16th International Advertising Film Festival: The balance sheet
The 16th edition of the Spotlight International Advertising Film Festival came to a close with a spectacular party. It marked the premiere at the atmospheric new venue, the Capitol in Mannheim.
Just a few weeks ago, the advertising film festival in German-speaking countries was also included in the exclusive circle of the 15 most important creative competitions worldwide by the trade journals W&V and Horizont, according to a press release. Mannheim schoolchildren were also able to enjoy a first: on the morning of March 15, they had the Capitol and Spotlight presenter Oliver Kalkofe all to themselves and chose their favorites in their own voting show. In the evening, their votes had an equal say in the awarding of the 2013 Audience Awards.
Outstanding spots from the current advertising film year are not only judged by an industry-standard jury of professional creatives, but also by each and every one of the more than 1,500 festival visitors. The differences between the professional jury and the audience awards are sometimes considerable and provide a need for discussion. The big evening award show is therefore preceded by the Spotlight Forum.
Spotlight 2013 - The competition, the trends
While the top-class jury of experts from the creative industry chose their winners on the first, non-public day of the festival, the audience voted for their favorites live and digitally at the big award show. The two sections Spotlight Professionals, the main competition for professional commercials and the Spotlight Students competition for young talents, are divided into the two categories "TV & Cinema" and "Web & Mobile", depending on whether they are classic advertising formats or commercials designed for the Internet or mobile devices. The "Cases" category for new creative formats is judged exclusively by the expert jury. Not only commercials, but also campaign concepts for moving image communication and other supplementary background information can be submitted here. The student gold winners of the audience jury were also able to enjoy 1,000 euros in prize money each, donated by the Film Commission Metropolregion Rhein-Neckar.
Festival directors Peter Frey and Thomas Falkenstein were responsible for the program. Spotlight is supported by the City of Mannheim, MFG Filmförderung Baden-Württemberg, Landesanstalt für Kommunikation (LfK) and the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts.
Spotlight Awards 2013 - The winners
This year, Arno Lindemann, Managing Director of Lukas Lindemann Rosinski, Hamburg, chaired the expert jury in the main Spotlight Professionals competition. Helmut Hartl, Embassy of Dreams, Munich, was deputy chairman of the jury in the main competition. The young talent competition Spotlight Students was traditionally chaired by Gabriele Röthemeyer, Managing Director of MFG Filmförderung Baden-Württemberg. They were supported by colleagues from agencies, film production companies, media editorial offices and the most important training centers for commercial filmmakers.
All winning spots can be seen on the festival's homepage.
