The U.S. Representative for Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity and largest cinema advertising network, National CineMedia (NCM), announces the launch of the 2023 Young Lions Competition. Registration begins today, January 9th, and is open through February 3rd at https://canneslions.ncm.com/young-lions.

The 2023 Young Lions competition opens the door to up-and-coming creative professionals, with an intense focus on smart, strategic, original ideas across disciplines, and an increased emphasis on diversity, equity, and inclusion. It is the most prestigious creative competition for today’s rising stars in the creative, media, PR and digital industries.

For the past eight years, NCM has been the U.S. Representative for Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, which includes leading the US Young Lions Competition. This year, NCM is launching its first Young Lions campaign, Represent!, to strengthen participation and further elevate young, diverse professionals who benefit from this program. The campaign encourages today’s creative trailblazers age 30 and under to showcase their talents and put the advertising, media and marketing industries on notice, representing themselves, their agencies, and the very best of what the next generation has to offer.

“Our new Young Lions Campaign, Represent!, is all about giving young talent the opportunity to challenge themselves and be celebrated. We love how the Young Lions program aligns with NCM’s young, diverse moviegoing audiences and are excited to deepen our investment and collaboration with Cannes Lions to further market and promote the next generation of creative leaders,” shares Amy Tunick, Chief Marketing Officer at NCM.

For the first time, NCM will be donating in-cinema national media to support Represent! across its network of theaters – AMC, Regal, Cinemark, Harkins and 50+ additional affiliates. The flight will air a 60-second spot featuring Young Lions competitors and Team USA, comprised of the 2023 winners across the Film, Digital, Media, PR and Print competitions. It will run in movie theaters across the country in June to support Team USA in advance of their journey to Cannes, France for the global Young Lions competition. The spot serves to make Young Lions participants famous on the big screen, promoting and celebrating all of their efforts leading up to the international festival.

NCM is also now offering new ways for brands and agencies to get involved with the Young Lions program with customized, integrated sponsorship packages to further support and fund the Young Lions experience.

Jenni Middleton, SVP/Editor-in-Chief, LIONS, said, “We are delighted to be bringing the Young Lions competitions back to their home in Cannes this year. The competitions really are the engine room of the industry and highlight what matters most to the next generation of creative talent; there is nothing else that spotlights fresh talent on such a global scale and it’s always incredibly humbling to see how many careers are fueled by this opportunity – and how many future Lions winners are inspired by this program. For 2023 we’ve reimagined the on-site experience to ensure that it delivers on learning, connection, and celebration; as requested by our Young Lions community. Alongside this, the work that NCM is doing to elevate the competitions is fantastic to see and we are grateful to their commitment.”

Each Young Lions winner is granted a fully comped Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity experience (travel, accommodations and passes) thanks to U.S. Young Lions sponsors and key agency partners: Film – Pereira & O’Dell; Digital – Digitas; Media – UM; PR – Weber Shandwick; Print – NCM.

For more information about the Cannes Lions Young Lions Competition, go to: https://canneslions.ncm.com/young-lions

About National CineMedia, Inc.
National CineMedia (NCM) is America’s Movie Network. As the largest cinema advertising network in the U.S., we unite brands with young, diverse audiences through the power of movies and popular culture. NCM’s Noovie pre-show is presented exclusively in 47 leading national and regional theater circuits including AMC Entertainment Inc. (NYSE:AMC), Cinemark Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CNK) and Regal Entertainment Group (a subsidiary of Cineworld Group PLC, LON: CINE). NCM’s cinema advertising network offers broad reach and unparalleled audience engagement with over 20,100 screens in over 1,600 theaters in 195 Designated Market Areas (all of the top 50). NCM Digital and Digital-Out-Of-Home (DOOH) go beyond the big screen, extending in-theater campaigns into online, mobile, and place-based marketing programs to reach entertainment audiences. National CineMedia, Inc. (NASDAQ:NCMI) owns a 74.6% interest in, and is the managing member of, National CineMedia, LLC. For more information, visit www.ncm.com and www.noovie.com.