[Cannes Lions judges] My Film Lions experience

Brad Reilly: I wrote this as I sat on a train reflecting on the week I’d left behind, flanked by the splendorous azure of the Riviera to my left and the rundown graffiti clad residential blocks to my right. Bisecting these stark contradictions seemed a fitting ending to a week concentrated on doing just that, separating the good from the bad, with the difference not always as clear as one would assume, particularly when based on 21 opinions. [video]

However, after viewing over 3300 films, cutting that down to a shortlist of under 10% and from that list passionately debating and stripping away to award Bronzes, Silvers and eventually 16 Gold Lions, we arrived at our penultimate stop. The decision of what should receive the much-coveted Film Grand Prix. Obviously, this was when the debate we had been practicing the whole week was pushed into the arena to do battle, because it wasn’t cut and dry.

Two stark contradictions: on the one side, the big, brash, visual onslaught of Nike’s Ben Hur in the form of Write the Future and, on the other, the subtle and sublime stealth of Puma’s flirtation with executional genius in the form of After Hours Athlete.

Just watch, feel and vote

After three rounds of debating, intellectualising, rationalising and voting, a winner still could not be decided. After a short break, I suggested that we just watch them in succession and vote. No speaking, no arguing. Just watch, feel and vote.

Tony Granger collected the votes and began to lay them out on the floor, with Puma taking an early lead and surging ahead with seven votes to two. It needed 14. And then Nike got its game on and came charging in typical Nike style – three, four, five, six, seven. Neck and neck, but just for a blink.

Nike never looked back as it dashed for number 14 and clinched the title of 2011 Cannes Lions Film Grand Prix. Write the Future is the biggest commercial I have ever seen. It relentlessly goes about its business of blowing minds and shattering imagination, with every second trying to outdo the one before it.



I suspect it’s what God had in mind when he commanded us to go forth and create global advertising. Much like the flood he also commanded, it covered virtually everything and saturated local markets, too, in Nike’s successful bid to drown out official FIFA sponsor, Adidas. It is supernatural. And then there’s the ark, a vessel of life crafted by human hands to house the warmly familiar, not for everyone, but just a few.

Given the right people and the right time, I believe that we South Africans are more than capable of building an ark, but a flood? I think not.

It is not for lack of ability, but purely a lack of means or, to put it bluntly, dollars. I’m not taking away from the Nike idea, but remove the layer upon layer of A-list celebs, the sheer scale and vastness of multi-national locations, cut it down to a 90 or even a 60 and maybe you’ve got something good, but very doubtfully great. This is probably the spot we would make in SA, based on the same idea.



Puma, however, is something we could’ve made; it is in within our realm of possibility, it is solely based on an idea and creative ability. And it is great. So, looked at from another point of view, you could say this makes Puma a truly global piece. So, in the end, I voted for...

Brad Reilly, chief creative officer of The Jupiter Drawing Room
2011 Film Lions judge