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| Author | Zoe Aresti |
Richard Curtis will be presented with the Cannes LionHeart Award at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity next week in the south of France.
The British filmmaker will be honoured in recognition of his continued involvement in charitable initiatives including Comic Relief, Red Nose Day and the Make Poverty History campaign.
Curtis is behind British rom-com classics Love Actually, Notting Hill and Four Weddings and has recently spoken about the importance of “purpose-driven” advertising.
Since 2015, he has been working closely with the United Nations through his Project Everyone initiative – supported by Digital Cinema Media – to help give prominence to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), 17 targets aimed at achieving three main objectives in the next 15 years – end extreme poverty, fight inequality and injustice, and tackle climate change.
Last year, the project created a remake of the Spice Girls’ Wannabe video. In 2015, it launched the World’s Largest Lesson, an initiative to teach children in over 100 countries about the SDGs.
The same year it also launched a global cinema ad, created by Sir John Hegarty (below, with Curtis) and Aardman Animations, dramatising the moment 193 world leaders signed the deal to ratify the 17 global goals.
He is also the man behind the Make Poverty History campaign, a coalition of more than 400 charities, unions and faith groups.
You can read an exclusive interview with Curtis here on Campaign.