THE M FOR MPACT AWARD: SPECIAL JURY PRIZE

Stereotypes about Indigenous women lead to violence. One of the most harmful stereotypes is the misrepresentation of Pocahontas, as depicted in the animated movie of the same name. To counter the popular narrative, Muskrat Magazine, with BBDO, created “Missing Matoaka,” a project that presented an alternative audio track to be played with the movie. The project also replaced the name “Pocahontas” with “Matoaka,” which she was also known by. The entire film was rerecorded from an Indigenous perspective: it was written by Indigenous writers, voiced by Indigenous actors, with music composed and performed by Indigenous artists. Screenwriter Lauren DeLeary said: “Matoaka, also known as Pocahontas, was the first documented missing and murdered Indigenous woman.”

CCO: Max Geraldo

AD: Olga Netaeva

Screenwriters: Camille Beaudoin, Lauren DeLeary

Sound Director and Composer (TA2): Steve Gadsden

GOLD: Copywriting

SILVER: Direction

SILVER: Editing

SILVER: Music

SILVER: Cinematography

CCO: Joseph Bonnici

CDs: David Mueller, Debbie Chan (Narrative)

CWs: Megan Radisa, Sophia Wilby (OneMethod)

Director (Untitled Films): Hubert Davis

Director of Photography

(Untitled Films): Kiel Milligan

Editor (Rooster Post): Michelle Czuker

VFX CD (Fort York VFX): Mike Bishop

Audio Director (Berkeley Inc): Jared Kuemper

White Ribbon, the world’s largest movement to end gender-based violence and promote healthier masculinity, based “I Knew All Along,” by Bensimon Byrne, Narrative and OneMethod, on the revelation that a majority of men in a commissioned survey said that having a daughter made them more concerned about issues women face. The opening shot is a dad holding his baby daughter. He speaks lovingly to her in the voiceover about never having felt so much love and fear: “Fear for you to grow up, to meet certain people, to hold your own. I didn’t know what could happen to you.” As he speaks, various scenes show her growing up, being harassed in school hallways, on the street, at work – focussing on her and her reactions. The script and the camera angles are then flipped. The same scenes are shown, this time showing what she sees, which is the person who is harassing her – and each time, it’s the younger version of the dad. The dad’s voiceover is overlaid on these scenes: “But looking back on my life, and the things that I’ve done, I did know. I knew all along.” In the last scene, the dad’s face registers the reality of what his daughter faces.

SILVER: Copywriting

Zulu Alpha Kilo’s “Left-Handed Mango Chutney” spoofs the industry of advertising awards. The ad begins with a brain surgeon telling the story of how he saved a patient’s life to dinner guests, who are duly impressed. When another dinner guest is asked what he does, he tells them he works in advertising and is working on a case study, which he explains are submitted for awards to show how successful a campaign is. He created a left-handed mango chutney - for a small chutney company for National Left Handers’ Day – a product none of the guests has heard of. He cites campaign stats, for impressions and brand engagement, which are met with awkward silence. Another guest pipes up that she, too, works in advertising. “I wrote the beer ad where the horse farts,” she explains – an ad everyone immediately recognizes because it went viral. The guests mimic the fart noises, eliciting laughter from everyone except the ad guy. A line appears on screen: “Let’s award work real people love.”

BRONZE: Copywriting

To promote its new line of golf apparel, Harry Rosen, the Canadian luxury menswear retailer, created the “Hijacking the Masters” campaign. The series of ads, by Zulu Alpha Kilo, ran during the Masters golf tournament and were made to look and sound identical to real golf coverage – from the camera angles to the graphics –except the two-man commentary focused purely on various player’s outfits. The ads included lines such as:

“Well Tim, he’s worked really hard at his shirt game and that delicate pink polo is pure finesse” and “Yeah, that palm tree pattern is a high-risk, high-reward play Tim. But he makes it look effortless.” The event was also live-tweeted, with comments made exclusively about the golfer’s clothes. The campaign resulted in a 350% increase in golf clothing searches and 40% growth in the polo category.

CCO: Zak Mroueh

ECD: Wain Choi

CD/CW: George Ault

CD/AD: Jacob Gawrysiak

Scotiabank’s Hockey for All platform aims to make hockey more diverse, inclusive and accessible. To demonstrate its commitment, and with the help of Rethink, Scotiabank partnered with Black creators Jael Richardson and Chelsea Charles to create “The Hockey Jersey,” an updated version of the classic Canadian children’s book The Hockey Sweater, by Roch Carrier. Every aspect of the book - the characters, illustrations and storyline - was crafted to increase representation. Among the opening lines: “Kareema rushes into the rink, carrying the bag her neighbour gave her.” The story later continues: “Inside the changeroom, Camilla pulls on a brand-new pair of shin pads and Hana slides on red socks that her brother brought home from his first year at college. Sam wiggles on hockey pants, sliding their fingers over the patch their grandmother stitched on with careful crooked hands.

For its annual holiday campaign, IGA created “The Meatloaf” with Sid Lee. The heartwarming 3D animated film shows a family’s humorous attempts over the years to avoid eating the meatloaf a beloved aunt brings – allowing the family dog to eat it instead. After the aunt passes, the family recreates the meatloaf – out of love for her and the tradition - only to discover that the aunt knew all along they were pretending to eat her food. To evoke the warmth of family and the holiday, a friendly cast of characters with knubby noses was created and great attention was paid to the details found in and outside of a home during the season.

CCO: Aaron Starkman

ECD: Mike Dubrick

CDs: Caroline Friesen, Robbie Percy, Dhaval Bhatt

CW: Aman Soin

ECD: Alex Bernier

CDs: David Lambert, Julie Desrochers

Director (Tonic DNA) : Joe Bluhm

3D Animation Artists (Tonic DNA): Angel Canales, Andrés Armstrong, Rasika Jayawardene, Fabien Fulchiron, Juan Paulo Mardónez, Sebastião Lopes, Guilherme Afonso, Salvador Artero, David Omair, Emma Manske, Ahmed Adel, Sreeparna Basu

BRONZE: Animation

To increase brand favourability after the pandemic-driven travel chaos of 2020, Air Canada developed “The Stopover,” by FCB. The animated film used a loon, an iconic Canadian character, to connect with audiences during the holiday season. The film follows a baby loon who gets lost while flying with his family, but finds a wooden toy duck in a house to keep it company. While sleeping, the baby loon gets swept up with the toy duck into Santa’s sleigh and, on that journey, is able to reunite with its family. CGI was used to ensure the characters and settings would be life-like while retaining an element of charm. The aim was to make every detail rich in texture, rather than cartoonish. Even a separate script was drafted, dedicated only to lighting.

BRONZE: Animation

Since its launch in 2016, Coca-Cola Zero has become a fast-growing product in CocaCola’s portfolio. To encourage people to try the product, AKQA created the ‘’Take a Taste’’ campaign, a series of 15-second, 2D animated videos featuring a graphic universe. The videos featured ‘Takers,’ small taste bud characters who live in the fridge trying to steal the CocaCola Zero. The videos were produced and created with a minimalist three-colour palette, fast camera movements and smooth character animation. The campaign was rolled out globally and adapted for various countries.

CCO: Nancy Crimi-Lamanna

ECDs: Jeremiah McNama, Andrew MacPhee

Animation Director (Zombie Studio): Paolo Garcia

SILVER: Art Direction

SILVER: Cinematography

SILVER: Direction

BRONZE: Editing

BRONZE: Music

BRONZE: Visual Effects

IKEA

IKEA’s proprietary Life at Home report found that our homes have a greater influence on our wellbeing than we may think. To demonstrate this, IKEA, with Rethink, created a film called “The Troll,” which follows the story of a boy who sees a grumpy troll under a bridge and decides his home is in need of some love and attention. The film was shot in Slovenia, with particular attention focussed on seamlessly integrating the real elements, the practical troll costume, and the CGI magic. Through intentional and painstakingly detailed creative direction, editing, CGI, VFX and SFX, the spot transports the audience into a mystical environment. At the end, the troll’s home is transformed and he is happier for it. Matching the mood, the music shifts from dramatic to uplifting. The spot reached 5 million people.

CCOs: Aaron Starkman, Mike Dubrick

AD: Caroline Friesen

Director (OPC / Division Films): Nick Ball

DOP (OPC / Division Films): Daniel Voldheim

Editor (Nimiopere): Graham Chisholm

VFX Producers (House of Parliament): Lexi Stearn, Emma Hertz

Music Director (Vapor Music): Ted Rosnick

SILVER: Art Direction Booking.com

For Booking.com’s “Somewhere, Anywhere,” Zulu Alpha Kilo went with a comedic musical treatment. It features actress and comedian Melissa McCarthy as she sings from her bed about needing a vacation, before she enters the world of vacation rentals she’s checking out on her phone. Glammed up and wearing elaborate vacation-wear, hats and wigs, she sings on the balcony of a beach house, by a hotel pool, in front of a cabin in the woods, in a luxurious hotel room, perched on the edge of a hot tub by a ski hill, from inside glamping tent, on a beach - among other locations. Each location showcases a kitschy or unique set design: the hotel room features bright yellow walls, a giant painting and a massage therapist dressed in different shades of pink; sun umbrellas by the poolside match the fuchsia colour of the surrounding flowers. Saturated in colours that pop, the film’s art direction screams fun, good times and vacay fantasy.

CCO: Tim Gordon

CDs/ADs: Vic Bath, Rachel Goss

CDs/CWs: Dan Cummings, Ross Wolinsky

Director (Arts and Sciences LA): Alex Prager

Composer (Barking Owl Sound): Drew Gasparini

SILVER: Cinematography

SILVER: Editing

SILVER: Sound Design

BRONZE: Direction

Although cannabis became legal in Canada in 2018, those convicted of possession before then were still considered convicted criminals and shut out of employment opportunities. The “Legalize Us” film was created for Cannabis Amnesty by Cossette as part of a larger campaign to bring attention to this injustice. The film follows the nerve-wracking journey of a man as he goes for a job interview - using flashbacks to reflect his experiences including his arrest for possession of marijuana - only to be injured when he runs inexplicably into an invisible barrier to the office where the interview takes place. Skillful editing, cinematography and direction create an impactful narrative, with the drama elevated by a heightened sound track.

ECD: Anthony Atkinson

CDs: Kevin Filliter, Anthony Atkinson, Theo Gibson

Director (Magic Circle Workshop & Common Good): Christo Anesti

DOP (Magic Circle Workshop & Common Good): Ali Khurshid

Editor (Common Good): Red Barbaza

Lead VFX Artist (Common Good): Alex Avram

Sound Design and Mix CD (Berkeley Inc): Jared Kuemper

BRONZE: Cinematography

Go RVing Canada’s “You Are Out There” film, by Broken Heart Love Affair, features a man doing what so many dream of: ditching the daily office grind and living a life surrounded by nature. Instead of taking the subway home from work, the man literally runs the other way, tossing away his briefcase and suit jacket as he heads out of the city on foot. Steady camera shots in the city give way to handheld shots as he sheds his belongings. The grey and blue tones of urban life transition to sundappled earth tones outside of the city. In the woods, the man stumbles upon another version of himself, which he chases but doesn’t catch up to until they both jump off a cliff and into the water, hugging each other and crying –a baptism or rebirth of sorts. The alternate version of the man emerges on the other side of the water. He smiles when he sees a picturesque scene of people camping out with their RVs, and walks towards them.

While 90% of Canadians support organ donation, only 32% are registered to do so. To educate people about the lost potential of organs, Canada’s Organ and Tissue Donation Community, with DonerNorth, created a radio spot using pieces donated parts from over 40 commercials to demonstrate how organ donation works. The message needed to be clearly understood while highlighting that all the parts had been transplanted from elsewhere. Hundreds of old commercials were reviewed in order to find the right phrases to create a message that flowed together. The sound engineers then spliced the segments together and balanced them out. People responded positively to the commercial, with a 95% completion rate, an 87.5% increase in Spotify’s average clickthrough rate, and 79% of people registering to donate their organs.

ECDs:

Casey House, a hospital for those living with and at risk of HIV, used the power of fear to demonstrate the devastating impacts of stigma. “Others,” by Bensimon Byrne and Narrative, is a short horror film that makes up part of Casey House’s #smashstigma campaign and features a professional actor living with HIV who was intentionally cast as the lead protagonist. The film follows the character and the anxiety he experiences in different scenarios throughout the day: when he is encouraged to jump off a cliff into water, when he reluctantly accepts a ride from a stranger when he has a flat tire. The music and sound design are meant to unsettle viewers by heightening sensitivity to the sounds of cicadas, the wind and small movements.

SILVER: Visual Effects

BRONZE: Cinematography

Stella Artois

ECD/Partner: Dave Douglass

Group CD: Neil Blewett

Director (Pulse Films): Sam Pilling

DP (Pulse Films): Tom Townend

VFX Artists (The Mill): Edward Shires, Gary Driver

Stella Artois’s “Table Setters,” by Anomaly, used the concept of a ‘table flip’ to show the positive effects of taking a break from work and enjoying a meal together. A woman is working at the dining room table around dinnertime when her partner enters, carrying two glasses of beer. With no place to put them on her cluttered tabletop, she overturns the table. Everything spills off, and when the table lands right side up, a dinner for two is ready for them. After each enjoying a sip of their beer, the partner gets up and flips the table over again; this time, their friends, along with food and beer for everyone, appears. When one of their friends is distracted by his phone, the woman flips his chair over and when he lands, a beer is in his hand. To create these effects, the dinner for the couple was glued to the table and the meal was disguised under the original table top clutter that would fly off when it was overturned. For the table flip, the table was attached to wires hanging from the ceiling. Other effects included using air canons to make objects fly further and lowering actors into the scene by wires. For the friend flip, the actor was strapped into a chair while wires were used to assist with the flip, to ensure the movement was natural while ensuring the actor’s safety when he landed.

Food Banks Canada launched the “Starve the Hunger” campaign to bring awareness to the issue of food insecurity. The film, by The Local Collective, begins with a voiceover: “There’s this thing. It feeds on our frustration, on our joy and devours our dreams.” Holes of various sizes appear in everyday items: a notebook, a high school locker door, across the city’s apartment and office buildings. A caterpillar crawls through some of the holes. Once people start donating and providing food, and as the film encourages audiences to donate in order to “defeat it,” butterflies flit through various scenes – a sign of hope. To create the effects, gaping holes throughout the spot were crafted by a matte painter; 3D models of the buildings and objects were used to stand in for the live action footage; then the matte paintings were tracked on to the live action footage.

BRONZE: Music

The Royal Ontario Museum was looking to promote the “Being Legendary” exhibition from internationally acclaimed Cree artist, Kent Monkman. Inspired by text from the exhibition, Broken Heart Love Affair called the campaign “We Are Made of Stardust,” which speaks to the Cree people’s origin story and the belief in the undying spirit. The film features an Indigenous girl who happens upon a pink comet, then crushes it to create a pigment – paint she uses to create posters that read, “We are made of stardust.” The music is both moving and dramatic, incorporating both Western and Indigenous styles, including throat singing. The campaign took cues from the exhibition’s comet narrative and Monkman’s use of cosmic, supernatural colours. The campaign was developed with input from Indigenous talent both in front and behind the camera.

CCOs: Craig McIntosh, Jaimes Zentil

AD: Jaimes Zentil

CW: Craig McIntosh

Audio CD/Sound and Mix Design (Berkeley Inc): Jared Kuemper

Kids Help Phone (KHP) is Canada’s only bilingual, 24/7 e-mental health service providing free, confidential support to young people, aged 5 to 29, in a time of crisis or need. Its services extend beyond the phone to include text, chat, web resources and programs for equity-deserving groups and a peer-to-peer forum. McCann created the new platform, “Feel Out Loud,” as a way to empower young people to express their feelings in a safe and nonjudgmental space. The launch campaign features a film directed by Matilda Finn, which highlights KHP as a safe space for youth, while the music provides an eerie rendition of Björk’s “Oh So Quiet,” with its contrasting lyrics amplifying the silence of keeping emotions inside. The version of the song was created to match the deeply emotional content and mood of the film. The film depicts kids, of various ages and in different scenarios – at school, at a party, at homegrappling with tough emotions. The film ends with each kid looking at, or texting on, their phones, with the line “Give feelings a place to go. Feel Out Loud.”

BRONZE: Direction

Audio

To encourage donations to the Montreal Children’s Hospital, Cossette created “Walkie Talkie,” a film demonstrating the friendship of two boys who bond over the pranks they plan together, pull on other people and then share over their walkie-talkies. When Lou is hospitalized, Max continues to execute stunts and share them over the receiver until one day, Lou doesn’t respond. Although viewers are initially led to believe Lou has died, it’s revealed he was away from his walkie-talkie in order to receive treatment, allowing Max –and the audience – a sense of relief. Throughout the film, the two young actors show the range of emotions experienced through the joys of a childhood friendship, and the potential loss of it.

Director: Benjamin Nicolas

Production House: Quatre Zero Un