinemas internationally, after its premiere at the prestigious Annecy Animation Film Festival. You can now find it on Apple TV.


Kirk has directed commercials for the likes of ITV, WWF, Ardbeg Whiskey, and the Guardian, in addition to his work in music videos, which gained him a MTV award nomination for Music Video of the Year. Kirk’s animated film ‘Junk’, which he wrote and directed, screened at over 150 film festivals and gained multiple awards and nominations including BAA, BIFA, Soho Shorts and Creative Circle. The film followed on from his short ‘Round’, produced alongside for the BBC Electric Proms and was screened at over 40 festivals.

Kirk Hendry

Filmmaker and photographer Liswaya directs and shoots highly visual projects across lifestyle, sports, fashion, music videos, documentaries, pivoting between real-life stories and tales on the margin of dreams.

An accomplished Art Director, Liswaya worked for several years on major commercial pitches for brands including luxury houses Dior & Louis Vuitton with A-list directors such as Jonathan Glazer, Anne Fontaine and Oliver Hadlee Pearch.

Liswaya’s recent collaborations include a global campaign for GSK, Deezer, Viktor Solf, Chilla, Virtuo and Her. Closely working with artist Her, their collaboration led to several visually striking music videos, after which came a carefully crafted commercial for Cartier as well as an energetic lifestyle piece for startup car company Virtuo.

Liswaya

Louis is a director and video artist who combined human stories, polished cinematic visuals, VFX and evocative use of audio across his work. A keen musician, you’ll see Louis' appreciation of music, sound design and rhythm to keep his polished, epic visuals ticking and turning onwards.

Having started life as a visual artist, before quickly emerging in the commercial world, Louis has applied his signature style to fashion and design brands such as Diesel, Dolce & Gabbana, Carrera, Kartell - - and motoring brands such as Lamborghini, Alfa Romeo, Yamaha, Honda and Chrysler.


Winner of the Epica d'Or at Epica Awards with the short film for Diesel "Explorers of the Past and Future", the style and aesthetic Louis are characterised by a fusion between visual art, music, animated movie, with stylistic traces distilled from art films, but also as a live action style.

Alongside shooting commercials around the world, Louis is currently writing and developing feature film projects.

Louis Sebastian Pane

 Rubin is a director known for crafting emotionally charged stories that are visually distinctive. 

As a triplet in a family of seven, he’s always been drawn to close relationships and more specifically, stories about love. Across all formats, he just wants to lead audiences into visceral worlds and move them with his characteristic ‘Gritty Sheen’ style that lures the viewer in.

Magellan’s recognitions are all the more impressive for a young director with a massive ceiling. He spent his formative years in Boulder, Colorado, but currently resides in Hollywood and has helmed music videos for major artists such as G-Eazy and commercials for leading brands like Mercedes-Benz and Nike.

Magellan's appreciation for detail and his keen sense of narrative propulsion in imaginative worlds and experimental techniques means he will continue to challenge the limits of storytelling.

Magellan

NoCowboy's are comprised of London-based filmmakers Jody Elizabeth Nolan and Betty Cutting. 

Jody's a Queer, rugby playing, Air-force kid, Uni Drop-out who got into film following a short corporate career in a suit. She made her first (very experimental) short film in Berlin and was delighted to see it accepted at festivals. Some music and fashion films followed before winning a place to workshop and direct a feature film concept in collaboration with the Irish Film Board in Dublin. Here she had a crash-course in actor directing. Jody is one of the founding members of AJCollective and has worked creatively with the industry's most prestigious directors, production companies and agencies for over 9 years.

Betty studied Advertising then worked her way up from being a Runner (at RSA Films) to Set Designer; along the way working with brands such as Google, Burberry, Apple & Nike. Betty then started putting her Graphic Design skills to good use at treatment-design-house AJ Collective where she met Jody. On the side, Betty began shooting short films for youth organisations such as Football Beyond Borders and London Youth and after a few too many mezcals and cheese toasties Jody & Betty decided their interests aligned, and thus was the birth of NoCowboys.

NoCowboys

Troy Quane is a Canadian-American veteran of the Hollywood animation industry known for directing major studio pictures including Spies in Disguise, starring Will Smith, and most recently the Netflix animation film Nimona based on the award winning graphic novel of the same name by ND Stevenson. 

Having originally cut his teeth animating commercials, before emerging as a feature film director, Quane is now excited at the prospect to bring his knack for character-led animated comedy, fantasy and adventure narratives and Hollywood polish back to his roots working in commercials and short form branded content. 

Troy Quane

Volstok is the creative animation studio that molds emotion into character. Led by Wouter Sel and Johanna Keppens, they shape versatile, offbeat, and striking visual worlds, with their work creating memorable ideas and transforming them into moving pictures.

With a hyper talented team of animators, motion designers, developers and illustrators, Volstok creates exceptional content for adventurous brands in all sorts of visual media. From animation to mixed media, gaming content, video mapping or creative code, Volstok knows the building blocks of allround visual communication. 

Animation allows artistic ideas to develop to their fullest, it speaks to the imagination and it opens opportunities to create unique and remarkable content. Their passion is to create something out of nothing, visualise the imaginary, the impossible. Voltok’s profound love for character animation and the ambition to make an immediate and deep connection with their audience.

Notable recent brands include: Mitsubishi, Philips, Coca Cola and Mercedes.

Volstok

Welcome to the world of Youth Hymns - a video directorial, visual & music-making collective.


Stepping into their super-saturated, pop-surrealist world, the dizzying technical prowess of this three headed beast is something to behold. Jake, Johnny and Jolyon’s unique and memorable flair reaches to branded series (Junk Rock TV), commercials, music videos, shorts, album covers, live music movie nights and work featured in the V&A. They are currently developing original animated and live action series and feature films. 

Youth Hymns' arresting visual style lends itself to everything from up-and-coming indie artists to collaborations with the Heinz, Department for Transport, Sainsbury’s, Nike and Snoop Dogg. Outside of directing, Jolyon Thomas is a prominent record producer for the likes of Slaves, Royal Blood, M83 and even U2 - and is now performing in the band Larry Pink The Human.

A diverse collective in their own right, this multi-talented group can handle production, post-production, sound design, original music, and consistently deliver on some of the most standout sights in town. 