Canada has received a total of 18 nominations in the Film category at Cannes, out of a total of 218 on the shortlist. Nine agencies have made it through to the final judging round, starting with Cossette, which has three nominations in the Savoury Foods subcategory for the explosive Pizza Pops spots ‘Karate Chop,’ ‘Monkeys’ and ‘Robot Friend’ for General Mills Canada. The spots were produced by Holiday Films in Toronto.
Taxi Canada also raised the interest of the 22-person-strong Film jury – led by BBDO North America chair and CCO David Lubars, who also chaired this year’s Print jury – with its work for Pfizer’s Viagra brand. Three tongue-in-cheek spots, ‘Antiquing,’ ‘Strolling’ and ‘Reading,’ received recognition in the Pharmacy category. The spots were produced by Toronto-based Soft Citizen.
Five Canadian agencies have two each on the shortlist: Leo Burnett Toronto got two in Household: Cleaning Products for ‘Pee Pee’ and ‘Pen Cap’ for P&G’s Fairy dishsoap brand; Zig got one for Best Buy’s ‘Twins’ spot in Retail Stores and one for Pfizer’s touching ‘Message’ spot in Corporate Image; Doug Agency scored points with the hardworking jury with two spots celebrating short attention spans – ‘Catfight’ and ‘Scooter’ – for the Canadian Film Centre Worldwide Short Film Festival in Entertainment & Leisure; John St. got two for War Child Canada’s ‘Help Child Soldiers’ and ‘Anthem’ campaign spots – one in Fundraising & Appeals and one in Internet Film; Ogilvy also got two in Internet Film for the latest spots in the shape-shifting Shreddies campaign, ‘Graph’ and ‘Letters.’
Finally, DDB Canada and BBDO Toronto received one nomination apiece. BBDO’s ‘Taxi’ spot for Pepsi-QTG’s Tropicana Tropics made it onto the Non-Alcoholic Drinks list, while DDB Canada’s Vancouver office got one in Other Vehicles, Auto Products & Services for ‘Chase,’ the hilarious Canadian take on a car chase for Midas.
Canada had the third-highest number of entries in the Film category this year, after the US and the UK, with 177. The jury waded through 3,453 entries this year, down by almost 1,200 from last year’s total of 4,626. The winners will be announced this Saturday.
CORRECTION: In yesterday’s Flash, Cossette Interactif Montreal’s Bronze Design Lion win, for its ‘High 5’ reports for Montreal-based non-profit entrepreneurship org Enablis, was omitted from the story. We regret the error.
