Luke Ricci's direct approach

What appealed to you about taking on the role of head judge for the Direction category?

Serving on creative juries has been something that I’ve been lucky to do in my career. As I’ve grown in my professional leadership, I’ve had some really fantastic opportunities. After serving on the AICP Curatorial Committee last year, I was excited about being a part of creating an environment for a group of inspiring and diverse people to come together.

What sort of work are you hoping to see in this category?

My hope is to see inspiring work that brings ingenuity of creativity and conceptual thinking, and pushes the boundaries of film craft. 

My hope is to see inspiring work that brings ingenuity of creativity and conceptual thinking, and pushes the boundaries of film craft. 

I’m especially interested in seeing work from the Americas outside of the US that doesn’t reside on US media channels.

Above: Luke Ricci, President of RSA Films & The Directors Bureau and this year's Head Judge for the Direction category. 

What makes a good jury?

From my perspective, a good jury is a group of people that represent different expert perspectives and multi-disciplinary creative points of view; a group that provides a safe space to debate differences of opinion passionately and constructively; a group that truly empowers each jury member to have a voice; a group that challenges themselves to evaluate the merit of each piece of work and award the pieces that are cut out as superlative.

Do you think 2024 was a good year for creativity in North and South America?

2024 was a fine year for creativity in North and South America, though my experience is largely in North America. 

Seeing the beginning of the integration of AI filmmaking tools has been interesting to monitor. 

There were a variety of campaigns in different genres that excited me, and seeing the beginning of the integration of AI filmmaking tools has been interesting to monitor. 

Click here to see the full Direction jury line-up.

Above: Budweiser's famous Whassup spot is Ricci's favourite campaign. 

Is there a campaign from the past that inspired you to get into advertising?

Many, but one that left an indelible mark was Errol Morris’ work for Miller High Life. Simple, artful and complete. And the Budweiser Whassup campaign is probably my favourite of all time.

What do you think the biggest challenges and opportunities are for advertising in the year ahead? 

One of the biggest challenges advertising faces is maintaining creative quality and ingenuity in the face of AI and data-analytics as they are applied to measuring efficacy of advertising content. 

The grey area where the subjective, human, creative process navigates data-driven marketing tools will continually be a space to watch.

The grey area where the subjective, human, creative process navigates data-driven marketing tools will continually be a space to watch. At the same time as it is a triggering and difficult subject, AI is the biggest opportunity area for advertising.