Stella priests tops BTAA Craft Awards

by James Hamilton, Campaign 04-Nov-05

Lowe London's "ice-skating priests" spot for Stella Artois was named the Best Crafted Commercial of the Year at the BTAA Craft Awards on Monday night.

The ad, directed by Jonathan Glazer and produced by Academy Films, also
took home awards for Best Casting, Best Use of Recorded Music, and Best
Direction. In winning the director's gong, Glazer topped a shortlist

that included Danny Kleinman for his "ventriloquist" spot for the NSPCC,

Frank Budgen for the "le sacrifice" film for Stella Artois and the
animation directors Smith & Foulkes for the Honda ad "grrr".

Glazer said: "It's about Vince Squibb (Lowe's senior creative), to be
honest. You only have a chance with anything if the script is good, and
it's a pleasure to work with someone that good."

Widely tipped to win the overall award, the Honda "grrr" spot from
Wieden & Kennedy took home awards for Best Animation and Best Original
Music.

Other winners included Richard Orrick, who won Best Editing for his work
on the Adidas "road to Lisbon" ad. Best Cinematography went to Sebastian
Maliszewski for Audi A8 6.0 "test".

The Mill picked up the award for Best Video Post-Production for its work
on the "lucky" ad for the Department for Transport.