On The Cusp, Longlist - Short Film

Easy 8

Ernie Gilbert

Thunder and Venom

Ernie Gilbert is a Los Angeles based director. He loves biscuits but prefers unsweet tea, a mix of growing up in both upstate NY and NC. As a result he doesn’t have much of an accent, he thinks. Before writing and directing his own material, Ernie forged a career in music video, commercial and tv editing. Ernie helped shape story driven edits in multiple formats with a variety of clients and brands. In music videos, his work for Lizzo, John Legend, Linkin Park, Portugal the Man, and many others have racked up over a billion views on Youtube. In the commercial world, he’s led large scale campaigns for Air Jordan, American Eagle, Reebok, and DirectTV. His editorial and visual effects work have contributed to Emmy and Golden Globe award-winning shows, Atlanta, Barry and Baskets. His editing work culminated with a VMA Nomination for best editing for the video “This Is America” for Childish Gambino, which gained him international attention and ultimately a Grammy for best music video. While tackling such a wide scope of editing work, Ernie continued honing his craft as a director on a variety of music video, doc, and commercial work. Most recently this grew into two narrative short films. The first, Nine Minutes starred Constance Wu and Reggie Watts. His follow up Easy 8 was shortlisted at the 2020 Young Director’s Award for best short film. Today, Ernie continues to pull from his editor mindset when approaching directing jobs. By tackling projects holistically he’s able to direct with intention and hit levels of craft far exceeding the budgets. Most recently, his American Eagle Back to School campaign, starring TikTok sensation Addison Rae, broke the company’s metric across their social platforms. A unique partnership with Addison paired with the videos, allowed for fans to interact with Addison’s original dance for a chance to have her duet them on Tik Tok. In his downtime, Ernie frequents Proof Bakery for the best croissants in Los Angeles and hangs out with his English Bulldog Zooey.