Latest News
Cannes Winners
We salute all of our directors who won at Cannes this year. Including a Gold Lion win for Harold Einstein for his Axe Shower Gel "Clean Your Balls" spot for BBH New York and Bronze Lions for Steve Miller's Dos Equis spots for "Treasure Chest" & "Ice Fishing" out of Euro RSCG NY, Sam Brown's spot for Virgin Mobile "Fantastic Journey" through Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe/Y&R London, Erich Joiner's DirecTV campaign through Deutsch LA and Harold Einstein's "New Kid" for Luvs out of Saatchi & Saatchi NY which also won a Silver Film Craft Lion for Copywriting.
Also Short Listed for awards were Brendan Hearne's Skittles "Giraffe" through Nitro Moscow, Steve Miller's Dos Equis "Snow Monkeys" spot through Euro RSCG NY, Harold Einstein for Newcastle Brown Ale "Favorite" through Vitro San Diego as well as for Halls "College" out of JWT NY, Greg Kohs for his Nike spot "Lance Mackey" out of Weiden & Kennedy and Zach Merck for his VW spot "Racing Under Green" out of Crispin Porter Bogusky.
Congratulations to all of you!
Tom at Cannes
Our very own Tom Symes (seen above with Massive Music's Hans Brouwer and another far more obviously drunk man) is slogging it out at Cannes. Awards show swag, idyllic beaches, parties of endless bacchanalia...our hearts go out to 'ya Tom, thanks for taking on the tough stuff.
Randy Roberts shoots Winners
Imported welcomes Randy Roberts back to Toronto where he is in production on a job for Winners out of Ogilvy. The spot features some gorgeous art direction so we're excited to see the finished product.
Imported Directors win at the AICP awards
Big wins this year for Imported directors at the AICP awards. Steve Miller's work for Dos Equis featuring the Most Interesting Man in the World continues to rack up accolades winning in the Copywriting category for "Jai Alai" and the Art Direction category for "Treasure Chest". Brett Froomer won the Best Spec Spot category for his short film for Laura Ashley called "Sasha" appropriated from one of his own personal projects, Zach Merck won the Next Product Integration category with his viral project for Tooheys Extra Dry called "Six Beers of Separation" and Sam Jones won the Next Website/Microsite category for his interactive music video for Cold War Kids "I've Seen Enough".
Vance Malone wins at the WWSFF
Congratulations to Vance Malone for winning the best documentary award for his short film The Poodle Trainer at the Canadian Film Centre's Worldwide Short Film Festival. The annual WWSFF, now in its fifteenth year, has become the premier venue for the exhibition and promotion of shorts and is recognized as the largest short film festival in the world. Watch a clip from Vance's film here.
Massive Music scores Nike "Write the Future"
Already at 12 million and counting youtube views Nike's "Write the Future" spot has already been heralded as a titan in advertising, and by their own admission the biggest spot they've ever produced. Directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu out of Weiden & Kennedy Amsterdam the spot features top football talents as Didier Drogba, Franck Ribery, Christiano Ronald and Wayne Rooney (shown in full beardo mode above in an alternate future where he fails to make an interception). Massive Music (represented by Imported Artists in Canada) was called in to make the audio for the spot sing and most definitely rose to the occasion. View the spot here in the unlikely chance you've not seen it, and if that's the case why not see it again!
Bram Van Riet in town to shoot Purina
IA welcomes famed director Bram Van Riet to Toronto to shoot a technically challenging spot for Purina through Lowe Roche. The spot features two of the unholy trinity of challenges for a director, those being animals and kids, fortunately the spot doesn't take place on a boat so he's safe on that front. Regardless, Bram takes it all in stride, easily overcoming any challenge that comes his way.
