Cannes Lions 2025: Film winners /

Two Grands Prix were awarded in the Film category, with Channel 4’s Considering What? and L’Oréal Paris’ The Final Copy of Ilon Specht taking home the top prizes.

The Considering What? campaign for the 2024 Paralympic Games rejects the patronising narrative that para-athletes are defined by ‘overcoming’ disability. Instead, it reframes the challenge by personifying the real forces every elite athlete faces: gravity, friction and time. These forces appear as chaotic, animated characters who heckle and hinder seven featured Paralympians, indifferent to who they’re up against.

Narrated by disabled actor Nabil Shaban and cut with real-life quotes from viewers, the film holds a mirror up to the public’s assumptions.

The campaign helped Channel 4 deliver the UK’s most-watched Paralympics since 2012. More significantly, it helped shift perceptions, and by the end of the Games, 79% of viewers said they found the Paralympics as exciting as the Olympics.

The Film Grand Prix for Channel 4’s Considering What? recognised the enduring emotional power of film. Film jury president Kate Stanners, chairwoman and global chief creative officer at Saatchi & Saatchi, emphasised how film’s ability to stir emotion shaped the jury’s entire process this year. ‘Film has an unreasonable power to elicit emotion,’ she said. ‘This jury didn’t judge, it felt its way through the work. And boy, did we feel it.’

She praised Considering What? for its lasting emotional impact and immaculate execution: ‘When we use film to its best, it doesn’t live on a click, it lives in your mind and it stays there for a very, very long time. So, I challenge anyone to forget this in a hurry. It’s an incredible message. It’s crafted to within an inch of its life. It is powerful.’

The work was also celebrated as a continuation of Channel 4’s long-term commitment to the Paralympics. ‘This is in a year where we saw a lot of work for Olympics, a lot of incredible work,’ she said. ‘But this took it to the next level.’

L’Oréal Paris’ campaign is a 17-minute documentary reclaiming one of advertising’s most iconic lines: ‘Because I’m Worth It.’

Created with Oscar-winning director Ben Proudfoot, the film tells the story of Ilon Specht, the 23-year-old copywriter who wrote the line in 1973. It was the first time a beauty ad was voiced by a woman. Filmed in her New York apartment, shortly after a cancer diagnosis, Specht delivers her story with no script.

Premiered on International Women’s Day 2025, the film was distributed globally via Prime Video, AMC+ and TED, becoming the first branded content ever acquired by TED. Alongside it, L’Oréal launched a global campaign with OOH takeovers and public activations across 20 countries, inviting women to step into the ‘I’ of the slogan and reclaim it for themselves.

L’Oréal’s The Last Copy of Ilon Specht stood out early for the jury. ‘This Grand Prix was the one that all of us had at the top of our list from the very beginning and it never faltered,’ said Stanners.

She described the film as a deeply moving and personal piece of storytelling. ‘I watched this in my pre-judging and I thought, like the best possible films, that it was talking to me. I thought it was made for me.’

The film’s emotional depth and political relevance had a lasting effect on the jury. ‘It made me think very differently about L’Oréal. It made me feel very differently about that tagline, [that] had never meant anything to me until I saw this,’ said Stanners.

She reflected on a broader trend of brands re-examining their identities. ‘We started seeing quite a lot of work this year where brands were getting back to their roots and understanding their story and their personality.’

The Last Copy of Ilon Specht was recognised not just for its craft, but for its impact. ‘It felt like a brand rediscovering its voice again. We didn’t set out to say we want to award work that is going to change the world, but because film has such a power to move you, it is an incredible medium to be able to affect change and have impact.’

Find Your Friends for Apple by Apple, Cupertino

Never Just A Period for Bodyform by AMV BBDO, London

Let There Be Cake for KFC Thailand by Bananas, Johannesburg, Brains & Brawn, Bangkok

The Last Birthday for Association Valentin Haüy by Josiane Paris

Telstra – Better On A Better Network for Telstra by Bear Meets Eagle On Fire, Sydney

Make New Zealand The Best Place In The World To Have Herpes for New Zealand Herpes Foundation by Finch, Sydney, Motion Sickness, Auckland, NZ Herpes Foundation, Auckland

Brian Cox Goes to College for Uber One by Special, Los Angeles, Uber San Francisco

Group Therapy for AXA by VML, Paris