Colleen DeCourcy will be honored with this year’s Lion of St. Mark at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity (June 20-24) in Cannes, France. The award recognizes a lifetime of service to creativity in communications.
DeCourcy, former chief creative officer and president of Wieden+Kennedy, is one of the creative industry’s most inspiring leaders. A creative trailblazer, DeCourcy first joined Wieden+Kennedy as global executive creative director in 2013 and announced her retirement from the agency and the advertising industry in 2021. DeCourcy has spent her career leading innovative companies and advocating for a more equitable industry. She was honored with the Fearless Voices award by the organization She Runs It.
Since 2013, Wieden+Kennedy and its network of global offices has amassed 149 Lions at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, one of W+K’s most successful eras. This includes five Grands Prix: four for W+K’s seminal creative work with Nike, including the epic “Nothing Beats a Londoner” campaign by Wieden+Kennedy London, winning the inaugural Social & Influencer Lions Grand Prix in 2018; and in 2020/21 Nike’s lauded “You Can’t Stop Us” by Wieden+Kennedy Portland was awarded a Film Lions Grand Prix.
Alongside receiving the Lion of St. Mark in 2022, DeCourcy will represent the Festival as jury president for Glass: The Lion for Change, the award that celebrates culture-shifting creativity. At previous festivals, she has stood as the Titanium Lions jury president (2019), jury president for the now-retired Cyber Lions (2017), as well as serving on both the Titanium Lions jury and the Cyber Lions jury across multiple years.
Commenting on being named the Lion of St. Mark recipient, DeCourcy shared, “I’m drawn to the fact that creativity – regardless of who or where it comes from – can change this industry and our world. If I’m proud of anything, it’s that I’ve been able to create space for people to unlock their own creative potential, showing there is room for all of us here.”
Susie Walker, VP Awards & Insights, Lions, commented, “We’re thrilled that Colleen DeCourcy will be honored with this year’s Lion of St. Mark. A creative pioneer, she has advocated for parity in the industry throughout her influential career, demonstrating creativity as a driver for change. We would also like to thank Colleen for bringing her creative expertise to one of the festival’s most vital awards, Glass: The Lion for Change, as jury president this year.”
Philip Thomas, chairman, Lions, commented, “Colleen DeCourcy is not only a hugely influential creative leader, she has been vital to the Lions, bringing her immense creative prowess to the jury rooms and Festival stages, over many years. Under Colleen’s creative leadership, Wieden+Kennedy has delivered brave, boundary-breaking, multi-Lion-winning work. Her creativity has truly inspired the global industry to raise the creative bar. We’re absolutely delighted to present Colleen DeCourcy with the Lion of St. Mark at the Festival.”
Rom-Com Mainstay Hugh Grant Shifts To The Dark Side and He’s Never Been Happier
After some difficulties connecting to a Zoom, Hugh Grant eventually opts to just phone instead.
"Sorry about that," he apologizes. "Tech hell." Grant is no lover of technology. Smart phones, for example, he calls the "devil's tinderbox."
"I think they're killing us. I hate them," he says. "I go on long holidays from them, three or four days at at time. Marvelous."
Hell, and our proximity to it, is a not unrelated topic to Grant's new film, "Heretic." In it, two young Mormon missionaries (Chloe East, Sophie Thatcher) come knocking on a door they'll soon regret visiting. They're welcomed in by Mr. Reed (Grant), an initially charming man who tests their faith in theological debate, and then, in much worse things.
After decades in romantic comedies, Grant has spent the last few years playing narcissists, weirdos and murders, often to the greatest acclaim of his career. But in "Heretic," a horror thriller from A24, Grant's turn to the dark side reaches a new extreme. The actor who once charmingly stammered in "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and who danced to the Pointer Sisters in "Love Actually" is now doing heinous things to young people in a basement.
"It was a challenge," Grant says. "I think human beings need challenges. It makes your beer taste better in the evening if you've climbed a mountain. He was just so wonderfully (expletive)-up."
"Heretic," which opens in theaters Friday, is directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, co-writers of "A Quiet Place." In Grant's hands, Mr. Reed is a divinely good baddie — a scholarly creep whose wry monologues pull from a wide range of references, including, fittingly, Radiohead's "Creep."
In an interview, Grant spoke about these and other facets of his character, his journey... Read More