Saatchi & Saatchi presented its must-see New Directors Showcase at the Cannes Lions on Thursday heavily emphasizing directors with penchants for conceptual, visual storytelling. This year's theme was directors who have fearlessly ventured into the realm of new media and technology, such as interaction design, viral videos, video blogging and 3D cinema.

"There's an encouraging sign this year, that a number of big brands are putting their faith in new directing talent," said Bob Isherwood, Saatchi's worldwide global creative director. "We've also seen a significant renaissance of the creative promo - no longer just performing pack shots. And, it's probably true to say that, in a number of cases, a lack of budget is more than compensated for by a wealth of imagination."

Isherwood paid tribute to the event's founder, former Saatchi & Saatchi ECD Paul Arden, who died in April. To illustrate the "Fearless" theme, the show opened with a performance by Argentinean theatrical troupe Fuerzabruta that starred a lone running man on an elevated treadmill acrobatically overcoming a series of obstacles.

Among this year's crop of directors, one interesting inclusion is Paris-based director Vincent Moon, who is behind the popular video blog series "La Blogotheque/Take Away Shows" , which features indie bands performing acoustically in public streets, elevators and cars. The website's profile has steadily grown within the music industry since it began in April 2006 and has recently started to attract A-level recording acts such as R.E.M.

Dutch interaction designer-turned-director Roel Wouters also made the list with his single-take live performance video "zZz is playing: Grip", as did San Francisco-based directing duo Encyclopedia Pictura, with their epic, 3D dazzler for Bjork, "Wanderlust". More traditional (but no less deserving) music video helmers featured were Joey Garfield for his RJD2 vid "Work It Out" starring performance artist Bill Shannon, Paris-based Romain Gavras for his violent and incendiary Justice video "Stress", Partizan's Nima Nourizadeh for Santogold "L.E.S Artistes" and Keith Schofield with his cheeky ode to censored nudity "Toe Jam" for Fatboy Slim's new project, The BPA.

Viral video masters Benzo Theodore, the man behind Ray-Ban "Sunglasses Catch", and Buenos Aires-based stop-motion animator Blu also included, alongside creative director du jour Juan Cabral of Fallon, who helmed Film Grand Prix fav Cadbury "Gorilla".

Subversive and downright weird animated works by Luiz Adriano (Unimed "War"), Nexus' Johnny Kelly ("Procrastination"), Pablo Polledri ("The Sinners") and Juan Pablo Zaramella ("Lapsus") also made the list, as did sharp comedy spots by ex-BBH creative-turned-director Clay Weiner (Bud Light, "Dude") and Hungry Man's Harlod Einstein (Crest, "Pre-Nup", "Bulldozer"). Outsider's Scott Lyon (VW, "Everyday") and short filmmakers Joe Bartenhagen and Ryan Brown ("The Cart Whisperer") and Jonathan Hopkins ("Goodbye Mr. Snuggles") rounded out the showcase.