The organisers of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity have announced the 'See It Be It' finalists for 2020 and 2021.
Fifteen women from across the world have been selected to join the talent accelerator programme which will run as a virtual learning and mentoring programme in 2020 and return to the festival in 2021. The organisers have stated that this year there were 797 applications from 70 countries.
'See It Be It' is an initiative aiming to achieve equal gender representation of creative directors and leaders across the global industry. The programme is designed to accelerate women into senior creative roles and the 15 selected participants each receive a VIP Cannes Lions experience. This includes a complimentary pass, accommodation and travel to attend the festival in 2021.
Representing India on the list is independent creative director, Geetanjali Jaiswal.
Louise Benson, festival director and VP Events, Cannes Lions, said, “We will support our See It Be It community in the coming weeks and months, through new and exciting virtual events, Lions Live, and the festival in June 2021. See It Be It is an instrumental initiative in Cannes Lions’ response to the gender imbalance that exists within the global creative community. The community has evolved into a global movement of women and the impact of the programme has reached far beyond the Festival week.”
The theme for the 2020 - 2021 See It Be It programme is feminine leadership.
Swati Bhattacharya, chief creative officer, FCB Ulka, and the 2020 'See It Be It' Ambassador, said, “Women are amazing input givers, devil’s advocates and intangibility readers and all storytelling benefits from our diverse perspectives. Feminine leadership uses the female instinct to nurture an organisation or a department, like a mama lioness. When women suppress their female instinct, it’s like a creative hara-kiri.”
The full list of finalists:
- Roxana Nita, Group Creative Director, Cheil Romania
- Andrea Auz, Creative Director, Paper, Ecuador
- Leticia Rodrigues, Senior Art Director, Wunderman Thompson, Brazil
- Javiera Wuth, Senior Copywriter, McCann, Chile
- Ana Carolina Gomez Guzman, Social Media Director, Together W/, Mexico
- Rosa Guerrero Cabral, Creative Supervisor, Publicis Dominicana, Dominican Republic
- Lauren Ferreira, Creative Director, Droga5, USA
- Tescia Deák, Creative Director, Grey West, USA
- Mica Gallino, Creative Director, JOAN Creative, USA
- Ellen Fromm, Senior Copywriter, Colenso BBDO, New Zealand
- Rachel Chew, Creative Group Head, BLKJ, Singapore
- Allie Steel, Senior Copywriter, M&C Saatchi, Australia
- Denise Tee, Creative Director, Wunderman Thompson, Hong Kong
- Nedal Ahmed, Senior Writer, 72andSunny Amsterdam, Netherlands
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