CineMARK brings Cannes International Advertising Festival 2004 winners to the Big Screen!

CineMARK, the official South African representative of the Cannes International Advertising Festival, recently hosted a VIP screening of the 2004 Cannes winners. Paul Wilkins, Media Compete CEO and a South African judge at Cannes 2004, provided his thoughts and insight into the Cannes festival.

Celebrating South Africa's excellence and creativity in all major media, key members from the advertising and media industry gathered to honour the most creative film advertising. The screening of the Cannes awards, which included the Bronze, Silver and Gold Lion winners together with the Grand Prix, was screened at Nu Metro Cinema Prive at Village Walk.

As one of the most prestigious and coveted dvertising awards, the recent screenings of the Cannes Lions 2004 winners was well attended by 85 key players from the advertising and media industry. As a souvenir of this elite event, each of the guests received their own copy of the Cannes reel to view all the winning entries and retain for records purposes. Elmarie Pretorius, Managing Director of CineMARK presented the Cannes Lions to the South African winning agencies.

In 2004 the number of South African entries remained consistent with those of 2003 with film seeing the biggest increase of 158 entries as compared to 133 from the previous year.

"The Cannes International Advertising Festival is one of the many platforms that showcases South Africa's
talent and ability to the rest of the world. And this year's entries demonstrated that the media industry
has the competence and speciality to produce advertising that can compete well against its international counterparts", says Pretorius.

Malcolm Poynton appointed 2005 radio jury president

CineMARK, the official South African representative of the Cannes International Advertising Festival, brings you the latest news direct from Cannes.

The International Advertising Festival today announced that Malcolm Poynton, Executive Creative Director of Ogilvy & Mather, London, will be the 2005 Radio Lions Jury President.

"We are delighted to have Malcolm presiding over the first ever Radio Lions jury", said Festival CEO, Terry Savage. "It was important for us to have the right person with the right experience to launch Radio Lions. Malcolm is perfect for the job.'

Commenting on his appointment, Malcolm Poynton said, "What an honour - to be president of the inaugural radio jury at Cannes. We've concentrated so much on new media in recent years and yet radio is such a powerful channel that's been growing all the while. Consequently it will be very interesting for all advertising folk to finally see what radio, with its rich comedic potential, can achieve."

Born in New Zealand, Malcolm received his first industry recognition in 1987 when he was given possibly the world's least known advertising award - the Axis Award for 'Emerging Talent'.

In 1989 he joined the Australian start-up agency OMON, where he was named 'Australian Creative of the Year' before moving to The Campaign Palace in 1993. A move to London saw Malcolm join the Saatchi brothers' break-away agency M&C Saatchi. During his time there, Malcolm became Deputy Creative Director and also went on to co-create British Airways' landmark 'Johnny Foreigner' spot which won a Gold Lion in 2000.

In 2000, Malcolm received a retrospective award for Australian Magazine Ad of the Decade. The following year Malcolm took on the challenge of restoring Saatchi&Saatchi Australia's creative reputation. By 2003 the agency had been named 'Agency of the Year' at the Australian Television Awards and won the President's Award at the Caxton Awards two years running, along with debuting in the Gunn Report, level with Crispin Porter Bogusky and Weiden & Kennedy.

In June 2003 Malcolm returned to London to take on the Executive Creative Directorship of Ogilvy & Mather. He recently chaired the 2004 Aerial Awards for Radio in London.

The 52nd International Advertising Festivals will be held from 19 to 25 June 2005 in Cannes, France. For more information on the Cannes Lions, please log on to www.canneslions.com.