Saatchi Remembers Arden, Toasts Fearlessness

CANNES (AdAge.com) -- Saatchi & Saatchi opened its 18th annual New Directors Showcase with tribute and tribulation. Worldwide Chief Creative Officer Bob Isherwood dedicated the event to the late Paul Arden, the longtime Saatchi creative leader who founded the show in 1991 and passed away in April. Mr. Isherwood called Mr. Arden the epitome of "fearless," this year's theme for the event. Argentine performance artists Fuerza Bruta then took the stage with an acrobatic, sensory-stimulating illustration of the "fearless director," with a man breaking through "walls," braving "storms" and overcoming various other obstacles.

The brute force theme continued to the opening film, Romain Gavras' provocative Justice video, featuring young thugs wreaking havoc on the streets of Paris. That was just one of the show's inventive clips, which made up nearly half of this year's showcase. The audience donned 3D glasses to get the full effect of Encylcopedia Pictura's fanciful video for Bjork's Wanderlust, a combination of puppetry, stop motion and CG. Caviar L.A.'s Keith Schofield's fun flesh romp for Fat Boy Slim's new Brighton Port Authority track "Toe Jam," featuring David Byrne, also made the cut, as did Partizan's Nima Mourizadeh's video for Santogold's L.E.S. Artistes.

Remarkable one-take videos were aplenty, including Roel Wouters' ZZZ: is playing clip, featuring trampoline artists simulating live-action video effects. Joey Garfield's RJD2 Work it Out promo captured performance artist Bill Shannon in a spectacular street dance on crutches, which he has been using since he was a child. The lineup also included two of Parisian director Vincent Moon's "Take Away Shows," featuring Arcade Fire and R.E.M, in which the filmmaker captured various bands performing live in ad hoc spaces.

On the spots side, Fallon creative Juan Cabral added his name to another notable list with Cadbury's Gorilla as one of the show's featured ads. Creative-turned-director Harold Einstein garnered plenty of laughs thanks to deadpan humor for Crest and FedEx, and Scott Lyon celebrated everyday rhythms for Volkswagen. The show's featured viral entries included Ray Ban's Sunglass Catch, directed by Benzo Theodore and Joe Bartenhagen, and Ryan Brown's Cart Whisperer for Verisign. Biscuit Filmworks' Clay Weiner also joined the ranks for his direction on Budweiser's Dude, and Brazilian director Luiz Adriano used stop-motion cigarettes to illustrate the perils of smoking in a PSA for Unimed.

Argentina yielded a handful of this year's animation talents: street artist Blu's graffiti took on new life against a live-action urban palette; Juan Pablo Zaramella made the most of black and white with the classically animated Lapsus; and Pablo Polledri humorously illustrated the seven deadly sins in Los Pecadores. Other animated shorts included Nexus director Johnny Kelly's multimedia take on procrastination. Jonathan Hopkins' Goodbye Mr. Snuggles was the show's only non-ad related live action short.

Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors' Showcase 2008

Luiz Adriano, Tribbo Post

Joe Bartenhagen and Ryan Brown, fiftyfilms

Blu, Mercurio Cinematografica

Juan Cabral, Blink

Harold Einstein, Station Film

Encyclopedia Pictura, Ghost Robot

Joey Garfield, Ghost Robot

Romain Gavras, Soixan7e Quin5e

Jonathan Hopkins, Between the Eyes

Johnny Kelly, Nexus Productions

Scott Lyon, Outsider

Vincent Moon, Temporary Areas

Nima Nourizadeh, Partizan

Pablo Polledri, Gorriti 4417 3degrees "A"

Keith Schofield, Caviar L.A.

Bnezo Theodore, Park Pictures

Clay Weiner, Biscuit Filmworks

Roel Wouters, Nexus Productions

Juan Pablo Zaramella, Zaramella Animation/JPZtudio