Director's Works
New Zealand director Dylan Pharazyn creates commercials and music videos that have earned recognition at numerous international festivals and award shows. He has filmed internationally, bringing a thoughtful approach to each location and project. His work has received accolades from many of the industry’s top awards, including D&AD, One Show, Spikes Asia, Axis, and AWARD.
After studying painting at Elam School of Fine Arts, Dylan worked as a graphic designer, 3D animator, and compositor before emerging as a director. His debut short film, Vostok Station, was selected for Sundance, where it was nominated for the New Frontier Award and voted one of the festival’s standout works.
His second short film, The Keeper, screened at Locarno and was well received across several A-list festivals.
Dylan’s cinematic work evokes emotional responses, capturing genuine human moments with nuance and empathy. He often pairs emotion with an elegant handling of technique, creating a style of dream-like realism.
Dylan began his advertising career with Sweetshop, where he was a director for 12 years. He is represented by Radke Films in Canada and works freelance elsewhere.
His campaign for Tourism New Zealand earned accolades at all the major global advertising awards, including an Effie for the most effective tourism campaign in the world.
Dylan is currently developing several projects, including his debut feature film.
I was commissioned by Motion Sickness to direct this global brand campaign for Kathmandu — a series of 30-second films. The brief was wide open: create simple films of people being themselves in nature.
What drew me in was the line: Outside, Your Comfort Zone. A quiet provocation — not about conquering the wild, but stepping just beyond the familiar into something more alive.
Nature isn’t something we conquer — it’s something we belong to. This campaign is about that quiet shift into something deeper and more grounded.
The more I sat with it and tested different camera approaches, the more it became clear — this needed to feel intimate and close. Like we were inside someone’s comfort zone. Almost interior, with the natural environment revealed slowly — as if nature is home.
I love how these stories show people simply as they are in nature — calm, curious, open. There’s a kind of freedom in that. And a deep connection too: we are nature. When you let go of the day-to-day and settle into the moment, there’s a shift — subtle, but meaningful.
I was chasing a feeling — a deep sense of calm and freedom in each moment. A kind of mind-place logic to how the images and sounds flow - kind of like we’re sharing a spell.
We filmed with a small crew, using non-actors — a group of friends local to the Coromandel Peninsula in New Zealand, where we shot. Everyone helped carry gear to the remote spots. It was collaborative and unhurried — a rare thing in advertising — and it meant we could really feel the place, and build each sequence around what felt right.
We weren’t pushing for drama. We were chasing something deeper — something I hope people can feel.
