BBDO shops scored top honors at this past weekend’s Kinsale Shark Awards and Festival. AMV BBDO London scored the Grand Prix for Bodyform/Libresse’s “Blood Normal,” which also picked up a Creative Bravery Award.
“Blood Normal” shows women dealing with their periods in real-life scenarios, breaking taboos about dealing with menstrual cycles. Daniel Wolfe via Somesuch directed the piece, part of a campaign in which the feminine care brands also commissioned aspiring filmmakers to make short films that openly reference periods.
Besides AMV BBDO’s strong showing, Kinsale also saw BBDO New York earn Agency of the Year distinction. And the Network of the Year mantle was bestowed upon BBDO.
Meanwhile, another Creative Bravery Award went to Mother for KFC’s “FCK.” And Rothko scored the Irish Agency of the Year designation.
Carol Freeman and Christian Shilling won, respectively, Best Irish New Director and Best New International Director, honors which were voted on by the festival audience. Freeman was recognized for The Bird and The Whale, an oil paint on glass animated film in which a baby whale separated from his family discovers a caged bird, the sole survivor of a shipwreck. Together they struggle to survive at sea. Schilling scored with three films: Kill the Noise, Pomegranate, and The Man with a Coin. The latter–an offbeat comedic piece in which a man repeatedly decides his fate with the flip of a coin–earlier this year earned Schilling a slot in SHOOT’s 2018 New Directors Showcase.
Gold film winners included Riff Raff Films for Nike’s “Nothing Beats A Londoner” out of Wieden+Kennedy London, and VCCP for Cadbury’s “Beach Huts” and “Coast.” James Rouse via Outsider directed the Cadbury fare while Riff Raff’s Megaforce helmed “Nothing Beats A Londoner” which back in February earned SHOOT’s Top Spot of the Week distinction.
Film craft golds went to Rothko, Motherland, Nexus, Sonny London, Framestore, MPC, Riff Raf, Blur Films and BBDO NY.
Best short film went to Wren Boys, directed by Harry Lighton, for Try Hard Films.
Best music video was won by CANADA for Rosalia’s “Malamente.”
In design, The Line Animation and Energy BBDO won for “Gucci Hallucinations” and “Prescribed to Death,” respectively.
Seven golds were awarded for PR and Interactive including Rothko’s “JFK Unsilenced,” BETC’s “Save our Species” for Lacoste, and AMV BBDO’s “Trash Aisles” for LadBible/Plastic Oceans Foundation.
Music and sound golds went to Goldstein for Dementia UK’s “Together Again” and to Factory for John Lewis & Partnership’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
No golds were awarded in digital, but two silvers went to makemepulse for Canal+ “The Real Voice of Louis XIV” and BBDO New York for Downtown Records “Live Looper.”
Kinsale winners this year spanned the U.K., Ireland, the U.S., Canada, Thailand, Germany, France, Belgium and Sweden.
For a full list of winners at the 56th Kinsale Shark Awards & Festival, click here.
Jennifer Kent On Why Her Feature Directing Debut, “The Babadook,” Continues To Haunt Us
"The Babadook," when it was released 10 years ago, didn't seem to portend a cultural sensation.
It was the first film by a little-known Australian filmmaker, Jennifer Kent. It had that strange name. On opening weekend, it played in two theaters.
But with time, the long shadows of "The Babadook" continued to envelop moviegoers. Its rerelease this weekend in theaters, a decade later, is less of a reminder of a sleeper 2014 indie hit than it is a chance to revisit a horror milestone that continues to cast a dark spell.
Not many small-budget, first-feature films can be fairly said to have shifted cinema but Kent's directorial debut may be one of them. It was at the nexus of that much-debated term "elevated horror." But regardless of that label, it helped kicked off a wave of challenging, filmmaker-driven genre movies like "It Follows," "Get Out" and "Hereditary."
Kent, 55, has watched all of this — and those many "Babadook" memes — unfold over the years with a mix of elation and confusion. Her film was inspired in part by the death of her father, and its horror elements likewise arise out of the suppression of emotions. A single mother (Essie Davis) is struggling with raising her young son (Noah Wiseman) years after the tragic death of her husband. A figure from a pop-up children's book begins to appear. As things grow more intense, his name is drawn out in three chilling syllables — "Bah-Bah-Doooook" — an incantation of unprocessed grief.
Kent recently spoke from her native Australia to reflect on the origins and continuing life of "The Babadook."
Q: Given that you didn't set out to in any way "change" horror, how have you regarded the unique afterlife of "The... Read More