Cannes Lions Grand Prix (Film). See every winner from this century.
The Cannes Lions Grand Prix is the most prestigious global Advertising Award in the industry.
In 1954. it began as a modest award show, but today it’s the premier global industry event. Winning the Grand Prix is confirmation that you have made something truly special.
Many Grand Prix winners still resonate. Revered in creative departments. Others, however, have faded into obscurity. Like any other competition, some years have entries of a higher quality.
Scroll down to see what has been awarded the Grand Prix in film since the year 2000, when the winner was the iconic Budweiser campaign ‘Wassup’.
Table of Contents
Film Grand Prix 2000: Budweiser 'Wassup'
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Great campaigns don’t always come from the brain of a creative team. Sometimes great campaigns just turn up, and you have to pay attention to them. That’s the unusual story of this campaign.
This idea was completely generated by a director. One of the actors in the ads. He made a short spec film featuring his friends, using their own behaviour as inspiration. He showed it around to different agencies, hoping that they might give him a script to direct.
Eventually he arrived at DDB Chicago. The creatives who saw the film realised the quality of what they saw, and proposed that he remake it with Budweiser as the focus.
The rest is advertising history. It entered the vernacular. It put its mark on popular culture. A brilliant Cannes Lions Grand Prix Winner.
Cannes Lions Grand Prix rating: A+
Film Grand Prix 2001: Fox Sports
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This campaign is one of those that faded into obscurity. At the time, Fox Sports was a challenger brand. That gave the agency permission to push the creative execution and the tone of voice.
The agency was Cliff Freeman & Partners, whose work was characterised by this style of irreverent humour. The production company, Traktor from Sweden, were hot directors at the time as well.
The production values are brilliant. It’s extraordinarily difficult to make something look authentically bad. This is a campaign that has faded into history. It’s enjoyable and well made, but certainly not a milestone.
Cannes Lions Grand Prix Rating: B-
Film Grand Prix 2002: BMW films
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Actually, the Grand Prix was shared. This campaign was the better of the two.
Fallon McElligott presented BMW with an enormous idea. They commissioned a series of short films, all featuring a BMW in the starring role along with Clive Owen. Directed by the greatest mainstream directors of the day. John Woo, Guy Ritchie, John Frankenheimer to name a few.
These films were only available on the BMW website. Remember, this is before there was any social media. This campaign was made four years before YouTube was founded. It was a sensation. It opened the industry’s minds to the possibilities available outside paid television slots, thanks to emerging technology.
Cannes Lions Grand Prix Rating: A+
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The other campaign that shared the Grand Prix
Perhaps the ambition of the BMW films intimidated the award jury. Nonetheless, they felt compelled to award another ad as well. This Nike ad, from Weiden & Kennedy of course, is a fine piece of work. Certainly not transcendent though.
Cannes Lions Grand Prix Rating: C-
Film Grand Prix 2003: Ikea Lamp
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There were raised eyebrows when this piece of work won the Grand Prix. Because it wasn’t the piece of work that everyone was talking about at all.
Because that piece of work was the iconic piece of work by Honda ‘Cog’. Still considered one of the greatest ads ever made. Honestly, Cog should have won. Its influence on the industry was enormous. The story of its production is incredible. But that is the fickle nature of award juries.
The Ikea ad won through. The agency was Crispin Porter Bogusky. The director was Spike Jonze, who later went on to direct mainstream classics such as Being John Malkovich.
Cannes Lions Grand Prix Rating: B+
Film Grand Prix 2004: Sony Mountain
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Video game consoles were fertile ground for creative work. There were large budgets and a thirst for attention. This work was an expression of the sensation of winning. Nice use of the Shirley Temple soundtrack as well.
Cannes Lions Grand Prix Rating: B
Film Grand Prix 2005: Honda 'Grrr'
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Honda had a purple patch in the late 1990’s with the still incredible ‘Cog’ ad by Weiden & Kennedy (London) from 2003. This incredible creative standard was maintained for at least a decade or so afterward, with this beautiful piece of animation taking the film Grand Prix in 2005. It’s great. But it isn’t a ‘Cog’ though.
Perhaps, like the Academy Awards sometimes do, the jury decided to right the wrongs of the past by giving Weiden & Kennedy the Grand Prix they deserved for ‘Cog’. But didn’t receive.
Cannes Lions Grand Prix Rating: B
Film Grand Prix 2006: Guiness 'Noitulove'
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Guiness had already been awarded the ‘Greatest Ad of All Time’ by advertising pundits with their seminal piece of work ‘Surfer’.
The ‘Guiness’ brand promise – good things come to those who wait – is one of the best. It allows all kinds of creative expressions. Different moods and tones of voices. There has been a long sequence of Guiness ads being awarded Gold, Silver and Bronze. But none had cracked the Grand Prix until this one. Is it the best? No. Surfer is transcendent. But is this one great? Yes. It’s a beautifully made piece of work.
But. It shouldn’t have won the Grand Prix. The Grand Prix should have belonged to Sony ‘Balls’. Fullstop. The jury got it wrong.
Cannes Lions Grand Prix Rating: B-
And here’s the ad that should have won, along with the ‘making of’ film.
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Film Grand Prix 2007: Dove 'Evolution'
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Dove were one of the first to marry social issues with their product, and they did it so well. Their product is all about making women feel good.
They expanded that thought to encourage women to feel good about themselves, no matter their shape or size. The executions had always been affirming and heart-warming.
This was different. This is where they decided that pulling the veil away from the beauty industry was the way forward.
It’s well known now what kind of effect Photoshop can have on an image. It wasn’t well known back then. This ad was incredibly revealing, resulting in a huge amount of media coverage by news organisations taking up the issue.
This campaign is truly ground-zero for today’s body positivity movement.
Cannes Lions Grand Prix Rating: A-
Film Grand Prix 2008: Cadbury 'Gorilla'
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This ad blew up on the early versions of YouTube and Facebook. It was everywhere. It does everything a classic ad should do. It’s instantly memorable and identifiable with the brand, but also enigmatic and strange.
It was meant to trigger a campaign of wonderful moments fitting the premise ‘A glass and a half of joy’. But the ads following weren’t able to reach these heights again.
Cannes Lions Grand Prix Rating: A
Film Grand Prix 2009: Philips 'Carousel'
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The production quality of this film advertising is next level. Even though film technology has advanced since then, this still holds up. It was difficult not to award it the Grand Prix because it was just that well made. The web experience that came with it was brilliant as well.
DDB London has long been one of the world’s best agencies, regularly picking up gold lions. This was their first breakthrough for a Grand Prix.
Cannes Lions Grand Prix Rating: B+
Film Grand Prix 2010: Old Spice
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It’s incredible that this campaign is more than a decade old already. Truly, this is one of the greatest brand-refresh stories of all time.
The ad itself was brilliant. But what truly elevated it was what Weiden & Kennedy did with it afterwards. They leveraged the social media noise brilliantly in subsequent years.
The actor, Isaiah Mustafa, made gazillions thanks to this campaign. And deserved every penny. A true moment of magic.
Cannes Lions Grand Prix Rating: A+
Film Grand Prix 2011: Nike 'Write the Future'
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Thanks to Wieden & Kennedy enormous, expensive Nike ad filled with sport stars came back with a vengeance in 2011. The production is amazing, but when you take away all the bells and whistles – it doesn’t really do anything new.
It’s a spectacle, and a triumph of production crafts. Set building, prop making and camera work are next level. But as a piece of advertising? Well, it’s good. But not Nike’s best.
Cannes Lions Grand Prix Rating: C+
Film Grand Prix 2012: Chipotle 'Back to the Start'
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This is the most un-fast-food piece of advertising ever. Which is exactly what makes it so groundbreaking. Chipotle, with the agency CAA Marketing, created a brilliant niche for themselves, and this piece of work is a pitch-perfect expression of it.
Cannes Lions Grand Prix Rating: B+
Film Grand Prix 2013: Dumb Ways to Die
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Animation wins two years in a row. McCann Erickson in Melbourne, Australia had barely won an award for the two decades prior, but a moment of kismet produced this landmark.
A catchy ear-worm with simple, quirky animation took the prize. Actually, this campaign won everything in just about every category. An amazing viral success.
John Mescall, who wrote and creative directed the ad, rode the success of this ad all the way to a role as a Global Chief Creative Officer. Yes, winning awards can pay off.
Cannes Lions Grand Prix Rating: A-
Film Grand Prix 2014: Volvo Trucks 'Epic Split'
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Without a doubt this is one of the greatest product demonstration ads ever made. Utterly beautiful and impossible to look away from. The casting of Jean-Claude Van Damme was actually a suggestion by the director. It was originally scripted with a gymnast.
Proof that collaboration can yield incredible results. Forstman & Bodenfors in Stockholm won the Grand Prix
Cannes Lions Grand Prix Rating: A+
Film Grand Prix 2015: Geiko 'Unskippable'
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This is a great campaign. It was made specifically for the YouTube ‘skip’ button. Everything that needed to be said in the messaging was upfront before the ad could be skipped. But if you hung around, the Martin Agency made sure it was worth it.
Word of mouth brought this ad wide attention.
Cannes Lions Grand Prix Rating: A
Film Grand Prix 2016: Harvey Nichols 'CCTV'
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Adam & Eve / DDB in London took a different approach for a high end fashion store.
They used CCTV footage of shoplifters wanting to steal the desirable merchandise. To protect the identity, they used a cool animation style. At Cannes this year, there was no clear favorite. Most spectators would have agreed that it wasn’t a strong year. This is the ad that rose to the top.
Cannes Lions Grand Prix Rating: B-
Film Grand Prix 2017: London Paralympics
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One of the most upbeat, heart-warming and beautifully produced pieces of advertising ever made. Direct from the Channel 4 internal agency in the UK. There’s not much to say about this. It’s just simply wonderful.
Cannes Lions Grand Prix Rating: A
Film Grand Prix 2018: It's a Tide Ad
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Actually, the Grand Prix was shared. This campaign was by far the better of the two.
Surprisingly, this is the only Superbowl ad campaign that has won the Cannes Film Grand Prix this century.
Budweiser ‘Wassup’ was shown during the Superbowl, but it wasn’t made specifically for the superbowl. The ambition of this campaign was extraordinary, and it was executed to perfection. The insight that everyone in Superbowl ads have clean clothes on. So therefore, every ad could be a Tide ad.
They made it a reality, enlisting other Proctor & Gamble brands to play along.
Cannes Lions Grand Prix Rating: A+
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The other campaign that shared the Grand Prix
The worthiness of the message perhaps elevated this ad to the Grand Prix. I have no complaints about it being awarded gold, but the jury erred by giving it a Grand Prix.
Cannes Lions Grand Prix Rating: C
Film Grand Prix 2019: New York Times 'Truth'
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This campaign at first glance is a triumph of copywriting. And it is. But the Art Direction is perfect. Brilliantly restrained and elegant. Hugely impactful.
Droga5 are best know for their brand experience, titanium and direct work. They sure can make an awesome TV campaign too.
Cannes Lions Grand Prix Rating: A-
Film Grand Prix 2020: Award Show Cancelled
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Gee thanks, coronavirus. Still, I wanted to post my call for what was the best of that year. This wonderful Nike ad by Wieden and Kennedy. It has been a long time since Nike had been awarded the Film Grand Prix. This is the one that got away.
If I have one criticism – in my opinion about 60% of the voiceover was unneccessary. But, visually? Magnificent.
Cannes Lions Grand Prix Rating: A-
Film Grand Prix 2021: Bodyform 'Womb Stories'
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A beautifully made piece of communication. All different types of media used helped bring the premise to life – that the world of menstrual cycles is complicated with many different individual experiences.
It wasn’t a particularly strong year for film in 2021. When that happens, the work with something different about it from amongst the gold winners will often be awarded the Grand Prix. The visual treatment is truly spectacular.
Cannes Lions Grand Prix Rating: B
Film Grand Prix 2022: Apple 'The Underdogs'
The Grand Prix was shared. Neither campaign was groundbreaking though.
Don’t get me wrong. They are both very good. But it is a very weak creative year when both winners were sequels. Neither did anything particularly new with their campaigns either.
This Apple ad is well made, but the real power of this campaign was the casting and tone of voice – that were already established. It’s just a re-hash of the previous ad in a new setting. Beautifully made, but no different to the first.
Cannes Lions Grand Prix Rating: C
Film Grand Prix 2022: Paralympics
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This was a worthy successor to a beautiful campaign that also won the Grand Prix in 2017. But beside choosing a new song, it hasn’t really done anything new.
It’s beautiful. It’s heart warming and touching. But the first ad was just that little bit more surprising.
Cannes Lions Grand Prix Rating: B-
Film Grand Prix 2023: Apple
The Grand Prix was shared again.
Yes, this is a very good ad. But Grand Prix?
I have a theory that Award Juries go through phases where certain brands are marked more highly because they have such a strong heritage of work. It was the Economist in the 1990’s. Nike in the 2000’s. The last few years it has been Apple’s turn.
This is an interesting product demonstration ad. The execution is beautiful, but it doesn’t really do anything new. Don’t get me wrong. I like it. But the Grand Prix should be awarded to truly transformational campaigns that capture a zeitgeist or does something outrageously original. It’s a shame, because it really wasn’t a weak year. There was a lot of great work in the film category at Cannes in 2023.
Cannes Lions Grand Prix Rating: C
Film Grand Prix 2023: ITV x Calm
This is the better piece of work between the two Grand Prix campaigns.
That doesn’t mean I don’t think the award shouldn’t have been shared. Juries have been hesitant to award the Grand Prix singularly to charity / social issue campaigns in recent years. It’s a policy I agree with.
This campaign did well in many other categories as well. In particular, the outdoor interpretation of the campaign idea was truly compelling and impossible to ignore. Just watch it and learn. The agency let the idea breathe beautifully. It wasn’t overcooked. A perfect approach to such a powerful concept.
Cannes Lions Grand Prix Rating: B
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