Ireland’s Oscar-nominated film director Lenny Abrahamson will shoot the winning script for the new Young Lions film category being entered for this year’s Cannes creative festival. The winning campaign will be shot by commercial production company Pull the Trigger before being aired by Wide Eye Media in Irish cinemas later this year.
Pull the Trigger was formed with the merger of Blinder and Maxine Brady’s Max Films.
Abrahamson’s film Room, which is based on Emma Donoghue’s bestseller of the same name, has been nominated for four Oscars – namely best film, best director, best actress and best screenplay. Abrahamson’s other movies include Adam and Paul, What Richard Did and Frank. His commercials include the Carlsberg series created by OwensDDB for Diageo.
The announcement was made at an event hosted by the Institute of Advertising Practitioners in Ireland (IAPI). Attending the briefing was head of entries development at Cannes Lions, Simon Cook, who gave a lowdown on how adlanders can hope to win an award in France. Cook covered various topics and explained how to find the best place to stay in Cannes.
Last year, IAPI launched a three-year strategy to boost Irish entries and attending delegates to position Ireland as a creative hub. To that end, IAPI recently scooped the Cannes Lions 2015 ‘New Rep of the Year’ after a 34 per cent increase in entries to Cannes Lions from Irish agencies and a 170 per cent rise in Irish delegates attending the event.
IAPI is again hosting its Young Lions in tandem with Google, Shutterstock and Wide Eye Media. Six young creatives will represent Ireland in France where they will compete against the world’s best young advertising minds. The brief is to respond with a campaign for the Peter McVerry Trust. Cook said the challenge now is for Irish agencies to win at Cannes.
