5 Beauties and 5 Beasts From Saatchi’s Brutal 2013 New Directors’ Showcase

CANNES, France—The 2013 Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors' Showcase, held inside a full house at Cannes Lions here this morning, was not for the faint of heart.

Stabbings, shootings, slashings, bombings—there was a notable emphasis on death and destruction in the ads, music videos and art pieces from this year's handpicked up-and-coming directors. That, and a fair amount of sex.

The reel was introduced by Professor Richard Dawkins, the famous British evolutionary biologist, who read from a prepared text on the topic of memetics and how ideas and information, cultural norms and societal expectations evolve in a process akin to natural selection. He compared and contrasted the spread of memes over the Internet to the spread of human and animal genes over the millennia. He also played an electronic recorder.

Then, the show began—by turns loud, inspirational, oppressive, wonderful. Of the 19 films, we've picked the most memorable 10 and divided them into beauties and beasts—films that alternately delighted and horrified (though sometimes in a good way, and often both at once). See all the work at the link below.

Video Gallery: 5 Beauties and 5 Beasts From Saatchi's Brutal 2013 New Directors' Showcase