Twenty-nine Young Lions and Young Marketer teams are one step closer to representing Canada on the global stage at the 2025 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity from June 16 to 20. The Globe and Mail, the official festival representative in Canada for the Cannes Lions, announced the shortlisted teams for the competition.

This year saw a record-breaking 816 individuals register to compete – an increase of nearly 10% from last year – across seven categories: Marketer, Media, PR, Design, Print, Film and Digital. This year’s shortlist features participants from coast to coast, marking one of the most regionally diverse cohorts the competition has seen. Both the Design and PR categories are new to Canada this year, with the latter being sponsored by Edelman.

Participants from agencies like Cossette, LG2 and Rethink emerged as creative standouts in this year’s Young Lions shortlist. Cossette has teams recognized in Media, Design and Digital. Two of the five shortlisted Media teams are from Cossette’s Montreal office. LG2 contributes to two of the three finalist Film entries and is also shortlisted in Design. Rethink makes its mark across PR, Design and Print.

This year, the chosen charity for the competition was Baycrest Foundation, and the objective across all categories was to raise awareness and support for Baycrest’s work in aging and brain health, with a focus on encouraging key lifestyle changes that can help prevent cognitive decline.

The Canadians in the Marketers category include those from Molson Coors Beverage Company, Uber, PepsiCo, Danone Canada and Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment (MLSE). Nominees in the media category are from Epitaph Group, Wavemaker, UM Canada and Cossette Media. For PR, the semi-finalists are Rethink PR, Narrative XPR, Craft Public Relations, Apex PR, No Fixed Address and Proof Strategies. The semi-finalists in Design are LG2, Rethink, Cossette, maubau and Monks. In Print, Rethink, FCB, Wunder and Ray each earned nods. In Film, semi-finalists are from agencies Publicis, Leo Burnett Toronto, LG2, Carlton Rouge and Les Enfants. And in Digital, creatives at Tadiem, Super Proper, The Garden and Cossette each received a nomination.

See the full list of nominees below, with the Gold, Silver and Bronze winners set to be announced on April 30 at the CMDC Summit in Toronto.

Marketers

“Coors Light – Chill Puzzles”
Carlie Lorentz, Molson Coors Beverage Company, British Columbia
Lauren Pereira, Molson Coors Beverage Company, Ontario

“Bring Back the Stars”
Arielle Uwonkunda, Molson Coors Beverage Company, Ontario
Suzanne Liu, Uber, Ontario

“Bubly sparkling minds”
Ivy Yu, PepsiCo, Ontario
Vippy Chau, PepsiCo, Ontario

“LiveYoung: one sip, one step at a time”
Caroline Pellegrini, Danone Canada,Ontario
Katherine Ball, Danone Canada, Ontario

“Brain Changer: Put Your Brain in the Game”
Mateo Molinaro, Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment (MLSE), Ontario
Tristan Ruffo St-Amour, Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment (MLSE), Ontario

Media

“Anosognosia”
Teryn Clapp, Epitaph Group, Ontario
Anthony Da Rocha, Epitaph Group, Ontario

“Disrupt the Cycle”
Béa Beaini, Wavemaker, Quebec
Maïlly Filin-Ficadière, Wavemaker, Quebec

“Forgot Your Password?”
Rafaela Steiner, UM Canada, Ontario
Riley Wolfe, UM Canada, Ontario

“Waitvesting”

Alphée Lamothe, Cossette Media, Quebec
Gabriel Lafond, Cossette Media, Quebec

“By your side”
Samuel David-Durocher, Cossette Media, Quebec
Tristan Bonnot-Parent, Cossette Media, Quebec

PR

“Brain Barrier”
Patricia Vuckovic, Rethink PR, Ontario
Sara Zivkovic, Rethink PR, Ontario

“Memory Blocks”
Grace Lancefield, Narrative XPR, Ontario
Maria Naqvi, Narrative XPR, Ontario

“Wait…Didn’t I JUST see this?”
Jessica Anderson, Craft Public Relations, Ontario
Madeline Reston, APEX PR, Ontario

“The #FADINGCITY”
Cara von Ende, No Fixed Address Inc., Ontario
Reagan Sullivan, No Fixed Address, Ontario

“Train Your Brain”

Eno Antai, Proof Strategies Ontario
Laiba Fatima, Proof Strategies, Ontario

Design

“Let’s get in formation for brain health”
Geneviève Jetté, LG2, Quebec
Marianne St-Pierre, LG2, Quebec

“Bike Path”
Jesse Shaw, Rethink, British Columbia
Zoë Boudreau, Rethink, British Columbia

“Protect Your Brain”
Angel Chun, Cossette, Ontario
Sam Perrin, Cossette, Ontario

“All you need is a bike”
Audrey Demers, maubau, Quebec
Valérie Desjardins, maubau, Quebec

“Outthink. Outlast.”
Chen Shang, Media. Monks, Ontario
Iris Ti, Monks, Ontario

Print

“The Mindless Brain Exercise”
Laurent Tremblay, Rethink, Quebec
Victor Pierre, Rethink, Quebec

“Talk to Anyone”
An Trinh, FCB, Ontario
Cristina Palmer Lemus, FCB, Ontario

“Stretch Your Mind”
Naqsh Sagar, Wunder, Nova Scotia
Rebecca Benjamin, Ray, Newfoundland and Labrador

Film

“Cognition Over Coolness”
Cameron Marshall, Publicis, Ontario
Quinlan Bruce, Leo Burnett Toronto, Ontario

“Take care of yourself”
Alexandre Pépin, LG2, Quebec
Nicolas Robert, Carton Rouge, Quebec

“The Trailer”
Roxanne Pelletier, LG2, Quebec
Thomas Soto, Les Enfants, Quebec

Digital

“NeuroLingo”
Anna Ira, Tadiem, Ontario
Elyssa Biringer, Super Proper, Ontario

“Restore Your Memories”
Mriga Suchdeva, The Garden, Ontario
Nuala Murray, The Garden, Ontario

“The Fourth Ring”
Nicole Vasarevic, Cossette, Ontario
Santana Symeonides, Cossette, Ontario