Lexus and The Weinstein Company made a splash in the creative industries as they announced that their original film has won a Bronze Entertainment Lion for Cinema & Theatrical Fiction Film at Cannes Lions.
The film Game is about a young athlete who has a passion for sport, takes a risk and goes against the grain. The film was released this year along with four other short films as part of Season 3 of the acclaimed Lexus Short Films series.
The short film was written and directed by Jeannine Donohoe, and was awarded the pretigious Lion by a panel of hand-picked judges in Cannes made up of creative professionals from the industry. It follows the AJ, a young basketball player who faces the competitive world of sport and tackles questions about social expectations and gender equality head on.
As if a Lion wasn’t enough, Game has already won several prestigious film festival accolades such as Best Short at The Julien Dubuque, the Audience Choice Award at the Los Angeles Indie Film Festival, Best Live Action Narrative at Tokyo Lift-Off, the Audience Award at the Napa Valley Film Festival and the Special Jury Award: Narrative Short at the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival.
It’s an honour for anyone to be awarded this prize. “Being recognised with a Cannes Lion in addition to the other Film Festival awards is an amazing achievement”, said Spiros Fotinos, Global Head of Brand Management and Marketing at Lexus.
“It reflects the spirit of our Lexus Short Films programme, which supports emerging filmmakers by giving them opportunities to make their career leap forward. We are thrilled to see such fantastic results.”
Winning a Bronze Lion is considered a career highlight, but the work Cannes Lions, with their headquarter in Paddington, does for filmmakers is more that just an awards ceremony. The organisation believes that creativity is a powerful force for business, for change and for good in the world. They boast a year-round programme of Festivals, awards, small-scale events, training courses and digital tools – and through their global network of official Representatives – and they aim to inspire, challenge and move the industry forward.
Lexus Short Films was launched back in 2013 with the aim to support and nurture young and talented filmmakers.
Renowned for producing reliable, high quality and luxurious hybrids, Lexus has always had a passion for innovation and progressive design. So their collaboration with acclaimed film studio The Weinstein Company (the studio that brought us The King’s Speech and Silver Linings Playbook) has been the perfect partnership.
The organisation allows creatives to produce and showcase their work on an international stage and the series is now steamrolling successfully into its 4th season, steadfast in its commitment to arts and recognising up and coming talent. Sound like something you’d be interested in? Well the good news is that submissions are now open for Season 4 with a deadline of August 24th. You can find out more at www.withoutabox.com/LSF.
Withoutabox is owned and operated by IMDB.com, and is the premier submission service for film festivals and filmmakers. In fact, Sundance, TIFF, SIFF and other world renowned festivals use it as their first source to discover talented indie filmmakers
Since 2001, Withoutabox has enabled nearly 3 million festival submissions to the best film festivals in the world, and more than 150 of these titles went on to receive an Academy Award® nomination with dozens eventually winning an Oscar®.
All films from the Lexus Short Films series are available at www.LexusShortFilms.com and on Amazon to watch with Prime Video.
