A report from the SAWA-hosted session on the power of big screen storytelling at Cannes Lions 2025
When filmmaker Gurinder Chadha OBE stepped onto the Cannes Lions stage alongside SAWA President Katharine Jacob OBE, she brought with her a powerful statistic that would define their 30-minute conversation. Since the release of Bend It Like Beckham in 2002, female football registrations in the UK have exploded from 50,000 to over 800,000.
“That’s not just entertainment,” Chadha said during the session titled “Changing Minds: Shift Global Perspectives Through Big-Screen Storytelling.” “That’s cinema changing the world.”
For Chadha, who grew up “yearning to see people who looked like me on screen center stage, as opposed to on the margins,” cinema represents something profound: the ability to reshape how entire societies think and feel. But what makes the big screen uniquely powerful isn’t just the stories it tells—it’s how those stories are experienced.
“Seeing a film in a collective space is that reminder of the universality of emotions and who we are,” Chadha observed. This shared viewing experience, where diverse audiences come together in a single space, creates a unique opportunity for perspective-shifting that other media simply cannot replicate.
Jacob, drawing on her extensive background in cinema advertising, reinforced this point by highlighting how the big screen environment amplifies every message. When stories reach audiences in this immersive, collective setting, they don’t just reflect culture—they actively create it.
Central to Chadha’s approach is a sophisticated understanding of audience psychology that has direct relevance for anyone crafting messages for the big screen. “I always start with the perspective of the audience,” she explained. “What is the audience thinking? How am I going to shift their opinions? I know what you’re expecting, and then I change it, and I shift it.”
This technique of meeting audiences where they are before challenging their assumptions proved transformative for Bend It Like Beckham. Rather than depicting the typical “immigrant rebellion” narrative, Chadha showed a supportive Sikh family encouraging their daughter’s dreams. By subverting expectations, she normalized what audiences initially saw as foreign or different.
“My job is to reach out to your heart, to help you feel heard, feel alive and make you rethink what is around you,” Chadha said, articulating a mission that extends far beyond entertainment.
Chadha’s insights proved particularly relevant when the conversation turned to today’s fragmented media landscape. In an era where audiences can skip, scroll, or click away in seconds, the challenge for all content creators—whether filmmakers or advertisers—has intensified.
“Our job as creatives is even harder now,” Chadha noted. “We need to surprise the audience.” For advertising specifically, she emphasized the need for “a twist in there to stop people’s [skipping] and go, ‘Oh, I love this.'”
The parallel between effective filmmaking and effective advertising became clear: both require authentic storytelling that connects emotionally while challenging preconceptions. Both benefit from the unique power of the cinema environment to create shared, immersive experiences.
Throughout the session, both speakers emphasized that authentic representation isn’t merely a moral imperative—it’s strategic storytelling. When audiences see themselves reflected authentically in stories, they feel “heard” and become more receptive to the messages being conveyed.
For Chadha, this representation serves a larger purpose: “Cinema allows you to change the world.” By “bringing you into the home” of cultures unlike your own, cinema builds empathy and understanding across differences. Professional athletes have credited her films with inspiring their careers, demonstrating how big-screen storytelling can create real-world change.
The session, part of Cannes Lions’ Changemakers track, underscored a crucial point for anyone working in advertising: the medium shapes the message. The cinema environment—with its scale, immersion, and collective viewing experience—amplifies the impact of every story told there.
As Jacob and Chadha’s conversation revealed, cinema’s power lies not just in its ability to entertain, but in its capacity to shift perspectives, challenge assumptions, and inspire action. For brands and storytellers alike, the big screen offers something increasingly rare in our fragmented media world: the chance to create shared experiences that genuinely change how people think and feel.
Chadha left a lasting note on cinema’s power to shape the world—an enduring reminder that messages on the big screen carry both influence and the ability to change perspectives.
This session was hosted by SAWA (the global cinema advertising association) at Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity 2025. SAWA represents cinema advertising companies worldwide, including Motivate Val Morgan in the Middle East.
Avinash Udeshi, Chief Operating Officer at Motivate Val Morgan, discusses how the record-breaking Eid al-Fitr cinema attendance signals an exceptional summer season ahead, and highlights cinema’s unmatched 2.5x efficiency as an advertising medium that delivers 15% of campaign impact with just 6% of media spend
As we emerge from an extraordinarily successful Eid al-Fitr period, the numbers clearly demonstrate what this means for our industry and the brands we partner with. The statistics are certainly impressive – but behind them lies a deeper story about audience engagement and the enduring power of cinema as a cultural touchpoint.
Our Motivate Val Morgan cinema circuit witnessed an astonishing 1,178,723 admissions across our regional network during the seven-day period from March 27 to April 2, 2025. This week – which included the four-day Eid al-Fitr celebration – delivered a 17% year-over-year increase and stands as our highest-grossing week of 2025 thus far.
Particularly fascinating is the contrast with the preceding week. Admissions skyrocketed by an extraordinary 1,230% compared to the final week of Ramadan (March 20-26). This dramatic “Eid effect” illustrates just how deeply cinema-going is woven into the fabric of regional celebrations.
The performance across GCC markets shows encouraging growth in all territories. The UAE market led with 575,147 admissions — representing a 25.5% increase from Eid al-Fitr 2024 — while Saudi Arabia contributed 416,318 admissions with a 4% year-over-year improvement. Together, these two crucial markets delivered 991,465 admissions, marking a 15.4% growth that reinforces cinema’s position as the preferred leisure activity during festive periods.
This success stems partly from the diversity of content showcased. In the UAE, Malayalam-language L2: Empuraan and Hindi feature Sikandar performed exceptionally alongside global titles like A Working Man and A Minecraft Movie. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabian audiences showed strong preference for Arabic-language productions including Shabab El Bomb 2 and Al Safa Thaanawia, complemented by healthy attendance for international releases..
With cinema attendance already reaching 7.1 million admissions year-to-date across our circuit, Motivate Val Morgan is uniquely positioned to deliver exceptional brand exposure throughout the second quarter. The upcoming Eid al-Adha celebration in early June, combined with the traditional summer blockbuster season, creates a perfect alignment of cultural occasion and premium content releases.
In today’s fragmented media landscape, cinema advertising delivers something increasingly rare: guaranteed viewership in a distraction-free environment.
Kantar’s & Val Morgan’s 2024 Media Reactions study confirms cinema’s exceptional effectiveness – despite receiving only 6% of media spend, it delivers 15% of total campaign impact per person. This 2.5x efficiency ratio consistently outperforms traditional and digital channels. The study also ranks cinema among the highest channels for ad equity among younger audiences, creating a receptive environment wherein advertising resonates deeply.
Particularly valuable is cinema’s ability to reach otherwise missed audiences – with 44% of reach incremental to TV, 31% incremental reach to digital and 18% completely incremental to both TV and digital. This captive audience approach delivers higher brand recall and emotional resonance, with message retention rates of up to 95% on certain campaigns, far surpassing other media channels.
Forward-thinking brands have already begun securing premium positioning during the upcoming summer slate, which features several anticipated franchise installments and original blockbusters expected to drive record attendance throughout our circuit.
The combination of Eid al-Adha and summer blockbuster season creates a perfect storm of audience engagement. For advertisers seeking meaningful consumer connections in an increasingly distracted marketplace, our cinema network offers the rare combination of attention, impact, and contextual relevance that simply can’t be replicated elsewhere.
Marketing leaders are invited to contact our Motivate Val Morgan sales team to discuss how we can secure premium positioning for their brands across our extensive cinema circuit during this exceptional convergence of cultural celebration and entertainment.
Source: CinePlan & CinemaMeasure: Eid Cinema Advertising report
Moviegoers as well as frequent streamers still prefer the theatrical movie experience over streaming for highly anticipated films
The cinematic experience remains unrivaled in its ability to captivate audiences with immersive storytelling on a grand scale. A recent Screenvision/VAB study confirms what industry experts have long understood: dedicated moviegoers and frequent streamers alike continue to prioritize theatrical releases for their most anticipated viewing moments. For brands looking to make an impact, this is a golden opportunity.
There’s a reason why advertisers have long turned to cinema: it’s a setting where audiences are fully engaged, distraction-free, and emotionally connected. And the numbers back it up. According to the Screenvision Custom Study, both frequent moviegoers and streamers agree that theaters deliver the most exciting, memorable, and immersive experiences for their anticipated content:
For advertisers, this concentrated attention represents invaluable currency in an increasingly fragmented media landscape. Cinema advertising sidesteps the challenges of divided attention, offering instead a rare opportunity to engage with audiences in a state of complete receptivity.
Cinema’s enduring appeal transcends mere content consumption—it offers a deliberate social and cultural experience that streaming cannot replicate. The communal nature of theatrical viewing creates a shared emotional journey that resonates deeply with audiences.
The same study revealed key factors driving theatrical preference:
This powerful combination of cultural significance and sensory immersion creates exceptional conditions for effective advertising, with messages benefiting from heightened emotional receptivity and enhanced recall.
As the industry approaches the summer season, cinema advertising reaches its zenith of effectiveness. The coming months represent the premier period for theatrical attendance, offering advertisers access to the year’s most anticipated films and the largest, most diverse audiences.
This summer’s impressive lineup features prestigious releases spanning multiple genres, including the eagerly anticipated “Marvel Thunderbolts*,” the reimagined “Superman,” the latest “Jurassic World” installment, “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning,” “Karate Kid: Legends,” “How to Train Your Dragon,” “F1,” “The Fantastic Four: First Steps,” and numerous other high-profile productions.
This summer’s blockbuster lineup will draw diverse audience segments across demographics, offering advertisers precision-targeted opportunities rarely found in other media. Cinema stands alone in its ability to consistently deliver Super Bowl-caliber impressions week after week throughout the season. As these cultural events draw unprecedented crowds, brands leveraging cinema advertising will capture a unique combination of focused attention and emotional engagement—reinforcing cinema’s position as the premier platform for high-impact brand messaging when audiences are most receptive.
Source: Screenvision, VAB, Google
