Nils Leonard, founder of Uncommom is to be a headline speaker at this year’s Kinsale Shark Awards Festival, along with Neil Dawson, executive creative director of BETC London. Other speakers will be announced soon.

The 2018 Kinsale Shark Awards are now open for entries. The Advertising Awards, Short Film and Music Video can be entered here. The deadline is September 7.

New awards for this year include Best Production Company, Best Post Production Company, Best Sound Design Company, Best Music Production Company and Best Design Agency.

So far, jury members will come from London agencies AMV, VCCP, Lucky Generals, Anomaly and Mother, London Edit House Cut+Run, London Production Company Mad Ruffian, Droga5 New York, French Interactive Production company, makemepulse and Irish Creative agency, Boys & Girls. Also chairing the Short Film jury is MarBelle, editor of Directors Notes.

AMV creative partner, Rosie Arnold takes on the role of jury president, to ensure the usual high standard is maintained throughout the judging process. She is also responsible for helping to award the Grand Prix, Best Integrated Campaign and Creative Bravery.

There are also changes to the Festival format, which is held in Kinsale, Ireland, September 26 – 29. The traditional award ceremonies have been merged into a bigger, less formal evening event with award winners able to collect their shark head award separately. There is just one festival pass and this allows entry to all talks and evening events over the entire festival.

There’s a special early bird rate available until June 22.

Festival director, Aisling White, commented, “We have done a lot of listening and are delighted to announce a new shape to the festival to include everyone.  This year we are more focused on inspiring talks and social events, and we have some pretty special events planned. The format change has enabled a major reduction in the price of festival passes and I am super excited for our 56th Festival.”

Current jury members are (more to be announced):

• Rosie Arnold, creative partner, AMV, London
• Amanda Jones, executive creative producer, Mad Ruffian, London
• Julien Rault, director of production, makemepulse, Paris
• James Rose, editor and partner, Cut+Run, London
• Ruben Mercadal, associate director of film production, Droga5, New York
• Shane Casey, head of digital, Boys & Girls, Dublin
• Kerry Roper, designer, Anomaly, London
• Matt Craigie, chief production officer, Mother, London
• Olly Calverly, head of broadcast, VCCP, London
• Joe Bagnall, head of film, Lucky Generals, London
• MarBelle, editor, Directors Notes

Explore last year’s winners:

Kinsale awards: Grand Prix for Tourism Ireland’s Game of Thrones Tapestry by Publicis London