With 2023 about to fully enter the proverbial rear-view mirror, it’s time for reflection on varied fronts, including assessing what work was among the year’s most worthwhile creatively.
Determining any year’s “best” is a highly subjective proposition so SHOOT staffers looked to at least narrow the field by first culling through our weekly Top Spots as well as our “The Best Work You May Never See” gallery entries throughout 2023. We then added to the field select pieces of work that might have fallen through the cracks and not earned weekly Top Spot (perhaps beaten out by another piece in a given week) or “Best Work” distinction–work which we had covered extensively in other stories during the course of the calendar year.
We also reviewed our quarterly Top Ten Tracks and VFX/Animation charts, ultimately choosing a Top Five from each.
So here are SHOOT’s selections for the Best Work of 2023 divided into: Top Spots; The Best Work You May Never See; and our Top Ten Music/Sound Tracks and Top Ten VFX/Animation entries.
Top Spots of the Year
This time around, all five pieces of work in our rundown of the crème de la crème in 2023 were SHOOT Top Spots of the Week
SHOOT’s pick for the number one content slot of 2023–a film in a Deutsche Telekom campaign from adam&eveBerlin–is apropos of a year in which artificial intelligence became a hot button topic. Directed by Sergej Moya via Berlin-based production company Tempomedia, this hero film raises awareness about the practice of sharenting, where parents share personal details and images of their children’s lives online. From an image of a nine-year-old actress, called “Ella,” springs the film’s protagonist. With the help of the latest AI technology, a virtually aged deepfake of the girl was created. In the video, you can see how the “grown-up Ella” turns to her surprised parents in a message screened at a movie theater. She sends a warning from the future and confronts mother and father with the consequences of sharing pictures of their child on the internet. By carelessly sharing children’s photos and other data, such as names or ages, via social media and short messaging services, guardians unintentionally expose chi
ldren to risks. Possible consequences include profiling by data brokers, hacking, facial recognition, pedophilia and other threats to privacy and security.
Speaking of privacy, our second place spot is Apple’s “Waiting Room”–which tackles health data privacy or the lack thereof–with humor. Directed by Craig Gillespie of MJZ, the film takes place in a waiting room filled with people, as a narrator comedically shares the patients’ most personal health info with everyone within earshot, demonstrating how much of the health data that is shared digitally goes unprotected. However, our narrator is at a loss upon crossing paths with our hero iPhone user whose health data, protected by Apple, can’t be shared.
Third place in the SHOOT countdown goes to The Bridge, a four-minute film for nonprofit PAWS NY from agency Klick Health. The bittersweet animated short spotlights the mental health benefits that pets provide to humans. The film is inspired by a true story about a lonely New Yorker having suicidal thoughts and an abandoned dog experiencing parallel lives of rejection, until their paths repeatedly cross on the Brooklyn Bridge, and a bond begins to grow. The short was animated by Lightfarm Studios with Gabbo Freire and Ramon Lima directing.
Finishing fourth in our rundown is Coca-Cola’s “Masterpiece” directed by Henry Schofield via Academy Films for agency Blitzworks, with Electric Theatre Collective serving as VFX house. The film features universally recognized works of art by the world’s most famous masters. Set in an art gallery and jumping off from the iconic 1962 “Large Coca-Cola” by Andy Warhol, the film shows a Coca-Cola bottle being passed from artwork to artwork as an entire universe magically comes together to deliver a moment of refreshment to someone who needs it most.
Rounding out the top five is a Super Bowl spot for Tubi, the video-on-demand service. Directed by Tom Kuntz of MJZ for agency Mischief @ No Fixed Address, this :60 titled “Rabbit Holes” followed the everyday lives of various people who are unexpectedly plucked out of the real world by oversized rabbits and dropped into the magical world of Tubi’s library of entertainment and escapist content.
“Best Work” gallery
There’s a decided poignancy to the top five entries from SHOOT’s 2023 “The Best Work You May Never See” gallery, starting with the Canadian Down Syndrome Society’s “Care Instructions” directed by Yael Staav via Animals for FCB Canada. Medical advances have seen the life expectancy for Canadians with Down syndrome more than double over the past 40 years. The campaign includes this video titled “Care Instructions–Wendy” in which an aging parent offers heartfelt words of encouragement and advice to a future sibling caregiver.
Our #2 Best Work entry is German agency Jung von Matt’s “Breaking the Silence” music video for ArtHelps, sending a message of hope to Ukraine by turning repurposed weaponry into musical instruments. Part of the “Resistruments” campaign, the music video–directed by Samuel Ramm of ArtHelps–features Ukrainian youth playing the instruments.
Taking third place is the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s “Talk Away The Dark,” which introduces us to a depressed man enshrouded in darkness. But this piece casts some light on him and offers hope–the light coming from a daughter who talks to him, draws him out as he starts to discuss his feelings. This piece was directed by Vincent Rene Lortie of The Corner Shop for TBWAChiatDay New York.
A more lighthearted spot underscoring the love between parent and child is depicted in our #4 entry, Cadbury Milk Chocolate’s “Speakerphone” directed by Steve Rogers of Somesuch for VCCP in London. “Speakerphone” opens on a man sitting in a car pensively. Interrupted by his son calling, the conversation plays out on speakerphone. The son phoned to find out how his dad’s first day at a new job went. Dad is down as you can see and hear the doubt he feels. The son offers reassurance. The film concludes with the son telling his dad to check the glove compartment. There he left his father a bar of Cadbury Dairy Milk.
Finishing fifth in the countdown is a spot in which a flip book is deployed to push back against the banning of books. Venables Bell + Partners launched The Unbanned Book Club, an initiative that will provide communities in Duval County, Florida, access to books currently banned and challenged in the local school systems. Animator on the flip book video was Luke Davisson of Optimyst.
VFX/Animation
Our #1 entry from the quarterly Top Ten VFX/Animation Charts of 2023 has, like our lead Top Spot entry, an AI bent. Irish homelessness charity, Dublin Simon Community, launched this brand film by using cutting edge AI technology. Created by BBDO Dublin and directed by Diogo Kalil of production company Lobo, the film entitled Unfair City is being used to highlight the growing inequality of homelessness as it hopes to raise funds for some of the most vulnerable people in our society. Unfair City tells the story of Justin Cannon. Formerly homeless, Cannon now advocates and volunteers for Dublin Simon. Cannon was interviewed and his story animated using AI image generators. In this sense, the AI imagery was created by Cannon’s own words. The end result is a moving film that feels true to his experience. It also shows how, almost counterintuitively, the use of AI can help make the telling of the story feel human and authentic by protecting the person’s dignity and privacy.
Placing second is PAWS NY’s aforementioned The Bridge.
Third place goes to Coca-Cola’s aforementioned “Masterpiece.”
Finishing fourth is Air Canada’s “Once Upon a Tree” directed by Dan Marsh of animation studio Hornet for FCB Toronto and Montreal. “Once Upon a Tree” is the story of two button-cute nutcracker bears who, after a year of being tucked away together, find themselves on separate sides of the Xmas tree. Distraught at the thought of spending the holidays apart, a series of heroic efforts to reconnect ensue but to no avail. But with a little help from Air Canada, the tiny wooden bears reunite with a heartwarming embrace.
And rounding out the top five is Apple’s “Fuzzy Feelings,” a live-action/stop-motion animation holiday film directed by Lucia Aniello via Hungry Man, and stop motion-animator and director Anna Mantzaris of Passion Pictures. The film introduces us to an office worker by day and stop-motion artist by night. As an employee, she works for a boss whom she’s grown to hate. So at night, her stop-motion creations put him in dire straits. The young woman makes her stop-motion fare by deploying the iPhone 15 Pro camera and a MacBook Air with M2 to edit it. However, when work takes a turn and she starts to see her boss in another light, so too do her stop-motion endeavors as we see the value of working towards a kinder world, and what better time to start than during the holiday season?
Click here for our Top Five VFX & Animation Chart for 2023.
Music/Sound
The top entry in our Music Tracks Chart for 2023 is Dunkin’s “Holiday Unboxing” out of Leo Burnett Chicago, directed by Henry-Alex Rubin of SMUGGLER and scored by music and sound design house Beacon Street Studios. The commercial is shot from the donuts’ POV, looking up from a box at the happy folks–including Santa himself–seeking to grab a treat for themselves.
Scoring second place is the aforementioned Coca-Cola’s “Masterpiece.” Music/sound house was Yessian Music.
Taking third place is American Express’ “Rhythm of the Island” starring Lin-Manuel Miranda who shares the sounds of Puerto Rico which give him creative inspiration. The spot was created by Dentsu and directed by Luis Gerard. Music house was Human, with sound design from Bill Chesley of Henryboy.
Finishing fourth is the Courageous Conversation Global Foundation’s “Driving While Black” which introduces a car that protects Black drivers from police and law enforcement agencies. Created in partnership with agencies Goodby Silverstein & Partners and Critical Mass, the campaign addresses police encounters during routine traffic stops through a vehicle equipped with such features as transparent doors, so there’s no suspicion of what the driver is in possession of. Or a “10&2” steering wheel that keeps hands visible at all times. And they even eliminated the trunk, leaving officers with nothing to search or seize. Scoring this short film were music house Yessian and sound design/mix shop Lime Studios..
And rounding out the top five is Tubi’s aforementioned “Rabbit Holes,” with sound design by Brian Emrich, and Walker serving as the music house.
Click here for our Top Five Music Tracks Chart for 2023
