Five Canadian agencies won Lions in Film, still one of the most highly regarded competitions at the International Festival of Creativity.
Leo Burnett was the only Canadian agency awarded gold in the competition, with the Lion going to a Festival favourite “#LikeAGirl” for P&G’s Always brand.
FCB Toronto walked away with its first Lion for this year’s Festival — a Silver — for PFLAG’s “Nobody’s Memories,” a video featuring fictional wedding day footage of same-sex couples spanning five decades.
“’Nobody’s Memories’ was very well-liked by a lot of the jurors. It was awarded on the strength of the idea and the simple way it communicated the message,” Taxi executive creative director and Film judge Darren Clarke, told Marketing.
Canada also went home with three Bronze Film Lions: Grey Canada with “Not Allowed” for Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America (already a multi-Lion winner), LG2 with “Tied” for Société de l’assurance automobile du Quebec, and BBDO Toronto for Wrigley Canada’s “Struck by a Rainbow.” The Film Lions were handed out along with the Film Craft, Branded Content & Entertainment and Titanium and Integrated Lions druing the final gala of the Festival.
Addressing reporters during a press conference Saturday morning, Film jury president Tor Myhren said the competition is the oldest category at the Festival, but in a lot of ways it’s also the newest.
“Video is the fastest growing thing online, so we have to create new ways to tell stories, new ways to use film in the online space,” said Myhren, who is also president and worldwide chief creative officer at Grey.
When it came time to selecting the Grand Prix winners — one for television and one for online — Myhren said the jury was looking for “something new, really new.”
“New can mean super scary,” he said. “New can be a little bit out of control, and I think we found that.”
What the jury found was a television Grand Prix winner in “100” from Brazil’s F/Nasca Saatchi & Saatchi Sao Paulo for camera maker Leica in celebration of its centennial. The decision, said Myhren, was nearly unanimous.
“This is a nearly perfect piece of film, visual storytelling that is uniquely stunning, the writing is absolutely amazing,” he said.
For the online Grand Prix, the jury selected Geico’s “Unskippable: Family,” a piece that “breaks every single rule of filmmaking,” said Myhren.
“Instead of begging you to watch this ad, they challenge you not to watch it and you can’t take your eyes off of it,” he said. Though part of a campaign, the jury selected “Family” to show that “film can reinvent the way we look at media, even the least sexy media in the world, which is pre-roll.”
Unlike the top honour given for television, Taxi’s Clarke said there was a lot of discussion around the online Grand Prix. #LikeAGirl, he said was definitely in the running, but “we were looking for something that broke new ground.”
While it’s a powerful integrated idea, the film execution for #LikeAGirl “wasn’t deemed as strong as the Grand Prix,” he said.
FILM CRAFT
Also awarded Saturday night were the Film Craft Lions with the Grand Prix going to “Monty’s Christmas” by Adam&Eve DDB London for British retailer John Lewis.
“Our decision is absolutely from the heart,” said jury president João Daniel Tikhomiroff, founder, partner-director at Brazil’s Mixer. “Of course all the golds were brilliant executions and based on a great idea, but in the end our choice was what really touched our hearts.”
Canada had four entries shortlisted, but none of them converted to Lions. Montreal’s La Cavalerie, however, showed up on the winners list as one of the production companies credited on Leo Burnett Paris’ “37 Days” for Atlantic Group, which won two Gold Lions.
A total of 2,205 entries from 47 countries were submitted this year.
