The 55th International Advertising Festival has begun on June the 15 in Cannes, French Riviera. With over 28,000 entries across ten competition sections, an extended seminar and workshop programme and brand-new master-classes, this year's Festival is set to be the most inspiring to date.

• On the 17th of June, the Media Grand Prix went to Forsman & Bodenfors Gothenburg, for the AMF Pension Funds entry MMS. The Outdoor Grand Prix was awarded to BBDO New York, for the HBO Voyeur Projection Installation. And Dentsu Tokyo won the Radio Grand Prix for the Canon Marketing entry Shutter Chance. Media Agency of the Year was given to Forsman & Bodenfors, Gothenburg.

Also announced were the winners of the Young Lions Media Competition which went to the Italian team; Francesca Casadei of Aegis Media Italy and Stefano Migliore of Mindshare.

2008 saw the highest entry levels to date, with Media submissions totalling 2000, Outdoor reaching 5842 and Radio seeing a total of 1259 entries. The Media jury shortlisted 242 entries and awarded 55 winners, whilst the Outdoor Jury awarded 64 winners of its 601 shortlisted entries and Radio saw a total of 185 shortlisted entries with 48 winners selected.

5 gold, 17 silver and 32 Bronze Lions were awarded in the Media category. The Outdoor Jury awarded 9 golds, 22 silvers and 32 bronze, whilst trophies in the Radio category reached 5 golds, 15 silvers and 27 bronze.

The Media Jury was chaired by Dominic Proctor, Chief Executive Officer Worldwide, Mindshare, London UK; Outdoor was led by Prasoon Joshi, Executive Chairman McCann Worldgroup India, Regional Executive Creative Director Asia Pacific McCann Erickson, Mumbai India; Mark Gross, Senior Vice President, Group Creative Director, DDB Chicago, USA was the Jury President for Radio.

•  On the 16th of June's awards ceremony, the Promo Grand Prix was awarded to BBDO New York and the Direct Grand Prix went to JWT India, Mumbai.

After selecting a shortlist of 133 from a record 1103 entries submitted in the Promo Lions categories, a total of 49 winners were chosen by the international jury.

The Promo Grand Prix went to BBDO New York, USA, for the HBO entry titled Voyeur Integrated Campaign. A total 17 gold, 13 silver, 18 bronze lions were also awarded.

The Direct Lions Grand Prix was awarded to JWT India, Mumbai, for the Times of India Newspaper entry 'Lead India'. Seven gold, 13 silver and 17 bronze trophies were given from a total of 1697 entries of which 183 were shortlisted.