PAIR OF TEENAGERS WIN £5000 COMPETITION TO MAKE NEXT GREENPEACE CAMPAIGN FILM

Two teenage German students have won an international film competition organised by Greenpeace. 

The contest to make a short film attacking the Volkswagen brand was won by 18-year-old Andreas Borlinghaus and Johannes Laidler, 19, from Lake Constance, Germany. The result was announced last night at a ceremony at the Curzon Soho cinema in London. Andreas and Johannes will now be given a budget of £5000 to make Greenpeace’s next campaign film. Previous films have been seen by millions online and won a clutch of awards. 

Eighty film-makers from across the world entered the competition. A shortlist of 12 was selected by online voting before a judging panel, including directors Clio Barnard, Michael Geoghegan and Jack Price, and Nick Darken of advertising agency Albion, chose the winner. 

An estimated four million people have already watched Greenpeace’s own online film attacking Volkswagen’s record on climate change, while 450,000 people have signed up to join the campaign against the car-maker. The film has won a prestigious Gold Lovie award and is nominated for the viral video award at the 27th Berlin International Short Film Festival (it can be seen at www.vwdarkside.com). Now Andreas and Johannes will make its sequel. 

The competition was run across the UK, Germany, France and Belgium. All 12 shortlisted films – many of which subvert some of VW’s most famous adverts – were screened at the Curzon last night before the winner was named. 

Andreas Borlinghaus said: 

“We’re so excited to have won, because we think it’s really important, as film makers, to use cinema to raise public awareness of environmental issues. This competition was a great opportunity, giving us a chance to showcase our skills to a really wide audience.” 

Clio Barnard said: 

“What I loved about Pretending was how angry it made me. It exposed Volkswagen’s duplicity in such a simple but powerfully executed manner.” 

Another judge, Greenpeace executive director John Sauven, said: 

“We were stunned by the quality of the entries. This experiment in crowd-sourcing a brand attack has been a startling success with a large number of films I think agencies would have been proud to produce. VW has some of the most expensive creatives in the business working for them, but our online crew has come up with a great response to the company’s green-washing. We can’t wait to see what Andreas and Johannes make for us with the prize money.” 

Volkswagen has a reputation for producing some of the most memorable television adverts in history. Most recently its one minute film of a mini-Darth Vader – premiered in the ad break during this year’s Superbowl – became the most viewed online ad in history. With YouTube movies increasingly forming the cornerstone of global campaigns against corporate targets, the competition represented an opportunity for anyone with a camera and laptop to dictate the direction of the Greenpeace campaign in major media markets. 

VW markets itself as a green car company. But in reality it lobbies against key climate change laws and only fits the most fuel efficient technology to a small proportion of its vehicles.