The Loerie Awards is a crazy time when the creative geniuses of South Africa gather to celebrate the past year, let their hair down, and paint a small part of the country red. But it’s not all about the partying. For the film industry, the bread and butter of the Loerie Awards is about commercials. Creatives can blow bubbles at each other, throw the streamers and play ‘let’s see who can get to the free bar first,’ but when Saturday night rolls around, and John Vlismas starts reading out the nominees, it’s business time.

Out of the production companies Frieze Films was the big winner with their Grand Prix in Experiential Mixed Media for Young, Gifted and Black for Channel O. This campaign also ensured that director Leigh Ogilvie was the highest ranked director. Leigh has since left Frieze Films for Terraplane. This mixed media campaign reinvents the golden age of soul to celebrate some of Africa’s top music artists to great effect, and earned agency Ogilvy Johannesburg a string of awards including a Bronze for TV Identity and Content Promos and a Craft Certificate in Art Direction.

Shy the Sun was the other big winner, walking off with a Craft Gold in Art Direction and a Craft in Animation and Special Effects (shared with Black Ginger) for Precious Biscuits, their Bakers ad for Ogilvy Johannesburg, as well as a Craft Gold in Animation and Special Visual Effects for United Sea Orchestra, which won a Silver Craft Clio earlier this year. On the Friday night, under their non-- commercial alias, The Black Heart Gang, they won a Craft Gold for Illustration for their book version of The Tale of How, their award-winning short film.

FoxP2 may have been the winner overall but it was Ogilvy who took the title of top dog in the commercials arena. In addition to their Grand Prix win for Young, Gifted and Black, they won the only two Golds awarded in TV Advertising. One of these went to their commercials for BP 2010 - SA United:Car Guards vs Boytjies, Divas vs Taxi Drivers, and Cafe Owners vs Mamas - which were produced by Bouffant and directed by Erik van Wyk for Ogilvy JHB.

Ogilvy Johannesburg’s sister agency, Ogilvy Cape Town, won the other Gold for VW Lucky, which was facilitated by Gatehouse and directed by American Henry-Alex Rubin. Ogilvy Johanesburg also won two Silvers for Audi Flipbook, produced by Egg Films and directed by Kim Geldenhuys; and KFC Skop, produced by Jump and directed by Mike Middleton. Flipbook also won a Craft Certificate for Music and Sound Design, thanks to Cut and Paste Generation’s Alun Richards. Mike also won Ogilvy a Bronze for Exclusive Books Charades. Silver Loeries were awarded to two of South Africa’s favourite commercials: Adrian de sa Garces’ Morning After and Anton Visser’s Singing Burger, both produced by Velocity as part of Net#work BBDO Johannesburg’s Chicken Licken campaign. Velocity won a Bronze for BMW Freediver, directed by Greg Gray, for Ireland/Davenport. Greg also won a Bronze in the Advertising Mixed Media category for Keep it Real, The Jupiter Drawing Room’s popular Windhoek campaign featuring Louis Gosset Junior.

The third in the Chicken Licken series, Chilly the Real Snowman, surprisingly didn’t win a Silver but did take home a Craft Certificate for Art Direction for Julie Bonnet and Jo van der Linde. It was directed by Slim of Egg Films.

Bomb’s Teboho was the most nominated director of the night and he didn’t leave empty handed. The director walked away with two Bronze Loeries for Talking Man and Sophiatown, and three Craft Certificates in Art Direction (Dimitri Repanis, Trudi Barklem), Cinematography (Werner Maritz) and Direction for Sophiatown and Walking Man respectively. Giant Films’ Bruno Bossi also won a Bronze for Mweb Lost for FOXP2, the Loeries big winner. Picture Tree won a Bronze for Alan Irvin’s Player 23 for Vodacom. The Draftfcb campaign also won a Silver in the Advertising Mixed Media category.

Creative Vision won an Advertising Bronze for Jo Horn’s Change for Nando’s. In Mixed Media, Bronzes were awarded to King James Johannesburg Good Guy Campaign, directed by Francois Weber and Dave Hillier of The Deli. Ogilvy Johannesburg and Studio Zoo’s hilarious Guess Who’s Been Watching DSTV campaign won Silver in the TV Identity and Content Promos category. Directed by Fresheye Films’ Bevan Cullinan and Plank’s Peter Pohorsky, the three ads - Lunchbox, Happy Birthday and Fireman - earned arguably the night’s biggest laughs.

TX also won a Silver in the category for Channel O Tree, which also earned them a Craft for animation. Masters and Savant also had a good Loeries, walking away with two Golds and a Craft Certificate in the Experiential category.

Click here to view the winning work and the full production company rankings.

Sally Fink