As the Young Lions competition of 2022 has drawn to a close and the winners have been revealed, we decided it would be interesting to have our own junior take on the submitted entries and select our own winners from this year’s Film category. We let juniors from different agencies, backgrounds and ages pick their winners out of all of the submitted entries without showing them who won, which has revealed a surprising new top three.
Interesting to note: All of our jr. selected winners were not chosen in the original shortlist.
GOLD: Joana Peseiro Santos & João Almeida Santos
Team Portugal is bringing the world of protest together with the online world. All of us have at one point felt the need to grab a sign, put something on it, and march the streets. But a lot of young people question how effective that way of speaking up is. Do we get the right people to notice what all those young people filling the streets are saying? Or is a single notification on a politician’s smartphone more effective than a protest sign?
A notification is powerful. With a single sound, it makes us pay attention to our smartphones. Wherever we are, whoever we are with. Imagine how far the reach of people can be when they have an extension like the Global Citizen app in their hands.
Media really is the extension of this generation, like Marshall McLuhan once put it so well. Media increases the range and the power of (one part of) the human body. That’s why young people reach further than they ever could using their smartphones.
‘We are very happy with our idea, because we feel that it has a different angle from the others. We tried to explain what Global Citizen is by showing how cyber activism can amplify our voices even more, bringing millions of people to the street through social media.’
Joana Peseiro Santos & João Almeida Santos
SILVER: Sebastian Pandonis & Jakob Steinmo
Team Norway’s film is helping shift our view on issues as big as extreme poverty by taking us along in a very skilfully crafted piece of storytelling. It takes the issue and completely flips it upside down. It’s shining a light on possibilities and the future, by reminding us of history. The film does this by constantly pointing towards the things once seemed impossible and completely and immediately pushing off against the seemingly impossible things.
The film inspires you, to want to be more than only a skeptic. Of course criticism is important, but in many cases it’s also an easier way out than taking action. A lot of people are talking and sharing opinions during these times. But what is really needed is people who take matters in their own hands and pursue change.
‘Ending extreme poverty? NOW!? This is a mission that sounds absolutely impossible to most of us. However, throughout history, innovators have proved skeptics wrong again and again. By putting Global Citizen’s mission in a historic context, we wanted to give young people hope and inspire them to take action.’
Sebastian Pandonis & Jakob Steinmo
Want to see more of Sebastian & Jakob? Click here
BRONZE: Stevi Gkesiou & Daphne Prangidi
The film team Greece has made is a very poetic one. What it does beautifully is juxtaposing the empty streets with the loud sounds of protest. This immediately causes some cognitive dissonance, as we want to see the source of the sounds. The emptiness of the streets almost reinforces the strength of the voices we hear, and vice versa.
The camera movement adds another layer to this poetry between sound and image. It puts the viewer into the POV of a protest. But it also doesn’t stand still. It moves. Forward.
Combining all these elements, team Greece has beautifully shown how protests don’t have to look like protests anymore and how change can be achieved through different ways.
‘We believe in the power of protest and how it can really make a change. So, we wanted to show the biggest and loudest protest ever. Without actually showing it. Since it was not visible on the streets but only in the digital world.’
Stevi gkesiou & daphne prangidi
Our congratulations to this year’s Jr. Young Lion winners. No medals or metals, but eternal junior glory and the knowledge that the younger generation has its own perspective.
