INNOCEAN’s “Night Fishing” claimed the Entertainment Grand Prix as independent agencies collected 43 Lions on Day 2 of Cannes Lions 2025. The campaign—shot entirely using seven car cameras for Hyundai’s IONIQ—marked South Korea’s first-ever Entertainment Lion.
Indie Agency News Members Showcase Craft Excellence
Our member agencies demonstrated exceptional skill across multiple disciplines, collecting 12 Lions on Day 2.
INNOCEAN’s Grand Prix
INNOCEAN Berlin/Seoul won the Entertainment Grand Prix for “Night Fishing” (Hyundai Motor Company)—a notable achievement for the agency. The film, shot entirely using seven car cameras, targeted the ad-skeptical MZ generation for Hyundai’s IONIQ brand. Jury President David Rolfe called it “a somehow deeply humanistic, riveting and even bizarre action sci-fi piece, in the form of the highest order of branded entertainment.” South Korea won its first-ever Entertainment Lion with this Grand Prix.
Mother’s Strong Showing in Film Craft
Mother London secured three Film Craft Lions for their KFC and Uber Eats work:
- Film Craft Silver Lion: “Believe in Chicken” for KFC
- Film Craft Bronze Lion: “When You’ve Done Enough – Evil’d Enough” for Uber Eats
- Film Craft Bronze Lion: “KFC: Believe in Chicken” for KFC (with Lux Artists)
The agency also claimed an Entertainment Lions for Gaming Bronze for “The Co-Worker.”
Serviceplan Adds to Their Week
Building on their Day 1 Grand Prix, Serviceplan Munich collected three more Lions:
- Design: Silver and Bronze Lions for “Price Packs” (PENNY)
- Industry Craft: Bronze Lion for “855-How-to-Quit-(Opioids)” (Anzen Health)
Other Member Wins:
- Klick Health (Toronto): Film Craft Bronze Lion for “18 Months” (Second Nurture)
- Special (Los Angeles): Film Craft Bronze Lion for “Brian Cox Goes to College” (Uber)
- SpecialGuest (Copenhagen/New York): Entertainment Lions for Music Silver for “Love”
Member agency 1stAveMachine (New York) also contributed to the day’s success as production partner on SpecialGuest’s winning music video.
Production Companies Lead Film Craft
Film Craft was the day’s strongest category for indies with 22 wins. Production companies earned 15 of these Lions, with Bear Meets Eagle on Fire’s four Lions (including the Grand Prix) setting the pace. (Also currently the clubhouse leader for best agency name.)
The Grand Prix-winning “Telstra – Better on a Better Network” featured 26 individual stop-motion spots showcasing regional Australian towns. Jury President Ali Ali noted that in “a year dominated by AI and digital gloss,” this campaign “felt like a breath of fresh air. Tactile, intimate, and deeply human.” The campaign used 56 unique puppets animating 42 voices from regional Australians—”all simple, all funny, all full of soul.”
Key production company performances:
- Bear Meets Eagle on Fire (Sydney): 4 Lions including Grand Prix
- Revolver (Sydney): 3 Lions
- Iconoclast (Los Angeles): 3 Lions across Film Craft and Entertainment Music
- Biscuit Filmworks (London): 2 Lions
Global Indies Make Their Mark
Regional Winners
BigTime Creative Shop (Riyadh) collected 5 Lions across Film Craft and Entertainment Lions for Sport.
Wieden+Kennedy Across Categories
The independent network earned 4 Lions spanning Film Craft, Industry Craft, and Entertainment Sport, including a Gold Lion in Industry Craft for Nike’s “Winning Isn’t Comfortable.”
Kazakhstan’s Cannes Debut
GForce from Almaty, Kazakhstan, won Digital Craft Silver for “Saltanat Light” (Citix), marking what appears to be the country’s first indie agency win at Cannes.
Category Insights
Film Craft (22 wins) dominated Day 2, accounting for over half of all indie Lions. The category rewarded both technical excellence and emotional storytelling, with production companies claiming 15 of the 22 Lions.
Entertainment Lions (11 wins across all sub-categories) showed indies creating culture-defining work, from INNOCEAN’s Grand Prix-winning “Night Fishing” to Johannes Leonardo’s double win with “Hey Jude.”
Design (4 wins) saw indies competing with sophisticated simplicity, including L&C’s Silver Lion for Tiffany & Co.’s “1837 Tiffany Blue Conservation.”
Digital Craft (3 wins) highlighted global indie innovation, from Kazakhstan to Germany to the UK.
Industry Craft (3 wins) rewarded meticulous attention to detail, with Wieden+Kennedy’s Gold Lion leading the category. Brazilian indie Artplan won the Grand Prix for “Nigrum Corpus” (IDOMED), which addressed racism in healthcare education. Jury President Matthias Spaetgens praised its “exceptional book design, typography, copywriting, illustration, and craftsmanship in every detail.”
The Day 2 Takeaway
With 43 Lions on Day 2, indies have now collected 67 total Lions in the first two days of Cannes 2025. The wins came from 13 countries across 5 continents, with Film Craft proving to be particularly strong territory for independent shops and production companies.
The two Grand Prix wins—INNOCEAN in Entertainment and Bear Meets Eagle on Fire in Film Craft—demonstrate that indies continue to compete at the highest levels. As we move into Day 3’s Creative Data, Direct, Media, PR, and Social categories, the indie tally continues to grow.
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