Saatchi & Saatchi Selects Factory Fifteen for New Directors' Showcase

Nexus directing collective Factory Fifteen has been selected for the prestigious Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors' Showcase at the 2015 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. In a commemorative year for the showcase Saatchi & Saatchi celebrate 25 years of highlighting emerging directing talent from around the world. 

The directing collective is a young, but widely acclaimed team consisting of best new talent Jonathan Gales, Kibwe Tavares and Paul Nicholls, and has won a number of international awards, including the Jury prize for animation direction at the Sundance Film festival. Factory Fifteen’s short film Function/VOID created for Ninja Tune’s acid-grime artist The Bug has been selected to screen as part of the showcase.

Function/VOID, is inspired by sci-fi and futuristic fiction classics such as THX-1138, Brave New World and 1984, the video-short is set in an alternative present and illustrates the collapse of an amplified consumer society. The narrative follows the life of a drone living in a totalitarian system, medicated to think, feel and function, and illustrates what happens to him and the world around him when he stops conforming. The monochrome video short uses a mix of live-action and astounding VFX to reflect the fragility of life in a totalitarian system, and visualises the subsequent fracture and breakdown of a city based on mindless consumption.

Factory Fifteen, Nexus, says “Cannes Lions is a prestigious event, and being selected for the New Directors' Showcase is exciting for so many reasons, not least having our film shown in the company of some of the wildly talented young directors from around the world.  Function/Void was a great project , and one where we could leverage our architectural background. It  enabled us to use buildings as key characters in the narrative, plus it’s not everyday you get to build a world and then completely destroy it!”

Chris O’Reilly, Co-Founder, Nexus, says “Factory Fifteen bring a unique set of skills to filmmaking, coming from a background in architecture they understand exactly how space can be used whilst maintaining a strong sense of narrative.  We are thrilled to see them showcase their talent at such a prestigious event.”