Ali Ali: The craft of chaos

Acclaimed director, Good People Films co-founder and this year’s Cannes Lions Film Craft Jury President, Ali Ali, has built a career on taking creative risks – each delivered with his distinctive style and unmistakable humour.

Whether he’s handing out Red Bull to geriatric actors on an overnight shoot or convincing a brand to back the most notoriously nasty Panda in advertising history, Ali rose to fame by embracing the unexpected.

Sure, I was going to all the painful computer and coding classes, but I had Rothko and Robert Rauschenberg on my mind.

It’s surprising, then, to learn that his first career choice was in a far more logical field. Following in the footsteps of his father, a nautical engineer, Ali decided to study computer science at university. “Funnily enough, my graduation project was around AI and Large Language Models, which is finally coming in handy today,” he reflects.

Above: Photograph of Ali Ali working on set. 

He also minored in Fine Art, where he discovered his true passion lay in painting, rather than programming. “Sure, I was going to all the painful computer and coding classes,” he adds, “but I had Rothko and Robert Rauschenberg on my mind.” After graduating, he secured a full scholarship to the San Francisco Art Institute - but his dreams of becoming an artist didn’t quite match the reality. “When I got there, I noticed no one was painting anymore. It was all video art, conceptual art, and installations. All I wanted to do was paint. So, I quit. I only lasted a semester at San Fran.”

Knowing the subtleties of French humour and other cultural nuances is incredibly valuable.

Ali headed back to Cairo, licking his wounds. But a stopover in Miami to visit a friend changed everything. There, he discovered the Miami Ad School and its Art Direction Portfolio Program. “It made sense to me because it had the art bit, it was creative, but more marketable. Something I could justify to my parents, as opposed to becoming the next big painter. Had it not been for that Miami stopover in Thanksgiving of 2002,” he admits, “I probably would’ve just gone back to computer science”.

His first stint in advertising was at agency D’Arcy in Bucharest. “This was a Romania that was fresh out of socialism.” Starting his career in post-Communist Romania was somewhat unconventional, but it gave him the space to experiment, working with big global brands like Coca-Cola and McDonald’s straight off the bat.

Above: Compilation of Ali Ali's famously banned Never Say No to Panda ads, for Panda Cheese. 

From there, he hopped between global agencies – first to Leagas Delaney in Hamburg, working as a senior copywriter. “We had a cool bunch of brands, Stern magazine, Skoda, Wrangler jeans... Very little TV though – mostly print and radio,” he explains, “TV was reserved for the big hotshot teams.”

Things took an unexpected turn in 2006, when he moved back to Egypt to help care for his father and joined Leo Burnett in Cairo. “At the time, it felt like a bad career move, but it was one of the best things I did.” There, he learned the ropes on set and soon picked up a Grand Prix at the Dubai Lynx awards. This win led to a new role heading up creative at McCann in Dubai.

Leo Burnett Cairo was like film school on steroids. I got to learn all the technical stuff, lenses, lighting, sound design, editing, post production. By 2010, I felt I was ready to direct.

After two years in Dubai, Ali returned to Cairo where he started his own agency, Elephant, a creative boutique that was named as one of three top independent agencies of the year in Cannes 2010. However, in 2011, during the Arab Spring, Elephant closed it’s doors and Ali moved to Germany, replacing Amir Kassaei as ECD at DDB Berlin. After a year there, he then turned his focus to directing and, in 2016, with a few years’ directing under his belt, opened Good People Films. 

That early nomadic career path, and his exposure to such varied markets, shaped his talent for offbeat storytelling that could speak to both local and global audiences. “Knowing the subtleties of French humour and other cultural nuances is incredibly valuable. It’s a huge benefit, especially when working on global campaigns that need humour that resonates across different regions.”

Above: Rockin' Mamas for Rolling Stone, directed by Ali Ali. 

It was during his time at Leo Burnett Cairo that Ali found himself drawn to life on set. With the fast-paced agency shooting commercials at lightning speed, he had a front-row seat to observe international directors in action. “Leo Burnett Cairo was like film school on steroids. I got to learn all the technical stuff, lenses, lighting, sound design, editing, post production. By 2010, I felt I was ready to direct.”

While his career is packed with noteworthy campaigns, Rocking Mamas for Rolling Stone stands out to Ali for the important lessons it taught him. “That is a very personal one for me. It taught me a lot. We shot it on a shoestring budget during the pandemic. It cost us 15,000 euros, and lots of love.” To pull it off, Ali cast mothers from his daughter’s nursery, shot in their own homes, and even used their wardrobes. “Being resourceful is such a big part of being creative,” he reflects. “It requires ingenuity and a bit of madness to pull something like that off. It was a crazy project, done under very difficult circumstances – but God, we had fun doing it.”

I always feel like somehow, someone up there knew how hard we worked, and it paid off.

Challenging for similar reasons was Heineken’s The Night is Young. Also shot during lockdown, the overnight production came with the added difficulty of keeping 30 cast members over the age of 75 awake and dancing. “Keeping them up and energetic was a real challenge,” he laughs. “I ended up handing out a lot of Red Bull just to keep them going.” As if that wasn’t tough enough, a torrential rainstorm hit Athens – in June – and they lost all their lighting. Despite the chaos, the film went on to win a Gold Lion at Cannes. “That was a surprise to me. I always feel like somehow, someone up there knew how hard we worked, and it paid off.”

Above: Ali Ali's commercial The Night Is Young for Heineken.

Of course, we can’t talk about Ali Ali without mentioning the viral sensation Never Say No to Panda: a hilariously deadpan series of spots featuring a malicious, human-sized panda who loses it whenever someone declines Panda cheese. “We had a client who loved it but was scared stiff to go through with it. And rightfully so – because when it did air, the entire marketing team got fired. That’s something not a lot of people know.”

The ads were pulled from air within days, but not before they blew up on YouTube. “Today they have a very different kind of panda – one that helps people cross the street and does nice things. It’s a weird, deformed version of the panda we originally did. They found our version too aggressive.”

Even getting the spot on screens in the first place involved taking a few creative liberties. “We told them not to worry, that the panda wouldn’t be too aggressive, that it would come off soft and cuddly,” Ali admits. “We dealt with the fallout later. But it became what it is. I think even Panda know now that it’s by far the most notorious Arab commercial ever made.”

Whether you’d call his approach reckless or brave, the campaign catapulted Ali onto the global stage and helped establish him as one of the most distinctive commercial directors working today, and, this year, he brings that experience to the judging table as President of the Cannes Lions Film Craft jury.

Above: The Mad Queen, directed by Ali as part of a three-spot campaign for Floward. 

When asked what ‘good film craft’ means to him, Ali responds that, “True film craft is when great casting is married to great cinematography, great lighting, an incredibly good script – and even the wardrobe is right. It’s not about one department standing out on its own. It’s about the combination of elements coming together beautifully.”

“I’m anticipating a lot of work involving AI, particularly in post-production, editing and graphics. That’s something I’m not entirely crazy about,” he admits. “I’m also expecting longer film, which I’m not thrilled about either, because the entries seem to get longer every year. I’m hoping we still see a good mix of 30-, 60- and 90-second spots.”

A perfect example of what Ali will be championing is work like Apple’s Leon, which he advocated to win the Grand Prix when he last served on the jury. “It was a 25-second spot about the resurrection of a lizard, and we chose it because we wanted to send a message: this is what the industry should be about – telling a story in 30 seconds.” That kind of tight, punchy storytelling, he says, is a craft itself, and is “one of the few things we can still do that AI maybe can’t.”

Above: Apple's 2023 film RIP Leon is the kind of work Ali hopes to see more of. 

The irony isn’t lost on Ali that the subject he left behind at university - artificial intelligence - is now circling back to reshape his career in a completely different field. And not necessarily for the better, he feels. With the rapid rise of AI, most roles in the creative industries are, in his view, on track to be reduced to how well we can write prompts. “Our job will become about who can guide the machine most effectively,” he says. “It’s just a matter of time before you can say, ‘I want an ad in the style of Martin de Thurah, 30 seconds long, that does X, Y and Z,’ and you’ll get it. And honestly, anyone who doesn’t see that coming is delusional.” 

He doesn’t dance around the fact that it’s an increasingly tough industry to break into, and just as hard to stay in, even for seasoned directors. “You get stale, and suddenly you’re competing with a Gen-Z director who’s fresh on the scene – 21 years old, shooting on an iPhone. It’s probably vertical, 9:16, and it’ll perform way better than your film on TikTok,” he says.