Stories

Behind the craft

Meet the Maker: Vanessa Stachel

We sat down with Vanessa Stachel, now in her final year at Filmakademie Baden-Württemburg and director of the award-winning student film ‘Delivery for Mr Frogula’, to hear what challenges face young directors breaking into the industry today.

Behind the craft

CICLOPE Festival 2024: The Highlights

2024 you were another amazing edition of CICLOPE. Thank you to everyone who made it so, especially all our speakers, jury members and sponsors, who helped us continue to make this event such a special celebration of craft within the creative community.

Behind the craft

Newsflash: 2024 Festival Winners Announced

The winners of CICLOPE Festival 2024 have been announced. The biggest CICLOPE Festival to date saw attendees gather in Berlin to celebrate the power of craft in a three-day festival, culminating in the Awards Show.

Behind the craft

CICLOPE 2024: Shortlist Announcement

We are glad to announce the shortlist for the 2024 edition of CICLOPE Festival. The shortlist includes the highest ranked entries in each of the 41 categories, based on the scores given by the Festival’s Jury, that comprises 200 top industry talent from around 30 different countries.

Behind the craft

Meet the Maker: Pip Smart

We sat down with Pip Smart, EP & Partner at Revolver, to discuss her thoughts on craft and get an inclusive insight into the behind-the-scenes of the CICLOPE Asia Grand Prix winner Play It Safe.

Behind the craft

Behind the Idea: Craft is a winning entry

Craft is not just about making the very best film or campaign, it’s also the process and execution behind the scenes that brings the idea to life. So we wanted to dig deeper into what it takes to make an entry, and case film, shine.

Behind the craft

Meet the Maker: Nico Pérez Veiga

Nico Pérez Veiga, founder of Primo, is one of the world’s most acclaimed commercial directors, making work for brands like Nike, Audi, and Netflix. We spoke about his craft and creativity.

Behind the craft

Meet the Maker: Alejandro Noriega

We sat down with Alejandro Noriega, Rebeca Producciones’ founder and executive producer to talk about ‘Cancer Before Cancer’, winner of the  CICLOPE Latino Grand Prix 2024.

Behind the craft

Meet the Maker: Alejandro Rossi Bunge

Executive producer Alejandro Rossi Bunge shares the process behind the award-winning short-film, “Shout”, and what it looks like to co-create a caring industry.

Behind the craft

Behind the Idea: Patrick Milling-Smith, Co-Founder & CEO, Smuggler

We spoke to Patrick Milling-Smith, co-founder and CEO of SMUGGLER and Jury President of Production about his inspirations, predictions for the year ahead and highlights from this year’s Festival in Berlin.

Behind the craft

CICLOPE Festival 2023: The Highlights

CICLOPE 2023 is a wrap. And here’s our wrap-up video. Thank you to everyone who entered, judged, spoke, attended and sent love from afar. We are so grateful to all of you and we had so much fun in Berlin. We hope you did too. Three whole days of inspiration and craft went by in a flash.

Behind the craft

Newsflash: 2023 Festival Winners Announced

The winners of CICLOPE Festival 2023 have been announced. The biggest CICLOPE Festival to date saw attendees gather in Berlin to celebrate the power of craft in a three-day festival, culminating in the Awards Show.

Behind the craft

Newsflash: CICLOPE announces Shortlist 2023

CICLOPE Festival has announced the Shortlist selected by the Jury across 37 distinct craft and creative categories. Winners will be decided by the Jury in the final stages of judging, live in Berlin, to set the global benchmark for the world’s best-crafted creative work of the year.

Behind the craft

Newsflash: Full programme is out now

CICLOPE Festival returns to Berlin this November and has just announced its full programme and speaker line-up. Set to be bigger than ever, the evolving three day event includes talks from some of the biggest names in craft and creativity.

Behind the craft

Craft in Culture: What about the ethics of AI?

For craftspeople and creatives, whose skills have been honed carefully and exhaustively, AI may not the most welcome bedfellow, or it could be a tool to enhance excellence. Ripples of progress have shown how AI is stepping into the creative process, transforming processes, speeding up systems and helping human creativity to scale new heights. The opportunities and implications ahead are massive, and no one knows quite what the future holds.

Behind the craft

Craft in Culture: Taboo-breaking

Taboos are those embarrassing, offensive or awkward topics which are often avoided in “polite” company, on the basis of deep-rooted and complex social and cultural norms. Even in the 21st century, it’s incredible to think that facts of life: periods, body hair, polygamy, cross-dressing, adultery and homosexuality are still so steeped in stigma.

Behind the craft

Behind the Idea: Tanja Grubner

Essity, a global, leading health and hygiene company, has been at the forefront of the taboo revolution, creating cultural change through its impeccably crafted creative campaigns, and changing advertising laws in the process.

Behind the craft

News Flash: Full jury line-up announced

This year’s CICLOPE Festival Jury is a distinguished line-up of esteemed experts from across the globe. The full Executive Jury and Presidents comprise nearly 50 industry names who will come together in Berlin to benchmark the world’s best-crafted creative work.

Behind the craft

Meet the Maker: Savanah Leaf

Olivia Atkins sat down with director Savanah Leaf to talk about how working on Earth Mama, her debut feature, served as a cathartic and educational process for her career.

Behind the craft

News Flash: CICLOPE Asia wraps-up for 2023

CICLOPE Asia, the Festival and Awards celebrating the power of craft in the Asia-Pacific region, returned to Tokyo this September for its fifth edition.

Behind the craft

Behind the Idea: Bianca Poletti

We caught up with Bianca Poletti, Director of the brilliantly funny short film, ‘Radical Honesty’. Produced by Epoch Films and Disco Pants Inc., it won Gold at the CICLOPE awards.

Behind the craft

On Craft: Expert Perspective

We sat down with Jamie Madge, co-editor of shots, to talk about his top trends, predictions and views on craft for the year ahead, from how products have been integrated into some of the most entertaining ads of 2023 to the evolution of branded content (hello Barbie!) and AI.

Behind the craft

Craft in Culture: Why craft is embracing joy

Joy and laughter are making a comeback! Why? Because the world has woken up to the fact that people need it. Think of the storming success of the very tongue in cheek Barbie and the withering wit of Succession: both have hit the zeitgeist and each have a very different version of humour. 

Behind the craft

Meet the Director: Mackenzie Sheppard

Mackenzie Sheppard is a Canadian film director, born in the UK and raised in Japan, that currently lives in Tokyo. His visual diversity and magical take on stories has received acclaim around the world.

Behind the craft

Meet the Director: Matilda Finn

An acclaimed filmmaker, photographer, and creative director, Matilda Finn (MJZ) has collaborated with artists such as The Weeknd, Jay Rock, Brodinski, and more. In this interview, she shares her thoughts on photography, inspiration and art in times of AI. 

Behind the craft

Behind the lens: Autumn Durald Arkapaw

Tune in for an exclusive interview with acclaimed cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw, where she reviews her creative process and goes though some of her favorite projects.

Behind the craft

Meet the Director: Show Yanagisawa

Check out this exclusive interview with Japan-based director Show Yanagisawa where he walks us through his early years and shares insights on the most iconic works of his career.

Behind the craft

Virtual production, is it all it's cracked up to be?

Virtual production is the new industry disrupter, changing pipelines and delivery times while promising to improve sustainability efforts and reduce costs. But creatively, does it stack up?

Behind the craft

The Spotlight: Felipe Silva on the power of the Black creativity

We sat down with Gana’s CEO, Felipe Silva, to discuss his motivations for the agency’s launch and how its celebration of the Black experience and identity is setting a new standard while acknowledging the reality of Brazil’s demographic.

Behind the craft

Case Study: Ladbrokes - "Rocky, We Play Together"

Ladbrokes’ “Rocky” commercial was described as “the most ambitious character replacement in Hollywood history”. Here, the team behind it reveal the secrets that reimagined one of the most memorable film scenes of all time.