It’s been a good year for… Gary Freedman
Internationally acclaimed Aussie expat director Gary Freedman tells LBB’s Alex Reeves about his on-and off-set development in a vintage year
Gary Freedman is on a bit of a roll. Having picked up a Gold, a Silver and a Bronze award at eurobest and a Silver at the British Arrows in 2016, he started 2017 buoyant on a raft of accolades for his films for HSBC and Heineken. And it’s fair to say he’s bested that achievement this year. His phenomenal Heineken spot, ‘When You Drink, Never Drive‘, in which he made ingenious use of archive footage to tell a new story about racing legend Jackie Stewart continued to astound juries throughout the year, winning him a Gold and a Silver Lion in Cannes, a Silver Clio and four awards at eurobest.
He’s humble about the success of the film, attributing it to the creative brilliance of Publicis Italy’s idea. “As always, the idea is king,” he says. “But I think we gave it heart. It’s quite a challenge to have someone say ‘no’ all the way through a commercial and it not be negative. So we worked hard to give the scenes a context which made Jackie come over as a good guy.”