Film Craft, Digital Craft and Industry Craft 2022 winners

Serviceplan’s Film Craft winner takes an ‘emotional journey’

‘The Wish’, a powerful three-minute film from Serviceplan Germany, has won this year’s Film Craft Grand Prix at Cannes Lions. Created for retailer Penny, the emotionally-charged film explores the negative impact that COVID-19 has had on the lives of young people.

Film Craft Jury President Patrick Milling-Smith, co-founder and global CEO of production company Smuggler, said: “We came into the judging process wanting to explore the distinction between Film and Film Craft. The media landscape is so crowded with disposable work that we wanted to focus on the way in which great craft can help a piece of film really stand out. We’re all excited by the potential of tech, but it shouldn’t eclipse the role of craft.”

In ‘The Wish’, a mother sits a dining table with her son. When he asks her what she wants, the film shifts to an internal monologue in which she laments all of the experiences he has been missing as a result of lockdowns. “In the wrong hands, it could have been too sentimental. But every aspect of this film is beautifully-observed. It grabs you from the outset and takes you on an emotional journey. We saw a few pieces of COVID-19 work but this really stood out.”

The jury also awarded 11 Gold Lions to five campaigns from the UK, US and Germany.

An app to help rebuild Ukraine

The winner of the 2022 Digital Craft Grand Prix is an innovative and inspiring tech-driven campaign called Backup Ukraine. It was entered by New York-based Virtue Worldwide in partnership with UN cultural organisation UNESCO and Polycam X, a 3D scanning app.

Prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Polycam X was essentially a prosumer technology that allowed users to scan physical objects via their iPhones and iPads. After the start of the invasion of Ukraine, it was repurposed so that anyone in the country could download the app and use it to scan and upload digital renderings of significant landmarks. As a result, Ukrainians have been able to store a digital record of their culture in the cloud before it is destroyed by the Russian army.

Jury President Luciana Haguiara, executive creative director of Media.Monks Brazil, said:

“We wanted to choose an example of digital craft that could improve people’s lives in the real world. And we wanted something that had the power to inspire other related areas of craft.”

The Digital Craft jury also awarded three Gold Lions, including one for Radio & Audio Grand Prix winner The Unfiltered History. Speaking of the category as a whole, Haguiara said: “We saw some really high-speed evolution this year. There were interesting examples of digital being used as a tool to place people at the heart of the conversation.”

Industry Craft winners spells hope for coral

An environmentally-themed campaign which saw a pet food manufacturer help reverse the destruction of a dying coral reef has won the Industry Craft Grand Prix for 2022. The innovative project was entered by AMV BBDO London on behalf of Mars Petcare’s Sheba brand.

Entitled Hope Reef, the campaign centred on efforts to revive a coral reef in Indonesia. A new living coral bed was grown in the shape of the word Hope – drawing on the expertise of marine scientists and local communities. The word was so large that it formed the basis of a striking aerial image that has subsequently gone viral around the world. More significantly, the reef dramatically reversed the decline in both living coral and the local fish population.

Jury President Nils Leonard, co-founder of Uncommon Creative Studio, said:

“We wanted to choose a campaign that really mattered, something that demonstrated how craft is more than just moustache-twiddling."

"For us, this campaign exemplified the power of typography – and at the same time was an example of a brand really trying to make a difference.”

The jury also awarded five Gold Lions to four separate campaigns, from Brazil, Japan, Sweden and the US. In terms of trends, Leonard said: “We saw a lot of work relating to web3. But we also saw a refreshing return to super-realistic, visceral photography.”