A man from Nottingham enjoys his success after winning two awards at a film ceremony in Cannes for an advertisement he directed.
Born in Gedling, John Turner hoped to play cricket professionally for Nottinghamshire before focusing on film and photography in his twenties.
Now he has won gold and silver for his short film, which was used in a pharmaceutical advertisement for the global company Teva.
He described his success as “like winning the Oscars for advertising” at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, which has been held since 1954.
His film tells the story of an elderly gentleman who starts hairdressing at his late age, the reason being his wife’s deteriorating health.
This year, the festival took place at the end of June, just before the Cannes Film Festival is due to start next week in 2021.
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John Turner, who grew up in Mapperley Park, is now 48 and lives in London, told Nottinghamshire Live:
“I was determined to play for Nottinghamshire cricket until I was 19 or 20 and I realized that wouldn’t be possible. I loved film and was always interested, so on a whim I decided to go to South Notts College to study photography. ” [now Nottingham College] and it was a great decision.
“One of the tutors said I should think about film and I moved to London to study in Westminster.
“From then on I worked for Channel 4, doing internal promotions and also doing shows like Britain’s Next Top Model. I got thrown into the deep end and managed to swim.
“I still consider myself a film student and my aim is to one day direct an entire film.
“This was a unique opportunity to develop something that doesn’t advance a product. It was about supervisors.
“The main story is about an older man who is learning to be a hairdresser and you don’t know why until the end because he wants to do his wife’s hair because she is sick.
“It was called ‘Hairspray’ and won gold and silver in Cannes. I have no idea about awards and prefer to concentrate on art.
A screenshot of ‘hairspray’
(Image: Dark Energy Films)
“I was told I won gold and silver and that’s a big deal because it’s like the Oscars for advertising. Not many people get gold for a film like this about grooms.
“It won out of 600 entries from this year and last, so it’s great to have won. It was shown on TV and can be viewed online.”
His film “Hairspray” for Teva, which he directed through Dark Energy Films, with whom he works, won gold and silver in the Pharma category at the Cannes Lions 2021.
It was shown as a television commercial for the Israel-based pharmaceutical company and can be viewed at www.darkenergyfilms.com/directors/john-turner.
Jury President Anne de Shweinitz said: “For me this is a perfect film. It brings so much in such a compressed way … from a technical point of view, the music, the recordings … simply perfect.”