Vice and 1st for Women Insurance recently paired up and asked South African women: What does it mean to be a woman in South Africa today? The result is a film, which highlights the complexities of South African women beyond our statistics and challenges.

The film also highlights a range of issues – from freedom, barriers and body to motherhood, identity, pain and the future. The film is accompanied by imagery on social media platforms – which feature intricate and intimate stories from some of the women featured in the campaign.

The film – created by Virtue, the creative agency by Vice – marks the launch of a wider campaign – which aims to showcase a number of stories from South African women.

Zog – which was animated by Triggerfish for the UK’s Magic Light Pictures – has been nominated for an for Best Kids’ Animation at the 2019 International Emmy Awards.

Co-directed by two-time Oscar nominee Max Lang (The Gruffalo and Room On The Broom) and multi-award-winning South African Daniel Snaddon (Stick Man), Zog is competing against Grizzy and the Lemmings (France), Jorel’s Brother (Brazil) and Lamput (India). The winner will be announced on Tuesday, 31 March 2020 in Cannes, France.

Zog has already won Best Animation at the Shanghai International TV Festival and the Audience Award for ages three to six at New York International Children’s Film Festival.

In collaboration with Fondation Fondamental and Fnapsy (Fédération Nationale des Associations d’usagers en Psychiatrie), Serviceplan Health France launched a new campaign – which is aimed at raising public awareness around depression – on World Mental Health Day, 10 October 2019. The film, “The Little Empty Passage”, is intended to send the message that depression is an illness, not a weakness of character.

Straddling comedy and drama, the film’s director, Daniel Perez (co-creative director of Serviceplan Paris), shows how patients with obvious pathologies would be treated if their clinical signs were considered as lightly as the signs of depression are sometimes. This spot was broadcast on the internet and social media.

Vellas created the new launch film for the latest instalment of the Ghost Recon franchise. Vellas recently signed to Prettybird UK and US rosters.

There are two versions of the new Vellas-directed Ghost Recon film, one close to 5 minutes long and a 2:35 version. Seen from the point of view of Ghost, an elite US special operations soldier stuck behind enemy lines, the film fires on all cylinders creatively and visually.

The shoot took place in Ukraine and Kiev over a period of four days.