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Matt Miller, President and CEO of AICP, today announced the release of the shortlists for the 2020 AICP Awards – the AICP Post Awards, the AICP Next Awards and the AICP Show @MoMA. Winners in each of these three strategically-aligned competitions for excellence will be revealed during a series of free virtual premieres set to take place during AICP Week – the AICP Next Awards will debut June 9th, followed by the AICP Post Awards on June 10th, culminating in the premiere of the AICP Show on June 11th.  The work on all three shortlists can be found here. 

Among brands, Apple dominated the combined AICP Awards shortlist, with a total of 30 mentions across all three shows: 23 in the AICP Show; five in the Post Awards, and two in the Next Awards. Work for Mercedes-Benz compiled a total of 13 mentions across the awards: six in the AICP Show; five in Post, two in Next. Three brands compiled a total of 10 mentions each: Budweiser and Bud Light, which scored five mentions in the Post Awards and five in the Next Awards; Jeep, which earned five in Post and five in the AICP Show; and Monica Lewinsky, whose work on behalf of raising awareness for cyber bullying saw five mentions in the AICP Show, four in Next and one in Post. 

Among agencies, Wieden+Kennedy was the leader, with a total of 43 mentions across the awards shows: 17 in the AICP Show, 17 in Post and nine in Next. The work of Wieden’s various offices were recognized for brands such as Bud Light, Coca-Cola, Facebook, HBO, KFC, Nike, Old Spice and Travel Oregon. Agencies of the BBDO network, including BBDO New York, Almap BBDO, AMV/BBDO and others, earned 38 mentions: 18 in the AICP Show, 12 in Next and eight in Post.  Among the brands for which they were recognized were AT&T, Foot Locker, Ford, Getty Images, Guinness, Monica Lewinsky, Sandy Hook Promise and Snickers. 

Entries from various offices of TBWA netted a total of 22 mentions: 15 in the AICP Show, five in Post and two in Next, with such brands as Apple, Gatorade, Mountain Dew, Nissan, Supercuts and Schweppes represented. Also near the top of the agency list was 72andSunny, which posted 21 mentions: eight in Post, five in Next and eight in the AICP Show, for such brands as Halo Top, New Era, the NFL, Smirnoff and Tinder. 

SMUGGLER was the leading production company in terms of overall mentions in the three shows, with a total of 35: 26 in the AICP Show and nine in the Post Awards. It was recognized for work for Apple, Heineken, Mercedes-Benz, RAINN, Sandy Hook Promise and Skittles. MJZ earned a total of 30 shortlist mentions: 15 in the AICP Show, 13 in the Post Awards and two in Next. Among the brands represented were IKEA, HP, Hyundai, Mountain Dew, Smirnoff and Snickers. 

O Positive’s mention total came in at 23, 10 of which were in Post, four in the Next Awards and nine in the AICP Show, for such brands as Jeep, Rocket Mortgage, Squarespace, Supercuts and Volkswagen. Iconoclast earned a total of 18 mentions, with nine in Post and nine in the AICP Show, scoring with work for EasyJet, Lacoste and 30 Millions d’Amis Foundation. 

Three production companies achieved 15 mentions across the shows: Biscuit Filmworks, which notched 11 in the AICP Show and four in Post; Hungry Man, which scored eight in Post, one in Next and eight in the AICP Show; and Somesuch, which posted eight in the AICP Show, six in Post and one in Next. Biscuit was recognized for work for 1850 Coffee, Clif Bar, Fisher Price, Reebok, Old Spice, Pepsi and other brands, while Hungry Man was recognized for work for Hyundai, March For Our Lives and Walmart. Somesuch was shortlisted for work for Amazon, the NFL and Volkswagen.

Among the editorial companies that achieved the highest numbers of shortlist mentions were Arcade Edit, which earned 31 overall mentions across the three shows, with 14 in Post, four in the Next Awards and 13 in the AICP Show, and Work Editorial, which also scored 31 mentions, all in the AICP Show. 

Cosmo Street Editorial, along with Trim at Cosmo Street, had 24 shortlist mentions: 18 in the AICP Show, four in Post and two in Next. Cutters Studios scored 22 shortlist mentions, with 14 coming in Post, two in Next and six in the AICP Show. 

AICP Post Awards Artist and Editor Standouts
Of the shortlisted Editors and Artists in the Post Awards, Editors Dave Anderson of Arcade Edit, Grant Gustafson of Cutters Studios and Ben Suenaga of Friendshop! topped the list with four pieces on the shortlist. Anderson was shortlisted for work for Bud Light and Cheetos in the Editorial: Comedy category and Bud Light and Progressive in the Editorial: National Campaign category. Gustafson was shortlisted for Jeep in the Editorial categories for Comedy, Storytelling and Automotive, and for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois in the Editorial category for Regional Campaign. Suenaga was shortlisted for NOWNESS in the Editorial categories of Dialogue/Monologue/Spoken Word, Docu-Style and Montage, and again in Montage for IBM. 

A group of editors and artists received three shortlist entries in the Post Awards: John Binder of Cutters Studios, Daniel De Vue of Elastic, Chris Franklin of Big Sky Edit, Mark Gethin of MPC, Ali Mao of Arcade Edit, Tim Masick of Company 3, Sam Ostrove of Cabin Edit, Tom Poole of Company 3 and Eddie Ringer of WAX.

Virtual Presentations 
In the lead up to the online premieres of all three shows, AICP will be releasing a series of virtual panel discussions of the creative teams behind some of the most shortlisted work. Each panel features the thinking of the creators behind some of the most shortlisted work across all three awards programs. 

The virtual presentations are designed to provide inspiration and insight for the industry, while also honoring those whose creative ingenuity and thinking went into creating work featured in the shortlists.  

Blue-ribbon panels of judges assembled earlier this year and reviewed work across 60 categories for the three competitions. The judging process for each show was led by their respective chairs. The AICP Show Chairperson, Ali Brown, President of PRETTYBIRD, and AICP Post Awards Chairperson Chris Franklin, Founder/Editor of Big Sky Edit, oversaw the selection of judges for their respective shows with the aid of a 50-person Awards Committee. The AICP Next Awards Judging Chair, Tiffany Rolfe, EVP/Chief Creative Officer U.S. at R/GA, selected Jury Presidents for each category of the AICP Next Awards, who in turn selected their judges. 

As has been the case since their inception, The AICP Show and The AICP Next Awards are preserved in The Museum of Modern Art’s Department of Film’s state of the art archives for future generations to study and are available for use or exhibition by the museum’s curators. All individual works and each year’s shows in their entirety can be viewed exclusively at www.aicpawards.com, the AICP Awards Archive website. All winners of the AICP Post Awards will receive trophies, and their work will be showcased at www.aicppostawards.com. Information to RSVP for the events will be available on aicp.com.

2020 AICP Show Shortlist

2020 AICP Post Awards Shortlist