CANNES – Last year’s big winners for ‘I Will What I Want’ campaign, Droga5 and Under Armour once again emerged as one of the 2016 Cannes Lions Grand Prix awardees for a powerful film featuring champion swimmer Michael Phelps who came out of retirement to swim for one last summer.
The film is part of Under Armour’s global “Rule Yourself” campaign. Working on the creative idea, “It’s what you do in the dark that puts you int the light,” the film by production house, Epoch, portrayed Phelps and two of Under Armour’s athletes as becoming invisible in pursuit of athletic greatness.
In a press conference, jury president and Great Guns founder and CEO, Laura Gregory shared, “we were looking for details and choices that individuals make to elevate work beyond the written script.”
Passing on the mic to fellow jury member, Steffen Gentis, Chief Production Officer at BBDO Germany added, “at the end of the day, it’s the one piece that transcended the craft. It reached out and touched us. The craft became invisible and we were just completely immersed in it.”
Gregory also revealed that ‘Henessy the Piccards,’ also by Droga5 and production companies, Somesuch, Anonymous Content and Mill, was also a strong contender for the Grand Prix and was awarded a Gold Lion.
Asia-Pacific
Japanese production company, Watts of Tokyo was awarded with a Gold Lion for the gender equality film, ‘High School Girl?’ for Shiseido which Gregory revealed was among the jury’s favorites.
Other APAC agencies have also won Bronze Lions for Film Craft:
- The Boys ‘Impact’, ‘Swimming’ and ‘Cycle’ for Pacific Brands Underwear Group Australia by Clemenger BBDO Melbourne
- ‘Ultimate Death Scene’ for Sea Shepherd Australia by The Works Sydney
- ‘Firefly Man’ for Ocedel by NITTO Tokyo
- ‘A Different Paris’ for Airbnb by TBWA\Singapore
- ‘Treasure Today’ for Memorieslab by Fred & Farid Shanghai
- ‘Shark Dancer’ for Mate S by Ogilvy & Mather Shanghai
- ‘House Maid’ for Kataoka&Co.,Ltd by AOI Pro Tokyo
See the full list of winners below:
Cannes Lions 2016 Winners: Film Craft Lions by adobo magazine
