Creative duo Aus and Marleaux, a.k.a. ILLIMITÉWORLD, confidently deconstruct the boundaries between disciplines and art forms to forge a style uniquely their own. Inspired equally by music, fashion, photography, filmmaking (the list is virtually endless), ILLIMITÉWORLD has grown bigger than the duo alone to encompass a collective that spans Los Angeles, Baltimore and Paris - an unusual cultural trifecta that infuses their output with an almost indefinable, yet coherent, tonality. With a raft of promos to their name, an ongoing collaboration with musicians Paris Texas, and commercial work for the likes of Adidas, Meta and Google, their star is definitely ascending. Stephen Whelan had the pleasure of delving into the minds of Aus and Marleaux to get a flavour of their world.

Visual playlist to play over and over

Hailing from China’s Uyghur Autonomous Region - the meeting point of Asia and Europe – it’s fitting that rising filmmaker Luo Jian fuses a sense of East and West in her dreamlike narratives. Exploring weighty topics like abortion and loss with a feather-light touch, she weaves her modern fables of magical surrealism from the threads of a rich cultural heritage, combined with a future-facing perspective. From her graduate masterpiece What Do You Know About The Water And The Moon to beautifully-crafted branded films for Mercedes, Nestle and Sprite, Luo’s striking visuals - a giant goldfish hovers outside a window, a woman gives birth to a jellyfish, a singing idol catches a ghostly glimpse of his younger self – remain floating on the retina long after the films end - much like a half-remembered dream.

The art of stop-motion animation is a delicate dance of precision and patience, made possible through the careful manipulation of malleable. As if this technique was not a challenge enough in and of itself, Masashi Kawamura’s directorial debut uses hand-crafted wooden Samurai warriors to create an action-packed short inspired by the enigmatic legacy of Hidari Jingoro, the much-fabled 17th-century sculptor. Kawamura sits down with 1.4 to discuss the progress of the HIDARI feature film, the secret behind exploding sawdust, and how he approached fight sequence choreography with such a wooden cast.

As a Midlander living in London – too Nigerian to be British, too British to be Nigerian – Samona Olanipekun has always occupied a slightly awkward space, never truly fitting in. But as a filmmaker, he’s turned this outsider status to his advantage – becoming a keen observer of humanity. Equipped with a unique cross-cultural perspective, he’s now intent on exploring some of the biggest issues in modern life - migration, the climate crisis, racism and mental health – through films that straddle multiple genres and formats. He tells 1.4's Selena Schleh why politics and identity are inseparable, and why he’s happiest playing around on the edges

Funding rehabilitation through abstinence is at the centre of the ABR Trust’s work. Director Anyrin’s thought-provoking spot builds a scene of “euphoric geriatrics” to pose the question: where do young junkies end up? 1.4 chats to the director about returning to collaborate with ABR founder Chip Somers and building atmosphere through layered soundscapes.

The genre that just keeps on giving brilliance

If you’ve seen Higher, the latest music video from hot new directing duo WAXXWORK (aka Timothy Casten and Vikesh Govind), you’ll almost certainly have got up on your feet, thrown your hands in the air and headed to your nearest warehouse rave… or the kitchen disco - such is the power of its perfect match between visuals and track. Tracing the history of euphoria through the ages, it’s a visual hymn to club culture and the sheer joy of losing yourself on the dancefloor – but at the same time, a technical masterclass in deploying AI behind the scenes, in a way that enhances, rather than dominates. Inspired by the surreal and the subconscious, the duo’s mix of influences, styles and stories make for messy hard drives but phenomenal creativity – and they’re just getting started

With a background in dance, Nigerian-born, Maryland-based director Nora Chinwe uses music and movement alongside a vibrant colour palette to bring life to her short films and music videos. 1.4 catches up with the director about finding inspiration in Nigerian music, the symbolism of face-coverings and the trials of losing footage.

Music films that make the world go round and round

Cooks. Cleaners. Physical therapists. Taxi drivers. From brushing teeth to driving between endless hospital appointments, family caregivers are a silent army of selfless heroes, providing round-the-clock support for their loved ones. And yet, for the most part, their tiring (and tireless) work goes unnoticed, carried out behind closed doors. To shine a much-needed light on the challenges carers face day in, day out – and the vital importance of their role – journalist-turned-director Jennifer Roberts trained her lens on ten families for an entire day and night. The result? A moving – yet never mawkish – tribute to one of the hardest jobs in the world. Roberts tells 1.4's Selena Schleh why 24 hours was the only way to do justice to the stories – and how she did it

Sigur Rós invited ten filmmakers to explore their own visual interpretation of a track on the band’s new album ÁTTA. Refreshing and diverse in outcome, this experiment in creative freedom led to ten entirely different videos, and in turn, will platform a range of creators from a range of backgrounds.

Well worth waiting for and there's more stunning top of the game videos to come.

Visual album “La Hora de Perrear” celebrates all things Miami-Dade County, with the iconic chonga culture at its very centre. Directors Geoff Sean Levy and PAPO teamed up for this project that allowed them to explore their Cuban roots while visually representing “one giant inside joke” for the community of South Florida. 1.4’s Becca Nichols caught up with the two directors about the joys of collaborating, working in extreme heat, and the particular nostalgia of gas-station croquetas.

Wherever The Blaze takes us with their music and films, it's always somewhere real and heartfelt. Just wrap your soul around their latest self-directed bang-on video, The Poem, about the joy of music festivals that declares: 'Freedom itself is dancing in that crazy mess.'

It's our final selection of Golds in Film and Andreas Nilsson and Max Fisher cream the top metal with a Grand Prix each.

What we love best - exceptional scripts melded with directorial brilliance

Hot Hot Hot... the sunshine, the rosé (yes that was a bit warm too), the sea, but most of all the work shown at the Young Directors Award screening and party on the beach in Cannes. Total joy. Here are a few of our favourite YDA films but there are many more - do take a look at the full list of winners and shortlist on the YDA site https://www.youngdirectoraward.com/2023-winners/

Taha Ismail is a visual artist, creative director and filmmaker which makes him something of a creative polymath. He first caught our eye when he was still in arts school in London and fast forwarding a couple of years, he scooped up Gold at the 1.4 Awards with his dance piece RISE. We talk with the young artist about setting up his own creative collective, his South Asian heritage, yet feeling at home in London working across various creative mediums

So it wouldn’t be Pride month without stopping for a moment to acknowledge the fact that Kylie Minogue has utterly dominated the sonic landscape with her banger Padam Padam. From Mighty Hoopla in London to the streets of Boystown in LA, there’s only been one track to learn the choreo to. To mark the nearly 35-year career of the antipodean pop icon, 1.4 took a deep dive into the Minogue back catalogue to select some of her classic music videos that have defined the landscape of gay club culture and pop music more broadly. It’s like a who’s who of the best directors out there and don’t cancel us if we forgot your favourite. There are just so many…. Report by Stephen Whelan

Around the world in musical ways

Escaping the intense energy of London for the faded coastal charms of Margate on the Kentish coast, RSA director Tom Dream got more than fresh air, a slower pace of life and the beach on his doorstep – he became part of a newly-emerging creative hub and saw his film career take off. Brimming with retro-modern vibes, quirky characters and nostalgic moments, his fashion films, music videos and docu-shorts stylishly blur the boundaries between fact and fiction – leaving the viewer with the curious sensation of inhabiting an imaginary reality. After all, this is Dream’s world – we’re just living in it

With a body of commercial work that spans Mercedes to McDonald’s and music projects including album artwork and teasers for electronic duo Overmono, Somesuch creative Rollo Jackson has evidently figured out a way to be everything, everywhere, all at once. Visually his work oscillates between high polish and raw lofi, straddling the divide with poise and confidence to blur the lines between usually distinct aesthetics. It’s precisely this that makes his output so compelling – an intriguing dance of image making between the elevated and the visceral. 1.4 spoke with Rollo to dig deeper into his distinctive creative landscape

Keeping the good ones rolling...

More, much more, marvellous music and madness to come

Director and visual artist Jordan Clarke creates fantastical worlds that can only be described as a depiction of the sublime and the hellish all in one. Infused with equal parts fascination and scepticism, his work unpacks the complex intersection of questions around technology, social media and what makes us human. And somehow, he manages to do this with a style and creative perspective that makes heavy concepts utterly compelling to watch. His latest video for des hume onetwostep ft (juicelover) is no different, and may be his third Vimeo Staff pick by the time you’re reading this. 1.4 spent some time on email with Jordan unpacking what makes him tick. Spoiler alert – he may be a genius.

What better way to start the week than an escape to Private Island, the brainchild of Directimator Chris Boyle and his self-described business sibling Helen Power. Anyone with a phone and access to social media will have found it impossible to dodge the creepy AI beer and pizza party Frankenstein monster ‘commercial’ Boyle released into the wild last week. A bleak and terrifying exercise in mindfuckery (or to put it in fancy words, cognitive dissonance), the spot has crested the wave of news headlines and stoked the ongoing wildfire of anxiety around creative job security, human obsolescence and commercialised happiness on tap. 1.4 spent time with a human presenting as Chris Boyle on a videocall (although it may well have been an AI deepfake) to discuss Lovecraft, neuropsychology and breaking creative models.

Teutonic efficiency meets boundless creative vision in director Hanna Maria Heidrich – whose cinematic aesthetic and stylised visuals elevate 30-second spots into beautifully conceived films in miniature. In Heidrich’s world, a humdrum car trip makes a handbrake turn right into the pages of a fairytale; scarecrows shake off their shackles and go searching for the perfect home. Recently, she’s been exploring the circularity of life and the tantalising prospect of reincarnation in SOULS, her award-winning mini-series for Sky Atlantic, transporting viewers on a journey between past, present and future to discombobulating effect. She tells 1.4 why she loves the choreography in car commercials, the craft of directing actors, and why she’s founded her own organisation to shake up the pitch process.

Out of the way, here comes our final selection from the Porsche Awards. This category is Long Advertising Content. Says it all really but we guarantee that there is some brilliant new talent here that you’ve never set eyes on before.

Our second selection from the Porsche Awards is the Driven by Dreams category with films that get us dreaming of a better world whether that’s social progress or environmental awareness and sustainability.