This talk features: Factory Studios Head of Production and Executive Producer Lou Allen, Lief Studio Director Adi Halfin, Casting Director and Cinematographer Edu Perez, EMEA McCann Worldgroup Chief Production Officer Lopez Ferrero, Iconoclast Managing Director Charlotte Marmion and Wax Editor Kate Owen-Lloyd. Chaired by Jury President for Craft and The Stable Editor Candi McDonald.

Halfin’s choice is The Underdogs by Smuggler for Apple. This humorous film tells the story of a work team coming up with a pitch using a suite of Apple products that are seamlessly integrated into the narrative of the ad. “It’s almost perfectly executed in terms of all the things that put it together, if it’s the casting, the cinematography, the genre, the editing, the production design, the music the whole thing comes together so beautifully… It’s very important sometimes not to feel the effort of crafting something,” she says of her choice.

Facebook’s era-defining Never Lost by Droga5 is Allen’s pick, and she cites the editing and pacing of the ad which uses found footage from the last few months of the pandemic in the UK together with the Kate Tempest track People’s Faces in a truly magical way. “As soon as you put the sound on and that track… It’s just incredible,” she explains. “It’s really emotional and I think it’s just really now and if we’re talking about craft and sound design without that track it’s just not the same thing.”

All That We Share–Connected by TV2 Creative for Danish TV2 is put forward by Perez for its phenomenal casting of real people with genuine connections to one another. In the clip we see a man meeting the person who bought his childhood home and then a series of chance connections including two refugee couples – one from Syria and one who came to Denmark during the Second World War. “For us, this is probably the most amazing casting ever done,” he says.

Ferrero picks Crocodile Inside – a cinematic ad by BETC Paris for Lacoste that sees a couple’s argument tear their apartment building in half – for its amazing VFX, set and production design. Marmion chose Bounce by TBWA Media Arts Lab for Apple, who avoided VFX to build a set with in-built bounce for this fun ad for Airpods. “It’s the will of making as much as possible on camera because nowadays you can achieve pretty much anything in VFX but they built a set that meant that could achieve all the effects on camera,” she explains.

Owen-Lloyd picks An Open Mind is The Best Look by Droga5 for Nordstrom for its uniqueness, surprising offbeat feel and its inclusiveness. “It’s not a classic advertising piece. We thought it was beautiful that it was wrapped around a poem… The poem, the sound design, the pauses.”

Created in partnership with Adobe