A week ago when 2014 Sydney Film festival opened, Curious director, Darryl Ward showed 20,000 Days on Earth. Its film festival exposure in the US (Sundance and Wisconsin) won it this comment, “With 20,000 Days on Earth this singer/songwriter/author/actor/screenwriter gets a genre-defying documentary that matches his restless ambitions and relentless creativity.” It’s a fictitious exploration of 24 hours in the life of Nick Cave with frank insights into the artistic process.

This weekend, Curious director, Taika Waititi, and Jemaine Clement will show What We Do in the Shadows, on Sydney Film Festival’s closing night.

Its Screen Casting review in homeland, New Zealand, included this comment, “The soon-to-be cult classic follows a mockumentary crew as they go inside the lives of four vampires living in a flat in Wellington. The film is loosely based on a short film the pair created eight years ago. It premiered at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival in January and has since shown to critical acclaim at the Berlin, SXSW and recently the Stanley (Kubrick) festival where it picked up the audience award.”

“Having two Curious commercial directors involved in opening and closing this year’s Sydney Film Festival is pretty remarkable,” Peter Grasse, executive producer, Curious Film noted. “It’s what sets us apart at Curious – we are serious about filmmaking, and our most awarded commercial directors are also respected filmmakers.”

Ward is the Curious director behind two Cannes Grand Prix Lions. He has worked with Pharrell Williams for Smirnoff, Iggy Pop for Orcon, and now Nick Cave for 20,000 Days on Earth.

Waititi has won countless awards this year alone for Blazed, created with Clemenger BBDO in Wellington for NZ Transport Agency. He’s also the director behind Carlton Dry’s Hello Beer campaign, the musical Pot Noodle campaign from Mother London, and New Zealand’s highest grossing film, Boy.

When Curious Film is not making and screening ads that have a tendency to do rather well at awards throughout the world, and films by its ad directors who have a tendency to do rather well at awards throughout the world, it is distributing films that have a tendency to do rather well at awards throughout the world.

Curious has two other films at the Sydney Film Festival right now. One is Good Vibrations, “the critically lauded, unmissable chronicle of legendary Terri Hooley – a chaotic but charismatic optimist, instrumental in developing Belfast’s independent rock scene.” [British Film Festival 2013]

Another is Night Moves, a story about unintended consequences and a study of what makes people do the things they do.

You’ve just said, that sounds ordinary. Night Moves is anything but. For a start, the three young protagonists conceive, plan and pull off the blowing up of a dam. For seconds, it’s about what goes on inside their heads.

“Reichardt’s neatest trick is getting us to care about three people who are about to do this dangerous, illegal — though ostensibly high-minded — thing. And then when it’s done, and the real-world consequences of their actions hit home, we feel the same sinking feeling — even betrayal — that they do.” [Washington Post]

This is where Curious’ clever ad making, clever ad directors and clever film selection converge. Ad makers have to care about what makes people tick. If you don’t care and you don’t know, you can’t make people do what you want them to do. And if you can’t make people do what you want them to do, you can’t make great ads.