Elastic's Andy Hall takes Annecy with Red Cross Holiday Campaign

Elastic Director Andy Hall emerged from a field of 2,500 entries from 80 countries to take top honors in the Advertising/Promotional Film category at the Annecy International Film Festival, the world's premier authority on animated films. Hall, a founding member of Elastic and head of CG at boutique VFX studio a52, teamed up with BBDO on the effort, which promotes Red Cross' gift donation program.

Stuff is a claymation adventure set in a whitewashed world, where the only color is the red-accented letters representing the protagonist's stuff. As the stuff is hauled between stores and his home, jammed into closets, and piled into boxes, a narrator wonders at the stress of getting and giving so much stuff each holiday season. Flustered and inspired by the Red Cross' drive to encourage donations in lieu of gifts, the man packs the words "hope," "help" and "compassion" into a box and ships it off to someone in need.

This Red Cross work is the latest in a series of high-profile spots for Hall, including One Show Design Award-winning work for Nike, spots for Honda and Adidas, and a slew of awards for his Newport Beach Film Festival opener. Hall is currently in development on an animated television show and two feature film projects.