Young Director Award Launches With New Category

The Young Director Award [YDA] today announced that entries for the 2016 Awards will be open on Monday 14 March.

The YDA, organised by the Commercial Film Producers of Europe [CFP-E] and supported since its inception by shots, began in 1998 is one of the most prestigious competitions in the advertising calendar with its award show held in Cannes during the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

The competition is broken into six regions [Europe; North America; Latin America; Asia Pacific; Africa and the Middle East] and 10 categories [Animation; Broadcast; Film School; Music Video; Short Film; Test Commercial; Art Video; Web Film; Charity commercial]

As well as the usual nine categories, this year the YDA has announced that a new category is to be added to the event: Changing the World Frame By Frame.

CFP-E president and YDA chairman, Francois Chilot.

Created by CFP-E president and YDA chairman, Francois Chilot [pictured above], together with BBH co-founder and co-founder of The Garage Soho, Sir John Hegarty, Changing the World Frame By Frame aims to give filmmakers a chance to highlight positive and impactful initiatives for global social responsibility.

Sir John Hegarty, co-creator of the new YDA category.

The YDA wants to see and share extraordinary filmic stories based around social issues which affect the world. The entries to the new category are to highlight stories that cannot be confined to a traditional advertising spot and the YDA encourages a more documentary approach.

Examples of stories which filmmakers could build their film around are below, but any story which highlights social issues will be accepted.

- Education and its fundamental role in social and economic development
- Clean capitalism
- Smarter cities and more efficient use of natural resources
- Product consumption and how choices impact our health & happiness
- Learning programmes that shape tomorrow’s leaders
- Waste reduction and recycling into tomorrow’s consumer products
- New career choices towards a sustainable economy
- Future technologies and how they affect societies

Entry to the competition opens on Monday March 14 and the deadline for entry is Sunday May 15 2016.

To enter any of the categories, directors must have no more than three years professional experience and the entered work must be one of the director’s first four pieces of work within the category they are entering. A full breakdown of category criteria and entry requirements can be found here.

Attendees at a previous YDA screening in Cannes.

Entries will be judged by the YDA jury, made up of producers, copywriters, art directors, industry journalists and fellow directors, and the winners will be announced at the YDA ceremony on Thursday June 23 at the Marriott Hotel in Cannes.

For more information about the Awards, the CFP-E and the YDA in general, please visit youngdirectoraward.com or contact Antonin Baudaud.