Awesome Kiwi Film Promoting Reading Wins at Cannes

In What's the Buzz by Edward Nawotka

By Mark Garcia-Prats

A short film dramatizing the “power of reading” has won two Film Craft Lions awards at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival. The two-minute film, commissioned by the New Zealand Book Council, uses stop motion animation from beautifully crafted cut-outs and pop-ups made from the pages of Maurice Gee’s classic New Zealand novel Going West, to depict scenes from the story, as a narrator reads from the novel.

The short film, also titled Going West, was created by ad agency Colenso BBDO with Andersen M Studios in London. It has received a huge amount of attention on YouTube with more than 810,000 views.

Noel Murphy, who heads the New Zealand Book Council, says, “The idea that lies at the centre of this project is that reading is an activity that surprises, delights, challenges and ignites the imagination.”

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_jyXJTlrH0

About the Author

Edward Nawotka

A widely published critic and essayist, Edward Nawotka serves as a speaker, educator and consultant for institutions and businesses involved in the global publishing and content industries. He was also editor-in-chief of Publishing Perspectives since the launch of the publication in 2009 until January 2016.