YDA Podcast
The Young Director Award podcast is a no-holds-barred deep dive into all things filmmaking. Eavesdrop on intimate conversations between rising and established directors as they share their take on filmmaking craft, navigating the business of making short form content, and overcoming the hurdles that developing new talent face. Listen in as each guest shares their experience and insights around breaking new ground and bringing fresh perspectives to the craft.
The first season is hosted by directing duo Radha Ganti and Robert Lopuski of King She, This project is a true labour of love, made possible with the great help of our sponsors: Somesuch, Supreme Music, Cabin Editing Company, UN.Studios, Bonaparte TV and Cartel Editorial
Season 2 – 2025
Episode 5: Boris Eldagsen on AI, artistry and the future of imagery.
Boris Eldagsen is a renowned photographer from Germany who’s been working in the industry for years. In 2023, his name made headlines around the world after he entered — and won — the Sony World Photography Awards with an AI-generated image. Boris publicly refused the prize, urging the organizers to confront the role of AI in photography. When they declined to engage in discussion, he turned the moment into a wake-up call for the creative industry to discuss the impact of Artifical Intelligence.
Although critical of AI competing with traditional photography, Boris is also one of the technology’s’ most enthusiastic adopters. In this conversation with Danny Edwards from shots, Boris unpacks the philosophical and ethical questions raised by AI art — and whether its potential outweighs its dangers.
References:
The Electrician
Midjourney 7
Runway Gen 4
Episode 4: Six Things About Angela Patton and Natalie Rae
Natalie Rae has directed global campaigns for Nike, Adidas, and Lululemon, and was twice nominated for our very own Young Director Award. Her work includes PSAs for the UN and Global Goals, and collaborations with Jay Z, Dua Lipa, and Anderson .Paak. Natalie was recently named a 2024 DOC NYC 40 Under 40 and BAFTA Breakthrough Artist.
Angela Patton is the CEO of Girls For A Change. Based in Richmond, VA, she is among the Top 40 under 40, and was recognized in 2016 by President Obama as a White House Champion of Change for After School programming for Marginalized Girls of Color.
DAUGHTERS marks their debut feature collaboration, and in this very special episode the duo sits down to with guest-host Charlotte Matheson to discuss the social impact of the film, and the value of awards.
Episode 3: Six Things About Armando Bó
Bó is an award-winning Argentine filmmaker. His debut feature, El Último Elvis (2012), premiered at Sundance Film Festival and received multiple accolades worldwide. In 2018, he released his second feature, Animal. Bó is a long-standing collaborator of director Alejandro González Iñárritu, as well as a prolific advertising director and co- founder of the argentinian production company Rebolucion.
In this chat with Danny Edwards he discusses living a ‘double life’ as a filmmaker, his creative idols and the idea of being ‘in the kitchen’ of other great directors.
Episode 2: Six Things About Molly Manning Walker
As an award-winning writer, director, and cinematographer, Molly Manning Walker has quickly become one of the most exciting voices among young filmmakers. Her debut feature, How to Have Sex (2023), won the Un Certain Regard Award at Cannes and earned multiple BAFTA nominations, while her cinematography on Scrapper (2023) helped secure the Sundance Grand Jury Prize.
Episode 1: Six Things About Ricardo Adolfo
As Executive Creative Director at TBWA\Media Arts Tokyo — and an accomplished novelist and screenwriter — Ricardo Adolfo is a true master of blending advertising with storytelling. In this episode, he chats with Danny Edwards about his admiration for Jonathan Glazer, the art of navigating challenging partnerships, and the power of imagination.
Season 1 – 2024
Episode 4: Los Pérez – Directing Together
Los Pérez are known for their colorful, hyperbolic, and larger than life short form work. Like podcast hosts King She, director duo Los Perez are partners in life and in cinema. The two directing duos got together to discuss process, practical effects, and parenting through production. It’s easy to assume Los Pérez’s dynamic and detailed filmmaking sequences are all CGI, but the duo strive to create as much in-camera as possible. In this episode, Los Perez dive into their pre-production heavy process and share what makes their relationship so successful creatively and beyond.
Episode 3: Niclas Larsson – The Power of Naivete
Niclas Larsson began his career as a child actor and now is one of the leading commercial directors in the world. The Swedish director linked with King She to talk about the gift of being naive early in a director’s career, bringing a punk sensibility to commercial directing, and collaborating with clients to maximise artful output. Niclas shares many gems of insight from his robust career including how the foundation for it all is in the writing, how his early work as a child actor informs his directing today, and how to direct from a place of affirmation rather than critique.
Episode 2: Yuan Yuan – A Student’s Path
Born in Wuhan, China, Yuan Yuan is a Chinese filmmaker and recent NYU film school graduate whose journey as a student writer-director has garnered awards, grants, and accolades from all corners of the globe. Yuan Yuan sat down with hosts King She to discuss her journey as a director working primarily through the support of academic and festival institutions, pivoting from journalism to narrative filmmaking, and the process of selecting collaborators to be in a space of trust when shooting. Her short film Heading South won Jury Prize at Hong Kong International Film Festival, and Best Student Film at DGA Awards, Palm Springs and Aspen ShortFests, and the Young Director Award. She’s currently developing her first feature, Late Spring with support from the Sundance Writers & Directors labs.
Episode 1: Bradford Young – Breaking Barriers
Bradford Young (Pariah, Selma, Solo) is an Oscar award nominated cinematographer and an extraordinary new presence in the space of commercial directing. Joined in conversation with King She in this very first episode he discusses the necessity of creative community, the cosmological ingredients of great filmmaking, and the unexpected potential for creative freedom found in commercial advertising. Bradford also speaks on the power of strong visual language paired with artistic rigor. He shares his vision for genuine creative trust and freedom in his working relationships and offers advice on building one’s own bridge to directing from other crew positions.
YDA WEEK 2023
For YDA week 2023 we talked to a series of directors, producers and creative professionals to find out some of their own inspirations, examine some of their achievements and elicit some expert advice for the next generation.
From the movies that lit the spark for their cinematic journeys, to the commercials or TV shows that they admire most and the people who have inspired them along the way, each interview asks six questions that drill down into their passions and inspirations.
Over the course of the week we spoke to two recent Oscar winners in All Quiet on the Western Front director Edward Berger and The Elephant Whisperers producer Guneet Monga, as well as multi-Bafta-winning actor, writer, producer and director Sharon Horgan. We also had insight from Ed Ulbrich, VFX consultant and former CEO of Digital Domain, about the hottest of hot topics, artificial intelligence.
Day 1: Jonas Åkerlund
Jonas Åkerlund, the director behind a raft of award-winning music videos and commercials, as well as features, TV shows and documentaries.
This year’s first guest was RSA Films’ Jonas Åkerlund, the director behind music videos for artists including – but certainly not limited to – Madonna, Metallica, Beyonce, The Rolling Stones, Lady Gaga, Coldplay and, of course, the iconic and controversial Smack My Bitch Up for The Prodigy.
He’s also helmed commercials for some of the biggest brands on the planet and has successfully crossed over to features with films including Spun and Lords of Chaos, and the Mads Mikkelsen-starring Netflix film Polar. He has also worked on television series, most recently on Clark, starringBill Skarsgård.
Over the 30-minute interview Åkerlund discusses moving from editing to directing, why he thought Smack My Bitch Up was comedic not controversial, and why longevity is a bonus.
Day 2: Six Guneet Monga Kapoor
Guneet Monga Kapoor, one of India’s most successful and respected film producers and who picked up an Oscar for the documentary short The Elephant Whisperers.
Guneet is an Indian film producer, a BAFTA nominee and among the first producers from India to be invited into the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. She is also the founder of Sikhya Entertainment, a Mumbai-based production house.
Through Sikhya Entertainment Guneet has carved an unprecedented space in Indian film industry by producing films that focus on national stories that travel to a global audience, films such as The Lunchbox, Masaan, Gangs of Wasseypur, What Will People Say, Monsoon Shootout, Peddlers and the recent Oscar-winning short documentary The Elephant Whisperers.
Guneet tells us about her career journey, the challenges she faced, and the work and people who have inspired her along the way.
Day 3: Edward Berger
Edward Berger, the director behind the Oscar-winning All Quiet on the Western Front, joins us to discuss his work as well as talk about the people and movies that inspired him.
If you haven’t already seen Edward Berger’s adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s 1928 novel All Quiet on the Western Front then you are missing out on a brutally powerful, award-winning film that gets under the mud-caked skin of its First World War protagonists.
The film and its director have picked up numerous awards over the past year and, as part of the YDA Week, Berger talks to us about the challenges, for both cast and crew, of making the film.
He also discusses the creative opportunities that making television series affords, the movie that motivated him to become a director, and the filmmaker he looks to for inspiration.
Day 4: Sharon Horgan
Award-winning writer, actor, producer, director and co-founder of production company Merman, Sharon Horgan, talks about the comedy and the comedians that have inspired her, the DIY approach she took at the start of her career, and the challenge of tackling something new.
If you haven’t seen Catastrophe, the award-winning show co-created with comedian Rob Delaney, then you have maybe seen Pulling.
If not Pulling, then likely the Sarah-Jessica Parker starring Divorce. Or possibly Motherland. Or the recent Apple TV hit series Bad Sisters. I could go on; Frayed, Shining Vale, This Way Up, Women on the Verge… Sharon Horgan has either starred in, written, produced or, often, taken on all of those roles to become one of the most prominent and successful people working in the entertainment industry today.
She is also one of the founders of Merman, the production company which produced many of the aforementioned shows and which is also behind commercials for brands including McDonald’s, Santander, Kellogg’s and Vodafone, and home to directors such as Anton Corbijn, Declan Lowney, MJ Delaney and Vaughan Arnell.
As part of this year’s YDA Week, Horgan took time to talk about, among other things, the TV shows that inspired her to get into the business, the “hardworking and creative people” who she has admired along the way, and why tenacity is so important if you want to succeed.
Day 5: Ed Ulbrich
In the last of 2023’s YDA Week interviews we speak to VFX maestro Ed Ulbrich about how the artificial intelligence will impact creativity, both on screen and off..
Having worked on or led the visual effects teams behind features including Spike Jonze’s Adaptation, Michael Bay’s Armageddon, David Fincher’s Fight Club and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, as well as James Cameron’s Titanic, the last two of which won Oscars for VFX, Ed Ulbrich knows a thing or two about technology.
Previously SVP of production, then EVP at Digital Domain and now running production for AI-focussed company Metaphysic, Ulbrich has a wealth of experience in the sector.
He has given a TED Talk about the VFX in Benjamin Button and is currently working on a new film by Robert Zemeckis, starring Tom Hanks, which utilises the creative power of AI.
Over the course of 50 minutes Ulbrich explains how a week in the AI space is equivalent to a year in the real world; why, as we move forward, the skills we need from people in the industry will be different to the skills we require now; how the paradigm of creative importance has flipped, and how the ripple effect of AI will be huge.
All Interviews by Danny Edwards shots