STORY Patrick Weiss, Stefan Jermann
PHOTOS Stefan Jermann
Sun 21st, 2023
Last year’s Cannes Lions festival of creativity revolved around the ongoing Ukraine War. This year, the conflict is far from finished, so it will be interesting to see which initiatives are presented. Residente’s poignant music video, “This is not America” took home the Grand Prix for Entertainment last year; this June, from the 19th to the 23rd, we can look forward to the Cannes Lions Festival and find out what kind of powerful messages it conveys once again.
Last summer, tensions ran high during the opening keynote, when Gary Kasparov, the world chess champion, made a strong statement of criticism against the Russian government. The Ukrainian Government took the opportunity to launch an impressive Ukraine fundraising campaign that was heavily displayed in the gallery. It was certainly one of the most moving pieces of work that has been displayed at the Lions in 2022.
One of the biggest topics of the year was the development of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). Although the market has calmed and adjusted since then, Gary Vaynerchuck and Paris Hilton provided a captivating keynote on how to utilize NFTs as tangible assets. Combining industry knowledge and entertainment, Hilton has since invested heavily in the NFT market. Although the metaverse was not a very popular topic in 22, we remain eager to monitor the sector’s progress this year.
“Superhumans was a hugely influential campaign. The previous films have been used in the National Curriculum and transformed the way British society views both the Paralympics and Paralympians.”
Linsey Atkin, 4creative
The Grand Prix Films Lions event did not fail to impress. A beautiful movie titled “Super.Human” was created for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics, filled with striking visuals, humour, and captivating energy.
We are looking forward to the Cannes Lions this year, and observing how the creative industry handles the AI revolution. At the beginning of this year the AI revolution steered via Open AI, the Chat GPT platform. It has taken the industry by storm. We are eager to see what solutions are discussed on how to embrace this new technology to our advantage.