Music video directors Aoife McArdle, Fleur & Manu, Hiro Murai, Nabil, Ninian Doff and Sophie Muller comprise the talented group nominated for Best Director at this year’s UK Music Video Awards, the annual celebration of creative and technical excellence in music videos made in the UK and beyond, which will take place at the Southbank Centre in London on Monday, November 10th.
Metronomy leads the charge as the most nominated musical act, including a nod in the new category of Best Video Artist, with a collection of videos directed by Edouard Salier, Daniel Brereton, and Michel Gondry. They will go head-to-head with FKA Twigs, James Vincent McMorrow, Jungle, London Grammar and Paloma Faith for the award, which is designed to recognize an artist for an outstanding set of 3 or more music videos over the past year, and is presented in association with Box Television.
Tied for the honor of most nominated video is the epic and harrowing clip for Paolo Nutini’s ‘Iron Sky’ helmed by Somesuch director Daniel Wolfe (who recently premiered his first film Catch Me Daddy at Cannes) and the scurrilously funny promo for DJ Snake ft Lil Jon’s ‘Turn Down For What’ by American directing duo DANIELS. They have five nominations each, and among the other international talent nominated for multiple awards are Pharrell Williams, Iggy Azalea, St Vincent, OK Go and Bob Dylan.
Previous MVA Icon Award winner Jonas Åkerlund makes an appearance in the list for his work for Coldplay’s ‘Magic’ while heavyweight American video directors Nabil and Vincent Haycock also pick up nods for their work for Alt-J and Paul McCartney.
Doomsday Entertainment is a leader of nominations this year, with nods for Best Dance Video, Best Rock Video, Best Urban Video, the VEVO Must See Award and Best Director for Hiro Murai. Other production companies showing up multiple times on the list include Prettybird, Somesuch & co, Iconoclast, Black Dog Films, and Colonel Blimp.
The UKMVA organizers have also announced the launch of Music Vid Fest, a conference on the business of music video creativity to run at BFI Southbank on the same day as the Awards on November 10th. This will give professionals a chance to discuss the issues and advances driving music video production in the UK and abroad, ahead of the celebrations in the evening.
UKMVA editorial director, David Knight, says, “The nominations are a statement on the strength of creativity and invention in music videos today. They represent the power of music videos to bring people closer to the music, to be an entertainment format (and occasionally Art) in their own right.”
Check out the entire list of nominations here!