The legendary Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors’ Showcase has become one of the genuine highlights of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

The Showcase features the very best new directing talent from around the world and from an initial line up of several hundred directors, the Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide Creative Board make the final selection. This year, 18 directors made the cut.

Now in its 24th year, the Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors' Showcase is one of the most popular events at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity and has carved out a reputation for acting as a barometer of who are the hot directors to watch.  This year the reel features a typically eclectic mix of music videos, animated shorts, humour, erotica, surrealism and the grotesque.  Directors featured in the 2014 Showreel come from Denmark, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Switzerland, the UK and the US.  Many featured directors have gone on to seriously successful careers: Tarsem, Michel Gondry and Spike Jonze included.

Each year we wrap the Showcase around a theme. Last year’s theme ‘Just for Hits’ is a visual and oral extravaganza featuring the world-renowned British evolutionary biologist, Professor Richard Dawkins. ‘Just for Hits' connects the world of science and academia, with the world of film and the internet. It illustrates Professor Dawkins’ theory of memes and presents the internet as an ‘incubator of creativity’, which affects the way we create and share ideas.

Saatchi & Saatchi has been coupling emotion with technology for the past few years through the NDS. This year that relationship comes full circle with ‘Feel the Reel’, through an unprecedented experiment where the Showreel becomes the hero.  The theme was conceived by Saatchi & Saatchi creatives Linda Weitgasser and Alex Sattlecker, in collaboration with Prettybird, Marshmallow Laser Feast and Studio XO.

In this year’s NDS, the audience interaction plays a big part. In a world first 2,300 people in the theatre wear sensory wristbands developed by Studio XO, and the audience will have their emotions captured and projected back at them through data visualization on stage as the reel plays.

Entries for next year's Showcase will appear on this website early 2015.