The Zone of Interest director Jonathan Glazer also directed these iconic videos

Alongside Barbie and Oppenheimer, Holocaust movie The Zone of Interest has also been recognised in this year’s Oscars nominations (with Best Director and the coveted Best Picture gong among its five nods) – and film fans are surprised that director Jonathan Glazer is also behind some classic adverts and music videos.

Already named the best film of the year by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the film – loosely adapted from a 2014 novel by late author Martin Amis – follows Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss and wife Hedwig as they “strive to build a dream life for their family in a house and garden next to the camp”.

It’s produced by the company A24, who have already received praise for films such as Everything Everywhere All At Once, Talk to Me, The Lighthouse and Lady Bird, and has its UK release on Friday. Glazer's other feature films include Under the Skin, Sexy Beast and Birth but he also has a rich history of directing music videos and commercials.

So what else has Glazer directed?

“Virtual Insanity” by Jamiroquai

The sliding video for the funk band’s groovy 1996 hit Virtual Insanity was directed by Glazer, who in a documentary clip explained that the mind-bending video was “really low tech, actually”.

“The Universal” by Blur

The 1995 track had a music video inspired by A Clockwork Orange, the 1971 film by Stanley Kubrick which was adapted from the dystopian novel by Anthony Burgess.

The banned Flake advert

Titled simply “Temptation”, the commercial featuring a weird devil character played by Denis Lavant was considered too wild even by Cadbury’s standards.

“Karma Police” by Radiohead

The broody car ride video for the rock group’s 1997 track, taken from their third album OK Computer was directed by Jonathan Frazer too.

Surfer for Guinness

Guinness - Surfer (1999, UK)www.youtube.com

Quite possibly one of the greatest adverts of all-time, this 1999 60-second ad features a group of surfers tackling a gigantic wave when gigantic horses rise from the waters. A poll conducted by Channel 4 and The Sunday Times in 2000 did indeed vote it as the 'Best ad of all time.'

Some familiar Channel 4 idents

New Channel 4 Brand Identity | Identswww.youtube.com

In 2015, Glazer produced a bunch of idents for Channel 4 to use in the continuity before a certain programme was aired.

So if you’ve seen the time-lapse clip of a group of people foraging through rubble, that switch glowing fluorescent colours, or the black and white footage of a bug, you’ve seen a clip from Glazer.

Now you know…

Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.