CANNES, France—Saatchi & Saatchi celebrated the 25th anniversary of its esteemed New Directors' Showcase here Thursday morning with a screening of 14 films by young directors, plus a special collaborative piece by 25 much more famous talents.
The NDS usually opens with a theatrical stage piece. Instead, this morning's event led off with 25x25: An Experiment in Film, featuring 25 minute-long videos all strung together, made by 25 directors who first made their mark at the NDS. The directors included such famous ad names as Noam Murro, Ringan Ledwidge, Daniel Kleinman, Jonathan Glazer, Michel Gondry, Traktor, Dougal Wilson, Fredrik Bond, and Jake Scott.
That piece is not online yet, but the other 14 films are. All of them are pretty great, but we've chosen our three favorites below. And below those, you can check out the 11 others.
Ben Knight
"Denali"
Production Company: Felt Soul Media
• Photographer Ben Moon and his dog Denali had an incredible bond that became almost spiritual when each suffered life-threatening illnesses. This film by Ben Knight captures that connection brilliantly.
Eric Kissack
"The Gunfighter"
Production Company: Helo (fly Helo)
• An unseen narrator, voiced by Nick Offerman, reveals the inner thoughts of a saloon full of lying, cheating sexual deviants in this comical Western comedy.
Kyungmin Woo
"JohnnyExpress"
Production Company: Alfred ImageWorks
• It's 2150. Johnny is a space delivery man bringing packages to aliens all around the universe. But things go horribly and hilariously wrong on a visit to this poor planet.
—Here are the 11 other films from the showcase:
Chandler Levack & Jeremy Schaulin-Rioux
Pup "Guilt Trip"
Elizabeth Lo
"Hotel 22"
Helmi
Tiga "Bugatti"
Maria Takeuchi and Frederico Phillips
"as·phyx·i·a"
Yvan Fabing
"Garage"
Young Replicant (Alex Takacs)
Flying Lotus "Coronus, The Terminator"
Dent de Cuir
DyE "She's Bad"
Charlie Robins
Klangkarussell "Netzwerk (Falls Like Rain)"
Guillaume Panariello
Siska "Unconditional Rebel"
Factory Fifteen: Jonathan Gales; Paul Nicholls; Kibwe Tavares
The Bug "Function / Void"
Dexter Navy
A$AP Rocky "L$D"
