Gold Cannes Lions 2018 Winner, Jeana Theron, is South Africa based and Australia born. She studied Fine Arts at Wits University where she began working with Video Art and won notable recognition for her pieces. Realizing she wanted to direct, her next step was to work her way up the Film Industry ladder, starting initially as a Creative Researcher at Velocity Films and learning from the likes of Keith Rose and Greg Gray. This experience finally culminated into begging, borrowing and stealing to make her first ad “Project Literacy” which came in third at the Cannes YDA.

An eternal student, she continues to study screenwriting and directing actors in order to hone her storytelling and performance skills. This, along with her on-the-job training and artistic background, brings a strong aesthetic style and artistic beauty to the art of film, making her a well-rounded director. She is able to beautifully tell a story with performance; or simply to create unique moving pictures. She manages to inject her style into all her work, while still honoring the brand identity of the client.

As a director, Jeana has directed numerous campaigns for diverse companies and genres such as J&B, KFC, Toyota, Scottish Leader, MTN, Jo’Burg Ballet, MSF, Environ and Liberty, and has made plenty of digital content, Fashion Films, music videos, docs and web films. Jeana has won armfuls of awards, most recently a Gold Loerie for her “First For Women” campaign against gender based violence and notably Gold and Silver Lions at Cannes 2018, for Episode 1 and 8 of Jo’Burg Ballet’s #BreakingBallet.