Attention up-and-coming directors: Cannes, anyone?

The idea for a new director’s award came from Saatchi & Saatchi’s vp, exec broadcast producer Doug Lowe and executive vp, creative director Peter Rigby, who, fueled by ongoing client pressure to lower production budgets and their own curiosity, recently undertook a search for new Canadian commercial directors. They found the results encouraging.

Given Saatchi’s international efforts to showcase new talent (the agency’s renowned Cannes New Directors Showcase reel), Lowe and Rigby began pondering sponsoring an annual award for the most promising new Canadian commercial director. This eventually led them to Playback, which led to the Saatchi/Playback New Director Showcase and the First Cut Award, being announced today.

The idea is to recognize some of the up-and-coming homegrown talent (and hopefully spread the word to agency brethren), and to acknowledge the investment production houses make in developing new directors.

The judges are: Toronto-based Kessler Irish Films’ director Bill Irish; Montreal-based Creation Montage’s Gaetan Huot; Palmer Jarvis, Vancouver, creative director Chris Staples; MacLaren McCann executive producer Lesley Parrott, Toronto; Rigby, Lowe and Playback editor Mary Maddever.

Basically they’ll be looking at reels to find the most promising combination of ‘interest and effort’ (Irish’s substitute for the nebulous term ‘talent,’ which fails to acknowledge the labor that it takes to become skillful at the work you have a flair for).

The First Cut winner will receive a trip to the 1997 Cannes Commercial Festival (flight, accommodation, and passes) sponsored by Saatchi and an opportunity to be a fly on the wall at the agency during the creative development of advertising concept in the interim. There are other things in the works, involving presenting an actual trophy of some sort, avec cocktails. A far cry from Top Spots caps

Hopefully there are no losers here, as in addition to the winner, the merits of all entrants’ reels will be incorporated in Playback’s July 29 Special Report on Commercial Production.

Entry criteria in a nutshell:

– Director must be represented by an ad film company;

– Directing for less than two years;

– Must have one on-air spot; reel may contain spec spots;

– Director must live in Canada.

April 30, 1996 is the cutoff for new director’s reel submissions, earmarked to Lowe. Judging is in May. Winners will be announced July 29, 1996. (See pithy announcement on p. 20 for the nitty gritty on entry.)