Young Director Award 2018 Now Open for Entries

Celebrating its 21^st birthday this year, the Young Director Award is now open for entries for 2018.

The YDA is presided over by Francois Chilot and organised in association with shots, with support from a series of other sponsors, and is recognised as one of the most prestigious awards shows for - and accurate indicators of - aspiring directing talent in the advertising industry.

"We want the YDA to evolve too, to help directors hone their skills and enable them to enter the world of branded entertainment and long-form filmmaking."

The YDA attracts over 500 global entrants each year and celebrates and rewards new directing talent from across the globe. Previous YDA winners include such talented and successful directors as Ringan Ledwidge, Hanna Maria Heidrich, Andreas Roth, We Are From LA and many more.

The YDA prize-giving ceremony, attended by an audience of over 900 people, will take place on Thursday June 21 at the JW Marriott hotel in Cannes, and is one of the most important fringe events during the week of the Lions International Festival of Creativity.

Above: Daniel Bergmann, Stink founder and last year's YDA jury president, on stage at the YDA ceremony.

“As technology and media platforms have evolved, opening doors for the creation of different content, advertising has evolved too, learning to tell stories in longer formats,” said YDA president, Francois Chilot [pictured below].

While the YDA values and encourages standard-length commercials and the experience the creation of them provides, we have noticed that YDA alumni are taking greater steps into longer-form messages and we want the YDA to evolve too, to help directors hone their skills and enable them to enter the world of branded entertainment and long-form filmmaking. I would also like for the YDA to be an association that unites producers from around the world in a concerted effort to promote new directing talent.”

Above: Francois Chilot, president of the YDA.

This year the YDA jury will be presided over by Ali Brown [pictured below], partner and executive producer at PRETTYBIRD Los Angeles. Details of the competition, its rules and categories, including a reconfigured Short Film section and the burgeoning Changing the World Frame-By-Frame category, can be found on the recently revamped YDA website, along with work from and interviews with past winners. Tickets to the YDA ceremony will be available to buy from the YDA site from May.

Above: Ali Brown, partner and executive producer at PRETTYBIRD Los Angeles.

The deadline for entries for the YDA 2018 is May 15 but if you enter before April 6 you will be entitled to an Early Bird discount on the fee. To enter your work please click here.

Of course, as is the case every year, winners from the event will be profiled in shots after the festival and the full shortlist will appear on the online shots Showreel.