FOX SPORTS ADS WIN FILM GRAND PRIX New York's @radical.media Takes the Palme D'Or June 23, 2001 | 4:01 p.m. US/EST By Jim Hanas CANNES (Creativity) -- Cliff Freeman & Partners' campaign for Fox Sports regional coverage won the International Advertising Festival's film Grand Prix today, beating out Leo Burnett/London's popular "Bear Fight" spot for John West Foods' salmon. Blindfolded Indian competitors flail at each other with huge clubs in one of the Fox Sports spots. PHOTOS OF CANNES' BIG WINNERS Grand Prix, Palme d'Or, Agency of Year Watch the Fox Sports Videos on AdReview.com ALSO: Bob Garfield Pans the Judges CANNES GRAND PRIX WINNER MISSES THE MARK Hilarious but Obscure Spots Fail As Business Messages According to members of the jury, the deliberations were relatively painless. The list of Gold Lion winners was quickly winnowed to two Grand Prix contenders on Friday and the Fox Sports spots were awarded the festival's top film prize by a two-thirds vote. Winners were announced this evening at a ceremony in the Palais des Festivals. Overall, the film jury awarded just 70 Lions this year, down from 101 a year ago. A total of 24 Gold Lions were awarded, one less than last year. Agency of Year, Palme D'Or On the basis of Lion wins across all categories -- print, film, cyber, and media -- F/Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi/São Paulo was named agency of the year. New York's @radical.media took away the Palme D'Or, which is awarded to the best production company based on film Lions won. The Grand Prix-winning Fox Sports campaign features fake telecasts of barbaric sporting events in distant locations, such as club fights between blindfolded competitors in India and cliff diving without water in Turkey. "Sports news from the only region you care about," says the tagline. "Yours." Ethnic reaction feared While some in the American delegation feared the Freeman spots would come off as distastefully ethnocentric in front of an international jury, the campaign ran into no such reaction. Photo: Anthony Vagnoni.. The winners were announced Saturday evening in the Palais des Festivals on the Cannes waterfront. "I think in the end, what we thought would make other people go, 'I don't know, is this xenophobic? Is this offensive?' ended up making it speak to people and speak to everybody," says U.S. juror Dennis Ryan, executive creative director at J. Walter Thompson/Chicago. "It was intended just to be a joke but it worked really well on another level. That, in the end, gave it more momentum," he said. U.S. vs. Brits The Brits struck back, however, by winning more Gold Lions. British agencies won eight golds, while he U.S. landed six plus the Grand Prix. The two countries tied for total number of film honors, both with 16. The U.K., which traditionally does well in print, faltered in press and poster this year, but seemed to make it up in film by edging even with the usually dominant U.S. Other Gold Lions went to Argentina, which won three, and to Australia, France, Related Stories: THUMBS DOWN ON FREESTYLE, PAMPLONA SQUIRRELS & E-TRADE A Tough Cannes Crowd Screens the Shortlist THE SALMON THAT WOULD BE A GOLD LION Can John West's Popular Bear Fight Commercial Win? GARFIELD'S CANNES PREDICTIONS: John West 'Bear' Will Win Grand Prix Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark and Switzerland, which each won one. American commercials that grabbed gold include a Volkswagen spot from Arnold Worldwide that shows a man being kidnapped but quickly returned when his captors realize his Passat only looks expensive; a typically wry Jack in the Box commercial from Dick Sittig and Secret Weapon Marketing in Santa Monica; Wongdoody/Los Angeles' hidden camera campaign for the L.A. Dodgers; Goodby, Silverstein & Partners' campaign for Pac Bell DSL about a neighborhood warring over shared Internet access; and another Fox Sports campaign from Cliff Freeman featuring a pair of hilarious NBA wannabes. Butler, Shine & Stern in Sausalito also received a Gold Lion for promoting the San Francisco Jazz Festival with a spot that shows a carload of gangstas who really like jazz but switch to thumping hip-hop just to intimidate passersby. Silver Lion winners included Lowe Lintas & Partners/New York for its Heineken campaign; a Gameshow Network spot from TBWA/Chiat/Day/San Francisco; anti-smoking work by Crispin Porter and Bogusky in Miami; and a Leo Burnett/Chicago corporate image spot for Disney. Spots by Pentamark Worldwide for Jeep, McCann-Erickson/New York for MasterCard, Groud Zero for ESPN, and TBWA/Chiat/Day/Los Angeles for Apple each took home a Bronze. 'Freestyle' bombs Totally absent from the prize list was Wieden & Kennedy's Nike "Freestyle" spot, which many Americans favored but which couldn't seem to gain any traction here at Cannes. "When they showed it, it didn't offend people, they just didn't comment on it," says Ryan. "It didn't mean anything to them. It didn't stop people. Happily, in the U.S. it's a brilliant ad, it stops people cold, and it's the kind of thing people want to see again and again." This is the second year in a row that the U.S. has brought home the film Grand Prix, and last year's winner, DDB/Chicago's "Whassup" campaign for Budweiser, still hasn't entirely vanished from the scene. "What Are You Doing?" -- Goodby, Silverstein's yuppified answer to the original campaign -- scored a Bronze. Jim Hanas is associate editor of Creativity magazine. © 2001, Crain Communications Inc. Editor@AdAge.com ..