RSA Films Welcomes 'Captain Marvel' and 'Half Nelson' Directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck for Commercials

RSA Films is pleased to announce award-winning directing duo Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck have joined the company for commercial representation. The news comes on the heels of their highly anticipated new feature, Freaky Tales being selected as part of the Sundance Film Festival 2024 Premieres lineup. Freaky Tales, which the two also wrote, is a genre mashup set in 1987 Oakland, Ryan’s hometown, with an ensemble cast that includes Pedro Pascal, Normani Kordel and Ben Mendelsohn. The filmmakers describe it as a personal fever dream fantasy incorporating all of Ryan’s youthful obsessions from sports, movies and music. 

Anna and Ryan broke out with their Sundance premiere of Half Nelson (2006), which starred then rising star Ryan Gosling. The role earned Gosling an Academy Award nomination for his performance as a high school history teacher with a drug problem who forges an unlikely friendship with one of his students. Anna and Ryan also directed the acclaimed indie films Sugar (nominated for the Sundance Grand Jury Prize), It’s Kind of a Funny Story and Mississippi Grind before co-writing and directing the blockbuster hit Captain Marvel (2019), which grossed over $1 billion at the box office worldwide. 

“Ever since Half Nelson, I’ve been a huge fan of Anna and Ryan,” said Luke Ricci, president of RSA Films US. “Their ability to traverse different genres and themes but always ground their worlds in visceral characters is what I’m always amazed at in their work. Their upcoming film Freaky Tales promises to captivate audiences with Oakland and the late ‘80s as the cultural backdrop for the wild characters and stories driving what is an invigorating original film. It’s exciting to welcome them onto the roster of RSA. They’ll be a valuable creative asset to our agency partners.”

“We love bold, visual storytelling,” Anna and Ryan said, “and telling stories with humour, honest human emotion and kickass music. RSA has always set the bar high with this kind of work and we’re excited to join their fantastic roster of directors and parlay what we do into more short-form storytelling.” 

Anna and Ryan have also enjoyed success in television, directing and executive producing Mrs. America starring Cate Blanchett, along with episodes of Billions, The Affair and The Big C. Most recently, they finished work on Masters of the Air, executive produced by Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg and Gary Goetzman for Apple TV+. 

Anna, who grew up outside of Boston, and Ryan met in film school in New York - Columbia and NYU, respectively – where they worked on student short films together. They went on to work on documentaries, and wrote and directed the short film Gowanus, Brooklyn, which won a short filmmaking award at Sundance and was the basis of their breakout feature film Half Nelson. They also dipped their toes into commercial making with a series of short films for Cartier, including “The Proposal – My Favorite Song.”

Anna and Ryan enjoy a synergistic working relationship: “We really do everything together,” Ryan explained. “Writing, shot-listing, location scouts, rehearsals, editing, mixing. Anna was the editor on our first four features, so she is hyper involved with post.”

“We’re psyched to explore more short-form storytelling with RSA,” Anna said. “A beginning, middle and end is so much different in a movie or TV series than a 30- or 60-second spot. We love the idea of using a new part of our brains to tell shorter, more succinct stories people will remember.”