Here are the 7 Indians who will be a part of Cannes Lions Jury this year

Apr 14, 2021, 14:18 IST

This year’s Lions juries see the highest ever representation from global brands

Seven people from India are part of the jury of this year’s Cannes Lions awards.
Jury members hail from across the world and represent the global industry’s leading talent from the broadest spectrum of disciplines. The juries also comprise 51% of female jurors, up from 48% in 2019.

Cannes Lions has announced its jury line-up of global experts selected to award the world’s very best creative work and benchmark excellence this June.

The Lion-winning work will be announced and awarded during Cannes Lions Live, a fully digital experience, running from 21-25 June 2021, that’s included for free as part of the new LIONS Membership, launching in May.

Jury members hail from across the world and represent the global industry’s leading talent from the broadest spectrum of disciplines. The juries also comprise 51% of female jurors, up from 48% in 2019.

This year, seven people from India are part of the jury of Cannes Lions awards, mentioned below:

Category	Jurors
Direct Lions	Santosh Padhi (Paddy), Chief Creative Officer & Founder, Taproot Dentsu, India
Entertainment Lions	Ashima Avasthi Chaudhuri, Head - Content, Zee Studios, India
Creative Effectiveness Lions	Jitender Dabas, Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Operations Officer, McCann Worldgroup, India
Glass: The Lion for Change	Swati Bhattacharya, Chief Creative Officer, FCB, India
Health and Wellness Lions	Prateek Bhardwaj, Chief Creative Officer, Lowe Lintas, India
Titanium Lions	Sonal Dabral, Writer, Director, Creative Consultant, Tribha, India
Pharma Lions	Parixit Bhattacharya, Managing Partner - Creative, TBWA\ India

This year’s Lions juries see the highest ever representation from global brands including: Nike Inc, Levi Strauss & Co, Diageo, IKEA, Mars Incorporated, Mondelez, Beats by Dr Dre, Uber, KFC, Oatly, Squarespace, ByteDance K.K., Nestlé, and Aesop.

Platforms and entertainment companies represented are: Twitter, Facebook, Netflix, YouTube, Disney+, Spotify, Google, Twitch, alongside NBCUniversal, Vivendi, Universal Music Group, Columbia Records, and Warner Music Central.

Among the many global networks represented are jurors from McCann, Ogilvy, Publicis, BBDO, VMLY&R and Dentsu who are joined by specialist and independent agencies such as Quiet Storm, Above & Beyond, Stink Studios, Futerra and Tech and Soul.

Simon Cook, Managing Director, LIONS, says: “It’s hugely exciting to welcome this formidable line-up of experts, who will unite across time zones and backgrounds, representing the full scale of our industry. Each year, our juries grow more diverse, which is part of our commitment to appoint outstanding talent from right across the breadth of our global community.”

Philip Thomas, Chairman, LIONS, comments: “After pausing the awards last year, our juries will be awarding Lions across two years’ worth of work, which is an unprecedented opportunity to set the global creative benchmark for two years of outstanding creativity.”

Thomas adds: “The awards will be the heartbeat of Cannes Lions Live with announcements, analysis, insights and interviews taking place throughout the week. We can’t wait to celebrate and immerse ourselves in Lion-winning creativity alongside our community in June.”

Lions juries will take part in remote judging from their home locations worldwide. Speaking about the process, Susie Walker, VP Awards & Insight, LIONS, explains: “Judging is a very human experience. It must also be a rigorous and robust process. Our unique judging platform, successfully trialled at other Lions awards this year, has been built to ensure the value and integrity of the Lion is upheld. We’re committed to delivering a world-class judging experience of the standard we’re known for, and crucially, we want every piece of creative work to be given the time and discussion it deserves.”