Shortlists announced for the 2025 AICP Show, the AICP Next Awards and the AICP Post Awards
All the winners of all three competitions will be revealed during AICP Week in June.
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The AICP Awards released the Shortlists for the 2025 suite of juried competitions: The AICP Show: The Art & Technique of the Commercial, the AICP Next Awards and the AICP Post Awards. To review the full Shortlist for each competition, click here.
The Shortlists are the results of a bifurcated judging system that began earlier this year with a series of panels with experts in various fields from around the globe, nominated by their peers, who judged the work across their respective categories. The Curatorial Committees for all three shows serve as the final arbiters of the awards, confirming eligibility and appropriateness to category, as well as selecting the Best of Show for each competition. For the AICP Show, the Advertising Excellence/Campaign and Advertising Excellence winners are Best in Show; For the AICP Next Awards, it is the Most Next honor; and Best of Show for the AICP Post Awards.
Heading up these curatorial sessions were Patrick Milling Smith, Co-Founder and CEO of SMUGGLER and Chairperson of the AICP Show; Judy John, Global Chief Creative Officer at Edelman and Judging Chair for the AICP Next Awards; and James Razzall, U.S. Presi-dent of Advertising at Framestore and Chairperson of the AICP Post Awards.
Honourees for all three competitions will be celebrated during AICP Week, which kicks off on June 3 in New York, and culminates in a presentation and gala at The Museum of Modern Art on June 5. Ticket information for AICP Week will be available soon.
The AICP Show Shortlist
Leading the list of production companies on the 2025 AICP Show Shortlist was SMUGGLER, with a total of 40 mentions across the Show’s 22 categories, which includes four in co-production with Exit Films and one co-production with Soft Citizen. Iconoclast came in second in the production company Shortlist count, with 17 entries, followed by MJZ with 16, which includes three mentions for a co-production with Business Club and one with Radke. Rounding out the top five production companies was Biscuit Filmworks with 15 entries, including five shared with Revolver and one with The Glue Society; and O Positive with 14 en-tries on the Shortlist.
The top agency on the AICP Show Shortlist this year was TBWA\Media Arts Lab, which scored 19 entries, representing work from various offices around its global network, followed by a trio of agencies: BBDO, which had 12 entries from offices within its network; Special Group, which had 12 entries shared between offices in Australia and the U.S.; and Wieden+Kennedy. Closing out the top five agencies was the in-house agency of Squarespace, which scored eight entries on the Shortlist.
The list of top brand achievements was dominated by Apple, represented with 21 Shortlisted entries, followed by Uber One/Uber Eats, with 14 mentions on the Shortlist. In third place were Libresse and Squarespace, both with eight Shortlist mentions, followed by Nike with seven entries on the Shortlist, which includes two for Jordan Brand.
The AICP Next Awards Shortlist
The AICP Next Awards recognise outstanding work and the creative forces behind it, but are much more than an Awards competition, Next is a platform for thought leadership and analysis, and recognises work that points the way forward.
Leading the Next Award’s roster of Shortlisted brands was Apple, which scored nine spots on the Shortlist. Three brands were tied with five Shortlisted entries: AT&T Business; AB In-Bev, for Michelob ULTRA; and Google. Brands which scored four Next Awards Shortlist en-tries were Coordown; Facebook/Meta, which includes one entry for Ray Ban/Meta; Sam-sung; and Squarespace.
This year saw a three-way tie for the top Shortlisted agency in the Next Awards: earning nine entries were the New York and Chicago offices of FCB; offices of R/GA, including R/GA Ja-pan; and TBWA\Media Arts Lab. Tied with seven Shortlisted entries were BBDO, including five entries shared with Critical Mass; Edelman; and Ogilvy New York.
SMUGGLER topped the roster of Next Awards Shortlisted production companies, with a total of 11 entries, followed by m ss ng p eces with nine. Rounding out the five top-ranked production companies are Biscuit Filmworks with seven Shortlisted entries, including two shared with Revolver and one with The Glue Society; The Mill, with five entries; and a trio of compa-nies which earned four entries, including Indiana Production, Pulse Films and R/GA.
The AICP Post Awards Shortlist
The AICP Post Awards are unique among the AICP Awards in that they’re presented to individual post production artists. Topping the list of Shortlisted artists was Sam Ashwell, Creative Partner and Head Sound Engineer of 750mph, with seven Shortlisted entries, two of which were shared with Jake Ashwell, one with Mike Bovill and one with both Jake Ashwell and Mike Bovill.
Next in line were editors Geoff Hounsell of Arcade Edit, Graham Chisholm of Nimiopere Film Editorial and Rick Orrick of Work Editorial, all of whom earned six Shortlisted entries, with Orrick sharing one with editor Aika Miyake. Scoring four Shortlisted entries each were animation director Fabrice Fiteni of Electric Theater Collective, editor Matt Posey of PS260 and sound designer Steve Perski of Harbor.
In terms of aggregate Shortlist honours per post production company, artists associated with Electric Theater Collective earned 14 Shortlist mentions, followed by artists with Arcade Edit which earned 13. Rounding out the top five post companies were Work Editorial with 11 total Shortlist mentions, Untold Studios with nine and Cartel with eight.
The list of agencies whose work was recognised in the AICP Post Awards was led by Wieden+Kennedy, which netted 18 Shortlisted entries for work from various offices in its network, followed by the in-house agency at Apple with eight. Rounding out the top-ranked agencies were BigTime Creative Shop with seven Shortlist mentions and TBWA and Alto with six mentions each.
The list of brands whose work was recognised with Shortlist achievement in the Post Awards was dominated by Apple, with 14 mentions on the Shortlist, including work for Apple TV+ and the brand’s collaboration with recording artist Wren Evans, followed by Nike with 13 entries, which included two for Brand Jordan and one for its collaboration with musician Travis Scott. Other brand leaders in this year’s Post Awards Shortlist include Gucci with seven Shortlist mentions and Ford with five.
