World’s Best Commercials, 2011-12

It is extremely hard to win a Film Lion or Film Craft Lion of any color at Cannes, particularly a gold—or, obviously, a Grand Prix. Of the hundreds of thousands of TV spots and Web films produced each year, only a small sliver are even entered into the festival. This year, the Film Lions contest had 3,475 entries, the Film Craft Lions 1,721. The former competition awarded one Grand Prix and 11 golds; the latter gave out one Grand Prix and 10 golds. Of those 23 awards, eight spots or campaigns won more than one (BETC's "The Bear" for Canal+ alone won a Grand Prix and four golds, to go along with one silver), so in the end, there were 15 individual winners out of the 5,195 entries. That represents the top three-tenths of 1 percent of submissions, which are themselves the cream of the crop in advertising. Not an easy task.