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Cannes Lions 2013 - A Roaring Success
 

3D street artist Manfred Stader seen here working feverishly on the SourceEcreative exhibit.

Saturday 22nd June saw the curtains drawn on the 60th Annual Cannes Lion Festival of Creativity.  If you're a visitor to the SourceEcreative site you've probably heard of Cannes, but for the uninitiated, the festival features a smorgasbord of ad-related talks, seminars, sessions as well as handing out the most coveted awards in the advertising calendar.  Alongside that sits more beach parties, villa shindigs and hotel terrace meetings than the average liver can cope with.

This year's festival played host to numerous celebrity and expert guest speakers, with familiar faces including Jack Black, Sean Combs, Anderson Cooper, Vivienne Westwood, Sir Alan Parker, Lou Reed and the hilarious Conan O'Brian, internet giants such as Mr Wikipedia Jimmy Wales and Mr Tumblr David Karp and familiar AdLand figures Stéphane Xiberras, Wesley ter Haar, Graham Fink, Maurice Levy and many more.  Delegates were also treated to the disembodied head of renowned British evolutionary biologist Professor Richard Dawkins, complete with techno backing, as part of the Saachi & Saatchi New Directors' Showcase – a clip which has already gone viral.   You can check out our repost on the showcase here, including a video interview with Saatchi's Tom Eslinger.


However, the true focus of the week's festivities were the awards – the familiar moulded Lion being the most prestigious addition to any office mantelpiece.  This year's worthy surprise festival hit was Intel/Toshiba's outstanding 'The Beauty Inside,' picking up a total of THREE Grand Prix in Film, Branded Content and Cyber (not to mention 2 Golds, 4 Silvers and 1 Bronze).  The campaign, a touching tale of a young man with a curious affliction, was a winner with juries due to the quality of the storytelling, largely down to B-Reel director Drake Doremus indie aesthetic and sense of auteurship.  We had the good fortune to speak to Drake about the campaign before the awards (see the interview here) and hang out with him whilst out there, so we can say on good authority that a Maker's Mark is the tipple of choice to toast his success.


Other campaigns of note included: McCann Melbourne's 'Dumb Ways To Die,' winner of the Film Grand Prix, copious additional gongs and the most infectious ear-worm of the 2012's; 4Creative and Blink's striking and powerful 'Meet The Superhumans,' continuing it's remarkable run of prizes with a Grand Prix in Film Craft; and Biscuit Filmworks' 'Beach' for Southern Comfort picking up a Gold for Film alongside an entire pride of Lions for Film Craft.

As expected, SourceEcreative members were amongst the big winners in the festival.  Our eye has been drawn to Parasol Island (a Grand Prix, one Gold plus nine additional Lions), BBDO Germany (20 Lions, including the 'Grand Prix for Good'), Saatchi & Saatchi (9 Gold, 16 Silver and 12 Bronze), Draft FCB (a Grand Prix, nine Gold, 12 Silver, 14 Bronze Lions across the network), production company Tool (12 Lions) and Brazilian production house Zola (a Gold and a Bronze) amongst many others.

If we were to list all of the winners in these categories it would break the scrolling-wheel on your mouse, so instead we thought we'd link to a few pieces of past editorial giving some extra info about a handful of champions:

'The Beauty Inside' – Intel / Toshiba – Triple Grand Prix winner (Cyber / Branded Content / Film)
B-Reel director Drake Doremus' 'The Beauty Inside' work for Intel and Toshiba is a piece of branded content that won't stop winning awards.  We chatted to him about how a Sundance award-winner sets out to make a sci-fi/romance online film.

'Bridge Of Life' - Samsung Life Insurance – Titanium winner
Cheil Worldwide's remarkable 'Bridge of Life' campaign picked up a Titanium.  We spoke to the campaign's Creative Director, Hyung-gyun Oh, about the remarkable accomplishment of saving lives with lights.

'Pals' – Robinsons – Silver Film winner
Academy's Robinsons in the UK sees a pair of lads larking around on a summer's day.  We caught a moment with Si & Ad, directors on the project, to discuss the shoot, the directing of kids and how being BFFs helps in putting it up on screen.

'Kiss' – Vodafone – Bronze Film winner
'The Kiss,' Grey London's spot for Vodafone, is a glorious journey through a couple's life, seamlessly woven together and punctuated by a series of lip-locks that convey romance, passion and devotion. We chatted to ECD Nils Leonard about bringing a lifetime to screen.

'98% Human' – Peta – Gold Film Craft winner
The Mill's uncanny '98% Human' film for PETA just won a Gold at Cannes.  We spoke to Animation Director Angus Kneale and the Lead 3D Artist Vince Baertsoen about how you imbue a digital ape with life.

'The Art Of Raw' – G-Star Raw – Bronze Film Craft winner
The spectacular animation, 'The Art Of Raw' for G-Star RAW from Glassworks Amsterdam is a triumph in engaging content, matching exciting images with outstanding music (a specially commissioned piece from Skrillex).  We spoke to Glassworks' MD Phil Linturn about the project.

Members can see all of the winners by clicking here.

Published 27, June 2013

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