Justin Drape’s Cannes Diary: Judging Film

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Film jury outside.jpgJustin Drape, chief creative officer and co-founder, The Monkeys in Australia is on the Cannes Film Lions jury. Drape, along with many jurors, is reporting exclusively for Campaign Brief.

Film is one of my favourite categories in award shows so I was both elated and honoured to be asked to judge it in Cannes this year. And like the industry at large, film has changed in recent years. A lot.

In 2016 there are online films, viral films, micro-films, social films, promo films, pre-roll films, mobile films, branded content films, short fiction films, short non fiction films, long fiction films, long non fiction films, a non fiction series of films, interactive films, 360 degree films, virtual reality films, case study films about films and… TV & Cinema film to consider.

Cannes treats.jpgThis explains why there are just under 3,000 film entries and the first two days of judging have been long, and there’s still another day to go before we have an official short list. (Oh yeah, and the 35 hours of pre-judging in Sydney before we arrived).

We have 20 jurors from agencies including Anomaly, Mother London, Forsman & Bodenfors, Grey New York, Dentsu Inc., Y&R New York, TBWA VR judging.jpgMedia Arts Lab LA, TRY Norway – all under the watchful eye of jury president, Joe Alexander, CCO of The Martin Agency. We are split into three groups until we finalise a shortlist then we all reconvene to see the results at the end of Day 3.

So it’s too early to say how Australia is faring at the moment, although what I can say is that, despite the plethora of new film categories, the age old film evaluation method still applies: entertain and/or move your audience with an idea.

And you will win.

(Picture 1: 2016 film jury outside the Palais de Festivals, Day 2; Picture 2: A steady hit of sugar is provided throughout the day; Picture 3: Reality gets virtual. My sub jury group: L – R, Lars from Anomoly, Polina from Publicis Italy, Andreas from Grey NY, Anita from JWT Argentina (back) and Sophia from Forsman & Bodenfors in red)

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