FREE THE BID is an Initiative guaranteeing women directors an equal opportunity to bid on commercial jobs in the advertising world. Less than 7% of directors are women, and less than 3% of creative directors at ad agencies are women. These numbers are hard to swallow for 50% of the [...]
The best artistic collaborations allow each participant to plumb new depths, symbiotically uncovering new facets of each other’s work. Partizan director Allie Avital has created a body of work with musician Moses Sumney that is an example of just such a collaborative effort – through her lens, Allie provides Moses’s [...]
Ok, we might be a teensy bit biased, but in our humble opinion, women directors have been slaying the game all throughout the first three months of this year! This quarterly round-up, along with our weekly interviews and daily social media updates, is our way of shining a bright spotlight on the [...]
Director Savanah Leaf, newly added to the Free The Bid database, shared her thoughts on her short film, “The Ayes Have It,” a beautiful and blistering visual interpretation of a poem of the same name by Tiana Clark. Both the poem and film meditate on the connections across time between Trayvon [...]
In the music video for creative polymath Janelle Monae‘s PYNK, Dutch director Emma Westenberg conjures up a candy-colored hyper-femme desert wonderland (or Wondaland?) for Monae and actress Tessa Thompson to revel in. At the time of post, the video has racked up an impressive nearly 3 million views. PYNK, the [...]
Director Maya Albanese shared the story behind her visceral PSA for NOMORE.ORG, starring boxer Melissa St. Vil. Through Maya’s lens, Melissa is able to rewrite her narrative of victimhood, showcasing her power & resilience instead. “Last summer, I picked up boxing and noticed everyone around me boxing [...]
Director Natalie Rae, signed to Sanctuary Content, recently shot two music videos for artist Leon Bridges: “Bet Ain’t Worth The Hand,” and “Bad, Bad News,” which features electric performances from both Bridges and model Paloma Elsesser. “Bet Ain’t Worth the Hand,” is about the human desire to connect to each other [...]
When looking for top filmmakers, CG artists, and motion graphics designers to create a personal piece of work using the iMac Pro (with no limitations on their creativity), Apple sought the talents of Erin Sarofsky (founder of production company Sarofsky) and Michelle Dougherty (signed to Imaginary Forces). Each created a [...]
When tasked with portraying singer Paloma Faith‘s rise to success for Skoda‘s “Driven By Something Different” campaign, Park Pictures director Georgia Hudson wove together a nostalgia-tinged look back at Paloma’s determination in the face of adversity. The branded music video for Paloma’s cover of “Make Your Own Kind Of Music,” [...]
A CG ice-man morphing into the form of a speed skater, zooming along the track in Under Armour’s latest gear? The ice-man cometh, indeed. Director Haley Geffen, signed to Bodega, tackled Under Armour’s VFX-heavy concept, along with co-director and creator Meg Oepen, showcasing the Under Armour suits for the 2018 [...]
March 8th marked International Women’s Day, celebrating the achievements of women worldwide and amplifying the continued need to push for women’s rights throughout all industries and freedoms within all societies. For us at Free The Bid, every day is International Women’s Day. We’re a global initiative working tirelessly to create [...]
One of the most widely-discussed brand celebrations of International Women’s Day 2018 was McDonald’s turning their arches upside down, changing the “M” of their logo to a “W,” in symbolic homage to the power of women everywhere. “We recognize the extraordinary contribution of women,” the brand’s official statement reads. “From [...]
Tokyo, known for being a city where lines are blurred between what’s virtual and what’s physical, is the perfect setting for Azsa West & Valentine Freeman‘s music video for The Ruby Suns “The Zipper,” a color-drenched celebration of queer identity awakenings. Two Tokyo-dwelling teenagers begin personal explorations into gender expression [...]
Although Free The Bid’s initial focus was advocacy for women directors in advertising (as an intervention specifically into the triple-bid system), our mission has expanded outward in every direction since our launch in September 2016. The scores of talented global women directors in our database are busy making their marks [...]
What do Upper East Side Ladies, Midnight Cowboys, voguers and riot grrrls have in common? They’re all essential components of New York City’s style tapestry, rounded up onto one packed subway car and captured by Radical Media director Agostina Galvez for i-D magazine and Coach’s “A-Z of New York Style”. [...]