I have a friend who's just starting out as a director. It's fascinating to watch her navigate the world of competition, self-doubt, unbridled excitement and demanding executive producers.

And it's amazing what you'll do to be supportive... how else would I find myself with a group of others running around a city park on a Sunday afternoon with boxes on our heads? Without eyeholes. Utterly blind. And in danger of colliding with trees and forgotten dog piles.

It also provides an interesting dilemma. Day in and day out I find myself looking at scads of new work that pass through our doors at Boards. Some bad, some incredible, most of it capable but just... fine. We can be harsh on work, or we can find ourselves strangely drawn to it, willing to defend it when others feel compelled to dis it.

That whole process is entirely different when you see the first commercial offerings of someone close to you. You want to be encouraging, but you also have to be realistic. There are a lot of new directors out there, and my friend's not in an enviable position.

But for the moment, she's finding her directorial voice, which I have no doubt that she will, and she's having a lot of fun in the process. Which is kind of the point. For me, watching her sheds new light on the passion, dedication and creativity needed to break into the industry. Who knows? Maybe one day we'll see her in the list of finalists for the First Boards Awards.

In the meantime, we're proud to bring you some of the most promising new talent in the industry right now, the winners and finalists of the seventh annual First Boards Awards (see pg. 19). They, no doubt, know exactly what my friend was thinking when she asked 20 of her closest peeps to don boxheads for the sake of art (yes, that's really me).

And once again, many thanks to all the judges who committed Herculean amounts of time in evaluating the entries for this year's awards.

Cheers,
Rae Ann Fera
Editor

2006 JUDGES
Roger Baldacci, Arnold, Boston
Dennis Bannon, Leo Burnett, Chicago
Jean-Jacques Benhamou, MacGuff, Paris
Dain Blair, Groove Addicts, Los Angeles
Drazen Bosjnak, Q Department, New York
Roe Bressan, Navigating, New York
Danny Brooke-Taylor, TBWA\London
Hans Brouwer, Massive Music, Amsterdam
Yvonne Chalkley, AMV.BBDO, London
Karen Fazekas, Eisner Communications, Baltimore
Miriam Franklin, Arnell Group, New York
Wayne Hanson, Attik, San Francisco
John Hobbs, Lowe Worldwide, New York
Lee Hunt, Lee Hunt Associates, New York
Diane Jackson, Energy BBDO, Chicago
Matthew Jones, Leagas Delaney, London
Dolores Keating-Mallen, Corus Entertainment, Toronto
Dennis Lim, TBWA\Los Angeles
Arno Lindemann, Jung Von Matt, Germany
Dean Maryon, 180 Amsterdam
Jen Mete, TAXI, Toronto
Tom Mooney, The Mothership, New York
Randy Morton, Deustch, Los Angeles
Mary Beth O'Dell, Flashcut, Toronto
Patrick Oliver, Amber Music, New York
David Perry, Saatchi & Saatchi, New York
Franca Piacente, MacLaren McCann, Toronto
Leo Premutico, Saatchi & Saatchi, New York
Peter Rosch, Lowe Worldwide, New York
Aaron Royer, Grey, New York
Kath Sawszak, Marshall Street Editors, London
Traktor, Partizan, Los Angeles
Eric Voegele, Modernista!, Boston
Chris Wallace, Topix, Toronto
Sam Walsh, Publicis + Hal Riney, San Francisco
Cathy Woodward, Leo Burnett, Toronto