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Henry-Alex Rubin

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Henry-Alex Rubin
Born (1976-09-03) September 3, 1976 (age 48)
Boston, Massachusetts
NationalityAmerican
Alma materColumbia University
Occupation(s)Film director, screenwriter
Years active1996-present
Notable workMurderball
ParentJames H. Rubin

Henry-Alex Rubin is an Academy Award-nominated American filmmaker and Emmy Award-winning commercial director.[1]

Early life and education

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Henry-Alex Rubin grew up in New York City as the son of a French mother and noted art historian James H. Rubin. After grade school in the city, he attended Phillips Academy in Andover for high school, and earned a double major degree in political science and film studies from Columbia University in 1995.[2][3]

Career

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Feature films

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Rubin won initial acclaim with his first feature, a documentary film titled Who is Henry Jaglom? featuring Candice Bergen and Dennis Hopper and released by PBS and First Run Features. The film won the Jury Prize for Best Documentary at the Slamdance Film Festival, the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the New York Avignon Film Festival, and was a finalist at the Dallas Film Festival.[4]

Rubin, who was mentored by James Mangold while at Columbia University, was hired by Mangold to direct the second unit on several films including Cop Land and Girl, Interrupted.[5]

In 2000, Rubin returned to documentaries and produced Freestyle, which won Best Documentary at the Woodstock, LAIFF and Urbanworld Film Festivals. This was followed by him co-directing Murderball with Dana Adam Shapiro. Murderball won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for a Best Documentary Academy Award in 2005.[6]

Rubin directed the 2012 feature film Disconnect, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and the Venice International Film Festival in 2012.[7]

Rubin's feature, Semper Fi, starring Jai Courtney, Nat Wolff, Leighton Meister, and Finn Wittrock was released in 2019.[8]

Commercial work

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Since 2004, Rubin has been directing commercials for commercial production company SMUGGLER. This includes award-winning campaigns for brands such as Adidas, Gatorade, Volvo, Samsung, AT&T and Coca-Cola. Rubin directed several landmark campaigns including "Whopper Freakout" for Burger King and "Pizza Turnaround" for Domino's and was named one of the top 5 most award-winning commercial directors in the world with over 60 Cannes Lions and 5 Clio Awards over his career.[9][10][11]

In 2020, Rubin won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Commercial for his work on Back-To-School Essentials, representing gun safety advocacy group Sandy Hook Promise. The spot, which debuted during the “Today” show, starts as a seemingly cheerful back-to-school commercial but then darkens with sounds of screams and gunshots. It was described as “harrowing” by the New York Times.[12]

In 2022, Rubin was nominated by the Directors Guild of America for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Commercials for Sandy Hook Promise's "Teenage Dream".[13]

Filmography

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Awards

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Back-to-School Essentials – Sandy Hook Promise". Television Academy. Retrieved 2021-03-02.
  2. ^ "Young Lions of Cinema". Columbia College Today. Retrieved 2019-02-05.
  3. ^ "ENTERTAINMENT CENTER". Columbia College Today. June 2006. Retrieved July 12, 2021.
  4. ^ "Filmmaker Bio". PBS. 15 January 1997. Retrieved 2019-02-04.
  5. ^ Mottram, James (July 21, 2013). "Anti-social networks". South China Morning Post. Retrieved May 23, 2014.
  6. ^ "Hunger Games' Star Sam Claflin to Play Soccer Legend Robin Friday in Biopic". The Wrap. 7 May 2015. Retrieved 2019-02-05.
  7. ^ "Connecting with Disconnect | Rollo Ross". HuffPost. 6 September 2012. Retrieved 2015-03-03.
  8. ^ Nancy Tartigalone (January 26, 2018). "Semper Fi: Jai Courtney, Finn Wittrock, More Join Nat Wolff For Crime Thriller – Berlin". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved February 4, 2019.
  9. ^ "Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam and the BBDO network top Gunn Report's 2011 honours list | MAA". Moreaboutadvertising.com. Retrieved 2015-03-03.
  10. ^ "Creativity Awards Report 2011 | Awards 2011 - Advertising Age". Creativity-online.com. 2011-10-30. Archived from the original on 2014-02-09. Retrieved 2015-03-03.
  11. ^ "Outstanding Commercial Nominees / Winners 2016". Television Academy. Retrieved 2021-03-02.
  12. ^ Hsu, Tiffany (2019-09-18). "With Harrowing Ads, Gun Safety Groups Push a Scarier Reality (Published 2019)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-03-02.
  13. ^ "DGA Announces Nominees for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Television, Commercials and Documentary for 2021". Directors Guild of America. January 26, 2022. Retrieved January 26, 2022.
  14. ^ "Burger King – Proud Whopper". Clios. Retrieved 2021-03-02.
  15. ^ "Sandy Hook Promise – Evan". Clios. Retrieved 2021-03-02.
  16. ^ "AICP Awards – Public Service Announcement | From the Archives of the AICP Awards". www.aicpawards.com. Retrieved 2021-03-02.
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