Cannes Jury Insights: Craft and Design Lions

Describing this category as the “one to watch,” Resh began the conference by saying how her jury saw “a huge surge of technology, a return to pure digital craft, and an abundance of untold narratives coming into the work to be seen and heard.”

Although they witnessed the predicted trend of work using AI and machine learning tools, she had a word of warning for future entrants: it must be technology with a purpose - preferably uniting “creativity, tech and purpose” in harmony.

“There was a vibrant tapestry of untold narratives… giving voice to important cultural topics,” she said, explaining how the best work didn’t just “master the tools,” but instead “used them to resonate on a human level.” After a “tremendous amount of debate” she shared that the Grand Prix winner was selected as Nike’s ‘Never Done Evolving’ campaign featuring Serena Williams, calling it a “timeless” work that excites her for what’s to come.

“Film craft is alive and well across the world,” announced Kim, stating how being the jury president for the Film Craft Lions made her leave the room “a much better director.”

For the judging, Kim said she had a mantra that she repeated to the jurors to help them separate the craft from the film: “How does the film craft make the work extraordinary?” Explaining that they had to take into consideration various crafts, from the sound design to the directing itself, she said that one guiding principle for the highest award in the category - which went to ‘We Cry Together - a Short Film’ - was that she “wanted the Grand Prix winner to ‘feel 2023’.”

“In a world of surface visuals, the Grand Prix winner made us all feel,” she said, describing how the different crafts within the film came together to make something brave and shocking that moved the judges. “The direction is impeccable, from the choice of cast to the performances, the choice of a single take and the camera choreography in every frame - it’s immaculate… I’m very blown away and inspired by this piece of work.”

Strong in the belief that craft can change people’s perceptions, Yoshihiro introduced his jury’s approach to this category with three key things they tried to keep in mind: “Enrichment over convenience, emotion over function, dreams over efficiency.”

While this category did see an AI presence, the jury president shared that the main trends were that the contenders were campaigns centered around being humorous, fun and honest. He also said that many of the awarded pieces were based around solving local problems with local solutions.

In this vein, the Grand Prix went to ‘My Japan Railway’ - a design campaign for Japan Railway’s 50th anniversary- in a completely unanimous decision which, according to other jurors in attendance, had little competition for the top spot.

The three pillars for Quinnton’s jury process were “process, craft and impact.” Comparing himself and the jurors to “kids in a candy store,” he said that the design jury was on the lookout for fresh and innovative ideas - something that is certainly represented in the Grand Prix-awarded work.

“We were debating what would be transcendent, as related to the project’s impact - how design as a process makes spaces for humans in the greater context of humanity,” he said. “Thematically, we were seeing a lot of projects that were pushing the boundaries of what design meant, so the question we came up with was: “How can we promote innovation without abandoning the fundamentals of craft and eloquent problem solving - especially when playing in the commercial space?”

With the Grand Prix project ‘ADLaM’, he explained that Microsoft wasn’t simply preserving a culture, but enabling through design a culture to create something through its own point of view. “Their language was dying and it wasn’t being transcribed, so they accelerated the culture of a group of people who will [now] have a profound impact on the world.”