CANNES, FRANCE – At the 2025 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, creativity and ingenuity took center stage. As the pinnacle event in the world of advertising and marketing, the festival serves as both a milestone and a launchpad — especially for those just starting their careers. For young creatives, it’s a powerful eye-opener to the possibilities that lie ahead.
April Duran, Chief Executive Officer of CAD Studios, reflects on her first foray into the industry’s biggest celebration of creative excellence.
CAD Studios in Cannes Lions 2025
We’re not a legacy agency — yet. But maybe that’s the point.
We’re a Manila-based, video-first production agency focused on the craft, the execution, and the behind-the-scenes of advertising work that helps bring big ideas to life. But this year, we found ourselves stepping into a bigger room.
One of our directors, Tin Esperanza, was selected to join the Creative Academy at Cannes Lions, a global program that handpicks 30 creatives under 30 from around the world. It’s a front-row seat to how the world’s best creative minds think, collaborate, and build ideas on a global stage.
It was a proud moment — not for the recognition alone, but for what it stood for: that creativity from this side of the world — from Manila, from the Philippines — has the power to stand alongside the very best. Because creativity isn’t confined to big cities or big names; it lives where there’s hunger to learn and grit to push boundaries.
Being at Cannes showed us there’s space for that kind of creativity, too. That there’s room for the doers and the makers — teams like ours who understand the power of execution, and how close collaboration with brands and agencies can push the work forward.
We’re not here to claim we’ve made it. We’re here to say it’s possible. That if you stay committed to the work, to the learning, and to the purpose behind it all — you’ll find that the doors you once thought were closed weren’t locked after all.
And maybe, just maybe, it’s time for more of us Filipinos — production houses, creatives, directors, editors — to step confidently into these rooms.
Because the world of creativity doesn’t belong to one country or one kind of creative. It belongs to those who show up ready to build it.
We’re proud to be part of that. And there’s space for you, too.
