‘I’m genuinely speechless’: Telstra and BMEOF take home Grand Prix at Cannes
Australia’s Grand Prix tally at the 2025 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity has risen to two overnight, with Telstra and Bear Meets Eagle on Fire taking home the major win.
Telstra’s ‘Better on a Better Network’ campaign was awarded the coveted Film Craft Grand Prix, beating out the total 1,459 entries received for the category.
The campaign positions the telco as the largest and most reliable in the country. It features 26 stop-motion films — each of which focuses on a specific location in Australia and the unique characters who live there.
To bring the series to life, Telstra’s bespoke agency +61 (led by Bear Meets Eagle on Fire, with support from TBWA) partnered with Revolver’s director Jeff Low. Low brought on animation director Tobias Fouracre, whose experience on Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs and Fantastic Mr Fox brought the unique production to life.
Jury president, Good People Films’ co-founder and film director Ali Ali, said in a year dominated by AI and “digital gloss”, this campaign felt like “a breath of fresh air”.
“Tactile, intimate, and deeply human. It reminded us why we fell in love with this industry,” Ali said.
“Fifty-six unique puppets animating 42 voices from regional Australians, across 26 stop-motion gems. All simple, all funny, all full of soul. Measured writing, inspired characters — and yes, a bird flying backwards. In a fast-content era, ‘Better on a Better Network’ felt like a warm, slow-cooked meal.”
In the Film Craft category, ‘Better on a Better Network’ also won a Gold Lion. Bear Meets Eagle on Fire, +61, and Revolver were also awarded a Gold and Silver Lion for Telstra’s ‘Donkey’ campaign. For ‘The Shoemaker’, the agencies picked up a Bronze Lion. Overall, 49 Lions were awarded.
Telstra’s chief marketing officer, Brent Smart, posted to LinkedIn on Wednesday morning, sharing his thanks to Bear Meets Eagle on Fire’s founder and CCO, Micah Walker, and the team.
“Woken up to huge news from the South of France. And I’m genuinely speechless,” he wrote.
“With a thank you to everyone who worked on this, but especially to Micah Walker, without his vision and care we wouldn’t be here.”
It marks Australia’s second Grand Prix win at this year’s festival, following Sydney-based production house Finch’s collaborative win of the Lions Health and United Nations Grand Prix for Good.
Finch’s work with Motion Sickness Auckland for the New Zealand Herpes Foundation, ‘The Best Place In The World To Have Herpes’, took home the award earlier in the week.
It features a first-of-its kind ‘Herpes Destigmatisation Course’, a global ranking system underpinned by live data and humour. It took an unusual approach to reducing herpes stigma, framing it as the key to restoring New Zealand’s diminished sense of national pride.
Jury president, United Nations Foundation’s chief comms and marketing officer David Ohana, said the campaign took a taboo topic and “turned it on its head”. He said this showed that with strong strategy, a “big, bold, crazy idea”, and humour, that “anything is possible”.
“This year’s Lions Health Grand Prix for Good unabashedly uses humour to tackle a challenging subject and stigmatisation. Forget doom and gloom, there’s enough of that already to go around,” he said.
DDB Melbourne, DDB Sydney, Ogilvy Sydney, VML Sydney, AKQA Australia, and Clemenger Sydney are among the other Australian winners thus far.
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Lauren McNamara is the associate editor at Mumbrella, covering the creative and PR beat. She joined in November 2022 as editorial assistant, after completing a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) at UTS.
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