Record-Breaking Cannes Lions Follows Multiple AICP Wins

• MPC won an unprecedented five Cannes Lions and worked on the Grand Prix in Film winner.
• MPC partnered with renowned agency Saatchi & Saatchi on their 27th New Directors’ Showcase presenting the best new up-and-coming directorial talent from around the globe – with a special focus this year on gender diversity.
• The Mill won a Cannes Lion for Animation, as well as three AICP awards in New York.

Receiving a Cannes Lions is a prestigious honor recognizing the most creative and innovative work being done across all forms of global advertising. At the 64th International Festival of Creativity, Technicolor’s MPC and MPC Creative received an unprecedented five Cannes Lions across Animation, VFX, and Viral Film. The Mill, also a Technicolor company, won a Cannes Lion, after already being a three-time award winner at the all-important AICP awards earlier that month in New York.

Here’s a round-up of these highly-coveted advertising awards:

In addition to their five Cannes Lions, MPC joined the filmmakers of We’re the Superhumans, which won the festival’s ultimate accolade, the Grand Prix in Film, on stage. Directed by Blink’s Dougal Wilson for Channel 4, the culturally significant film was an inspirational project for the team to be a part of as it supported coverage of the 2016 Paralympic Games.

One of the festival’s biggest winners was Samsung’s Ostrich film, which collected two Gold Lions for MPC in VFX and Animation, another Gold for the director MJZ’s Matthijs Van Heijningen for Leo Burnett Chicago, as well as two Silver Lions. MPC’s character development team and talented artists in London, LA, and Bangalore worked on the Samsung campaign to “Do What You Can’t” through VR technology.

Another huge winner at this year’s awards was John Lewis’ Buster the Boxer, for which MPC was awarded two Silver Lions, again for Animation and VFX. Directed by Blink's Dougal Wilson for adam&eveDDB, and awarded an additional Silver and two Bronze Lions, the film is the most shared John Lewis ad ever – and the fifth most shared Christmas ad of all time.

Content production studio MPC Creative was awarded a Bronze Lion in Viral Film for Palace Skateboards’ Jonah Hill  in collaboration with Reebok Classics. Directed by Stu Tanju, this viral content piece starring comedic actor Jonah Hill received 406K video views, 340K likes and shares across social – and was named by GQ as “the funniest fashion ad of the year.”

As a bonus to these wins, Berocca’s Be More Berocca, written by JWT and directed by Diarmid Harrison-Murray through MPC Creative, was shortlisted in Animation– a testament to Roccy the chameleon’s body-popping moves and VFX by MPC.

For an added showstopper, MPC partnered with renowned agency Saatchi & Saatchi on their 27th New Directors’ Showcase presenting the best new up-and-coming directorial talent from around the globe – with a special focus this year on gender diversity. Among its contributions, the MPC team employed 3D technology for an introductory film that enabled the audience to experience gender stereotyping from ‘male’ and ‘female’ points of view.

The Mill, a Technicolor company, also won at Cannes, taking home a Silver Lion in Animation for Waitrose’s Coming Home. The visually-stunning Christmas story stars a photo-real CG Scandinavian robin on its real life migration across mountains and sea that has viewers emotionally connecting with every step of its epic journey. The Mill was also shortlisted in Animation for Kia’s Hero’s Journey, and in Visual Effects for the same film as well as Virgin Media’s Delivering Awesome; StubHub’s Machines; Audi’s Duel; and Apple’s Stroll.

The Mill’s presence was widely felt throughout this year’s event. LA Executive Creative Director Phil Crowe was on the jury for this year’s Facebook Young Lions “Story in Seconds” awards, which highlights the next generation of creative leaders and storytellers. The Mill sponsored two riders – LA Managing Director Rani Melendez and Producer Justin Stiebel – on the FireFlies Tour from Geneva to Cannes in support of cancer research. And Carl Addy was a featured speaker with his talk on “The Mutating Creative.”

Back in New York, The Mill won three Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP) awards:

• Visual Effects for Audi’s Duel, a perfectly timed spot told in reverse tale, in collaboration with Rattlingstick and director Ringan Ledwidge; artists at The Mill brought the action to life with matte painted backdrops and a wide variety of CG elements.
• Visual Effects for Hennessy’s The Piccards, created with Droga5 and director Daniel Wolfe. The Mill was part of the team that crafted the visually epic spot’s father-son odyssey into space and sea, a tale of exploration told through stunning artistic representation of their achievements.
• In the Design category, Mill+ was recognized for Motion Graphics for the Offf By Night 2016 title sequence, directed and designed by William Arnold and Creative Director Mario Stipinovich.

Congratulations to all the winners and nominees at both events. Visit the Cannes Lions Player to experience the award winning work from the advertising industry.