The IVCA went back to the future in its 25th annual IVCA Awards, held at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London on 22 March. With awards in 23 categories, plus a grand prix, and performances by X-Factor-famed musical guests, the evening reached cinematic proportions.

A slew of awards were handed out to The Edge Picture Company, yet the organisation did not secure its typical gold domination as it has in the past. Other winners included a number of Olympics-themed videos, multiple wins for Straker Films, Pretzel Films and for Armoury’s work for the Royal Museums Greenwich. A gold award was even presented to members of the British Army in the communication effectiveness category.

“On an exciting night, The Edge were honoured to be presented with 13 awards, including 2 Golds, for nine different films,” Pete Stevenson, director of The Edge, says. “Congratulations to all the award-winners and the organisers for an outstanding evening. We look forward to another 25 years of the IVCA leading the way for excellence, promoting on-going creativity, originality, production expertise and effectiveness in business communication.”

For first-time bronze and silver winners, MerchantCantos, the awards was the result of 18 months of hard work. The bronze-winning video “Breaking the Cycle” also took home the Chairman’s Award at the IVCA’s Clarion Awards last September.

“This is the first time we’ve entered, so we’re delighted to have won two awards in our first year,” Tim May, film and video director at MerchantCantos, says. “We thought the awards were very well put together. I think the spread of companies and the spread of awards was fairly wide, which shows that the industry is a bit more diverse now.”

While a good deal of agencies, veterans and not, took home IVCA Awards on Friday night, the grand prix winner came as a bit of a shock to many. The winning video, ‘Topshop Facebook App’ by Streaming Tank, seemed to be more of an app than a video in the traditional sense.

May says, “If I’m honest, I was slightly surprised. They are meant to be film awards and the grand prix was won by what was meant to be an app. Congratulations to the winners but I felt it sent a slightly mixed message to film and video companies. I can see why the judges felt that it was an important piece of work but I think there was some surprise around the room.”

Judges noted their desire for the grand prix winner to be a video with clearly determined results and an inherent ability to provide a return on investment.

The IVCA is the largest European professional body representing corporate video production companies and has over 1,000 members.