The 10th annual Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors Showcase delivered its usual mix of promising talent, but with a few variations from years past. Presented earlier this week (6/21) at the Cannes International Advertising Festival, the 2000 Saatchi Showcase featured its first director from mainland China, and three animation helmers. The latter is atypical in that previous Showcases have occasionally had at most one animation director, according to Bob Isherwood, the London-based worldwide creative director of Saatchi & Saatchi.
The representation from the animation field also underscored Saatchi’s willingness to look beyond commercials into other disciplines such as music clips and short films to find talent who could down the road make significant contributions to the ad arena. Animation directors Geoffrey De Crecy from the London office of bicoastal/international Partizan and Antoine Bardou-Jacquet of Partizan, Paris, made the Saatchi reel on the strength of music videos. And a short animation film directed by Supercollider of Auckland, New Zealand-based Fat Films gained inclusion into the Showcase.
The alluded-to director from mainland China was Li Wei Ran of Perfect Life Productions, Beijing. He was literally a Saatchi discovery as his honored piece was "Someone’s Child," a UNICEF PSA created by Saatchi’s Beijing office. While there have been past Saatchi Showcase honorees from Hong Kong, the mainland China precedent was deemed significant by Isherwood. "We’ve had a lot of interest from China in the Cannes Festival. It’s an important country that’s opening up to the advertising industry. To have a director make our list recognizes the work and talent starting to be developed there."
In the overall tally, the U.K. topped the Showcase, capturing 10 out of 27 directorial slots. The U.S. registered the next highest tally with six, followed by three for Spain, two each out of Australia and New Zealand, and one apiece for Sweden, South Africa, France and China.
This year’s lineup from the U.K. consisted of Joakim Sandstrom of bicoastal/international The Artists Company (which also reps him in the U.S.); Dom&Nic of London-based Outsider (repped stateside by Oil Factory Films, Hollywood); David F. Knight from MMAD Productions, London; Simon Hunter from John S. Clarke Productions, London; De Crecy from Partizan; Philippe Dussol of Union Commercials, London; Peter Thwaites from Gorgeous, London; Patrick Ryan of New Directions, London; Luke Forsythe of Great Guns, London (available in the U.S. via bicoastal Base Camp Entertainment); and Heidi Easton of Harry Nash, London, a shop which also represents its roster stateside.
The U.S. contingent was comprised of Charles Stone III of "Whassup" fame who directs via C&C Films/Storm Films, New York; Tom Routson of bicoastal Tool of North America; the team of Tom Kuntz and Mike Maguire of bicoastal/international Propaganda Films; the directorial duo Spooner/French from Shooting Gallery Productions, New York; Brian Beletic of bicoastal/international Satellite; and David Levin of bicoastal/international hungry man.
Arguably, another Saatchi honoree could also be regarded as stateside talent: Johan Renck, who has gained prominence in the U.S. via bicoastal HSI Productions in association with Pettersson Ackerlund Renck, Stockholm. Per the Saatchi breakdown, Renck is listed as an entry from Sweden.
The trio from Spain was Julio Del Alamo of Alamo Films, Madrid; Igor Fioravanti of Strange Fruit, Madrid; and Oriol Segarra of Got Film, Barcelona.
Australia’s twosome was Garth Davis of Exit Films, Melbourne; and The Glue Society whose East Sydney-based company is also called The Glue Society.
The pair of New Zealand helmers consisted of Melanie Bridge of Silver Screen Productions, Auckland; and Fat Films’ Supercollider.
The balance of the Saatchi Showcase was rounded out by work from Bruce Paynter of Velocity Afrika, Johannesburg; Ran from Perfect Life Productions; and France’s Bardou-Jacquet of Partizan.
