Cupid Soldiers Films announced today that the promotional trailer for its forthcoming feature documentary Two Weeks Notice: The Departure of Hella Sketchy has been named a winner in the Film Trailer category of the record-breaking 47th Annual Telly Awards. The Telly Awards honors excellence in video and television across all screens and is judged by leaders from video platforms, television, streaming networks, and production companies. This year’s winners include Paramount TV, Warner Brothers Discovery, FOX Entertainment, MoMA, Mayo Clinic, Sony Music, TED, Al Jazeera, Variety, PETA, United Talent Agency, People Inc., Olympic Channel, AccuWeather, ABC News, Dude Perfect, Washington Commanders, Harvard Business School, Modern Post, and more.
Two Weeks Notice: The Departure of Hella Sketchy is a feature documentary about Jacob Tyler Thureson — the teenage producer and rapper known to fans as Hella Sketchy — who signed to Artist Partner Group and Atlantic Records at seventeen and died from an accidental overdose in 2019 at the age of eighteen. Produced by Erik Thureson, Jacob’s father, alongside Marc Clebanoff, with cinematography by Zak Abitz, the film draws on thirty-four in-depth interviews with family, childhood friends, the D1 producer collective Jacob co-founded, executives from Artist Partner Group and Atlantic Records, mental health clinicians, and artists from the underground SoundCloud rap scene. The film’s title refers to the two weeks the Thureson family spent at Jacob’s bedside after he was found unresponsive on June 13, 2019 — the brief window during which they said their goodbyes before his death on June 27. Two Weeks Notice is positioned not only as a memorial but as a resource: a candid examination of gaps in mental health treatment, music-industry practices surrounding young artists, and the normalization of substance use within creative communities. The award-winning trailer can be viewed at the link below.
“Video has never been more contested, more creative, or more consequential than it is right now,” shares Amanda Needham, Managing Director of The Telly Awards. “The Telly Awards has had a front-row seat to this industry for 47 years, and today’s entertainment is happening in multiple formats, across every screen, and at every budget level.”
“This award belongs to Jacob, and to every family who has lost a son or daughter the way we lost ours,” said Erik Thureson, producer and Jacob’s father. “We made this film to honor his life and to do something useful with our loss — to ask harder questions of the industry that elevated him, the systems that failed him, and the culture that romanticizes the very substances that took him. That a panel of industry peers found something worthy in even this first glimpse means we may yet reach the people who need it most.”
Committed to pushing the boundaries of creativity forward, this year’s new categories included topics within Generative A.I., Animation, and Creators. These categories centered on stories and collaborations that are actively evolving within the video and television industry.
With over 13,000 entries from across the globe and top video and television content producers, winners were chosen by The Telly Awards Judging Council, which features more than 250 experts across the world of video. This year welcomed judges including Tamara Kruger, Head of Content and Sponsorships, Google; Janet Graham Borba, Executive VP of Production, HBO; Phil Cook, Chief Marketing Officer, WNBA; and Andrea Wertheim, Senior Manager Post Production, Netflix.
