Every Brand Has an Oscar-Worthy Story
Lessons from Two-Time Academy Award® Winner Ben Proudfoot on the Art of Human-Centered Storytelling
By Ellie Victor, Co-CEO
Recently I caught up with Ben Proudfoot, one of the most influential short-form storytellers of our time.
2x Academy Award®-winning filmmaker, Ben Proudfoot and me (Ellie Victor).
Whether spotlighting a woman officially drafted to the NBA, a piano repair technician, or a jazz composer, Proudfoot’s films resonate deeply: because they’re not just informational, they’re emotional.
He’s applied that lens to both artistic and commercial work — from a Cannes Lions Grand Prix-winning film for L’Oréal profiling Ilon Specht, the woman behind the iconic line “Because I’m worth it,” to Everybody’s Business a Cannes Lion winner that playfully cast B2B as the unsung underdog to its cooler B2C sibling.
The difference between a white paper and a movie is the emotional experience. If it’s emotional, it’s memorable. If it’s emotional, you can't move past it or turn it off or forget about it. It becomes part of your life.
That, he says, is the magic of story. And it’s something brands miss when they focus only on product, process, or performance. If your company wants to move people, not just market to them, take a page from Proudfoot’s script. Here are the highlights that stuck with me
1. Where There's a Human, There's a Story
The word ‘story’ gets thrown around, but a story is something where something happens to someone.
For Proudfoot, there’s no such thing as a compelling story without a person at the center. Every story needs a first and last name, a human being, a protagonist, who experienced something, who slayed a dragon.
Too often, brands skip this. They talk about their product. Or their market. Or their innovation. They talk about what they built or how it works. But rarely do they say why they needed to
build it. Why it hurt when it didn’t work. Why they cared
enough to try again. But the emotional resonance comes from people, especially those who’ve faced some kind of adversity.
And it’s not always the founder or CEO. Look for authenticity. The security guard might carry your story better than the executive.
Key Takeaway: Look for the human who can tell your story with the most passion. It could be the founder, but it could also be a line worker, or a customer (not necessarily your largest customer). The person with the passion is what will make your story stick.
2. Create Moments of Realization (Anagnorisis)
Proudfoot recalled a word he learned in film school: Anagnorisis—a Greek term meaning a moment of realization—when someone connects the dots, confronts a truth, or finally grieves something they’ve buried. His goal as a filmmaker is for the audience to experience that ‘aha’ moment.
When that happens, the audience feels part of something original. The moment becomes theirs, too. That’s when a story stops being told and starts being felt.
But you can’t script those moments. Proudfoot doesn’t pre-interview people and ask them to repeat it on camera. Instead, he creates space for real-time discovery.
His questions to uncover these moments are deceptively simple. Some favorites:
What’s your first memory?
What did your parents do?
Was there someone who raised or influenced you?
Key Takeaway: Don’t just ask people what happened. Ask why. Ask about their first memory. Ask what shaped them. Rewind the tape and zoom in on emotional turning points. When telling your story don’t just say what you’re building but why. That’s where the audience connects—not just intellectually, but viscerally.
3. Rewrite History
Some of Proudfoot’s most impactful films tell stories about people history has overlooked.
“It’s all about the past. And everyone’s scared of the past, especially in Silicon Valley,” he said. “But all the value is in experience and wisdom and its application.”
Instead of rushing toward the next product drop or launch, Proudfoot urges us to look back. Who paved the way but never got credit? What historical truth remains hidden? When you have a story that hasn’t been told yet, and you have that person tell it in their own words, it’s powerful.
That dynamic creates a virtuous cycle. As the viewer hears the story, they realize they can be part of the solution by sharing it. The problem of the story—its invisibility—is resolved by the audience’s action to share it.
Brands often hesitate to wade into the past. But that’s where empathy and transformation lie.
Key Takeaway: Who was overlooked in your company, category, or industry? Who made something possible but never got the mic? Shine a light on their story, and let your audience be part of correcting the record.
Final Thought: The Universal Is in the Elemental
What makes a story universal isn’t how big it is—it’s how specific it is. The universal is in the elemental. It sounds simple, but it’s not what most companies do.
In Proudfoot’s most recent Academy Award® winning film, The Last Repair Shop, we meet Paty, an immigrant single mom raising two young children. Her dream to become a brass instrument technician at the LA County school District is specific, but her struggle is universal. Guided by her mother’s mantra, “You can do anything you want in life, you are smart, you are strong, you will fight for what you want,” the audience sees themself in Paty’s journey.
Proudfoot believes that the details can unlock something we all relate to. But most brands default to generalities.
When you get close to the truth of one person’s lived experience, it reverberates. Not despite its detail, but because of it.
Final Takeaway: Don’t just tell people your brand saves them time—show them what that time means. Instead of the generic, “We save our customers hours each week,” tell the story of the dad who, before using your product, missed his daughter’s soccer game where she scored her first goal.
Go smaller, not bigger. Find the elemental detail—a moment, a feeling, a scene—that brings your brand’s promise to life.
Conclusion
Ben Proudfoot makes stories that move people. But if you’re a brand looking to connect, there’s a lot to learn from his process: Start with a real person. Ask real questions. Tell the story no one else has. And let your audience feel something they won’t forget.
Because that’s what makes a story worth sharing.