Eight phenomenal judges will be using their years of experience and expert opinion to decide which South African creatives from the brand communications industry will be heading off for a once-in-a-lifetime experience at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity during this year’s Cannes Young Lions Competition.
The judges who will hold the fate of hopefuls from around the country in their hands have been announced this year as Ahmed Tilly (executive creative director of Black River FC), Andrew MacKenzie (managing director of Boomtown), Kerry Friend (executive creative director Isobar, South Africa), Mariana O’Kelly (executive creative director of Ogilvy & Mather), Mike Schalit (founding partner Net#Work BBDO, chief creative officer BBDO SA/Africa and founder/chairman, The MAL Foundation), Tshireletso Yvonne Diogo (marketing manager and account executive for media sales at Cinemark) and Xolisa Dyeshan (executive creative director and partner at Joe Public).
These eight have been selected as the cream of the crop when it comes to the industry, ensuring that the very best candidates who have earned their spot at Cannes realise their dream.
Creatives have to be under the age of 30 to enter one of the most esteemed and advantageous competitions in the creative industry – the Cinemark Young Lions Competition. The local leg of the competition will see a two-man team handpicked by the judges as the winners. These two will have an opportunity to travel to the Cannes Lions Festival and represent South Africa in the Young Lions Competition, taking place between 18 and 25 June.
Diogo comments, “Since the category of the competition has been changed from print to film in the last four years, it is simply awe-inspiring to see the work that young talent submits from year to year. Particularly because we have the opportunity to have the film ad screened as a cinema campaign across the 57 Ster-Kinekor cinema complexes nationally.”
