FRANCE – This weekend saw the Cannes Corporate Media & TV Awards annual commercial film festival take place, with the jury having the task of choosing the best of last year’s global films, media and documentaries. One of the companies to be awarded a prize was Danfoss who received a “Silver Dolphin” for Danish director Christoffer Boe’s film.
This year’s version of the Cannes Corporate Media & TV Awards saw a total of 772 films enter the annual competition. The Cannes event is, similarly to the more famous feature film version, considered to be the world’s foremost competition for corporate films, videos and documentaries. The official jury for the awards is composed of directors, producers, academics and members of the advertising industry.
“We are delighted to be receiving the prize. Our intention for this film was to draw together the threads that go into the making of the grand and ever-evolving story of Danfoss, showing how our solutions and products make a difference in today’s society and help to shape the future. At the same time, we wanted the film to stand out from the other ‘explainer videos’; and we wanted it to have the power to reach out to people at an international level. The award is a clear indication that we succeeded,” commented the group director for communication and branding for Danfoss, Mette Refshauge.

The 10 minute film features an American farmer, a German engineer, a Chinese civil servant as well as a Russian heating and plumbing fitter. Through these interlinking main stories, the film endeavours to show some of the contexts around the world in which Danfoss products play a role. The director Christoffer Boe’s brief was to showcase Danfoss products in a short film, which proved more challenging than anticipated.

“The idea behind the film was to put in context Danfoss’ many products and its strong innovative tradition in a way that would appeal to a general audience. How do Danfoss products affect people all around the world? The task is all the more demanding in that Danfoss is in many ways one of those global organisations that works behind the scenes. The products go into houses, run under the earth, stand in production halls — in short, their location is known only to the few. And that is what the film attempts to convey” explained Mr Boe.