When the Newshound reported on the NZ Cannes Young Lions a few days ago, he forgot to mention that there was also some stellar Aussie talent on the other side of the Tasman.

News Limited announced the Australian Young Lions finalists for the Cannes Lions 2008 International Advertising Festival to be held in June.

The 23 Australian finalists were selected for outstanding work in response to briefs for the Media, Print and Cyber categories. The winning Australian Young Lions will compete against entrants from around the world for the prestigious Gold Medal which will be awarded at Cannes.

Garth Agius, News Limited’s group director of marketing: advertising and integration, said the finalists were selected by a panel of 24 industry judges from an impressive field of 220 entries.

“The level of interest this year exceeded all expectations as did the outstanding quality of the work. Australia’s Young Lions will be highly competitive in competition at Cannes but this opportunity will also have a significant impact on their career development.”

The News Limited Young Lions Print finalists are:

• Jakub Szymanski and Tim Cairns from DDB
• Justin Carew and Iggy Rodriguez from DDB
• Simon Hipgrave and Todd Wild from Junior
• Dan Oliva and Rob Kleckner from JWT
• Elizabeth Hammer and Kate Benton from McCann
• Sarah Watson and Tristan Graham from Smart
• Janelle Shearer and Joe Craig from Whybin/TBWA

The Young Lions Print judges included:

• Dejan Rasic – Executive Creative Director, Colman Rasic Carrasco
• Dylan Taylor – Direct Creative Director, BMF
• Gary Horner – Executive Creative Director, Whybin TBWA
• Matt Eastwood – Executive Creative Director, DDB
• Steve Back – Executive Creative Director, Saatchi & Saatchi
• Michael Hornby – Group General Manager Surf Life Saving Australia
• Joe Talcott – Group Marketing Director, News Limited

The News Limited Young Lions Cyber finalists are:

• Zoe Warne and Matt Agar from August
• Justin Barnwell and Brent Della Vale from NetX
• Michael Widgery and Brad Cohen from Soap
• Mike Chang and Brett Peacock from Soap
• Andrew Fergusson and Natalie Cheng from Tequilla
• Mark White and Brenton Lau from Tribal DDB

The Young Lions Cyber judges included:

• Dave Whittle – Managing Director, Mark/M&C Saatchi
• Shaun Branagan – Executive Director, NetX
• Ed Smith – Chief Commercial Director, News Digital Media
• Mike Zeederberg – Managing Director, Profero
• Ashley Ringrose – Co-Founder, Soap Creative
• Lauren Ryan – Media and Communications Officer, Surf Life Saving Australia
• Russ Tucker – Creative Director, Tequila

The News Limited Young Lions Media finalists are:

• Marie Agudera from BMF
• Naomi Buck from OMD
• Stuart Carr from Bellamy Hayden
• Daniel Cutrone from Universal McCann
• Robert Jasinski from Starcom
• Caleb Hall from ZenithOptimedia
• David Lee from Frank
• Katherine Martin from Ikon communications
• Rachel Piggott from OMD
• Robert Wynn-Jones from ZenithOptimedia

The Young Lions Media judges included:

• Carl Colman – Partner, Publicis Group
• Fiorella Di Santos – National Sales Director, NewsNet
• Angus Frazer – Strategist, Mitchell & Partners
• Jonathan Hopkins – Planning Director, Razor
• Tracie Micheal – Managing Director, Mindshare
• Nicole Milward – Strategy Director, ZenithOptimedia
• Katie Rigg-Smith – Associate Director of Planning, Mindshare
• Ben Sjogren – Group Business Director, Connect
• Rachel Savio – Advertising Director, The Australian
• Stephen Tait – Commercial Director, The Australian
• Warrick Taylor – Integration Sales Manager, NewsNet

The six winning News Limited Young Lions across the Media, Print and Cyber categories will be announced on 15th May. They will go on to represent Australia at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival in June, competing against 39 countries.