Lei Cheok Wai, a Cultural Affairs Bureau grantee in the U.S., got the first prize in the 2013 “BomBom” Music Video Contest, organised by American hiphop singers Macklemore and Ryan Lewis who sang the tune “BomBom”. This distinction is indeed an honour to Macao. Recently, with his directorial commercial entitled Anti-Smoking PSA, Lei Cheok Wai has won awards in the U.S., namely, the Commercial 3rd Place at the 36th College Television Awards (Emmy Awards), the Bronze Award (Student Category) at the 2015 American Advertising Awards-Los Angeles—known as the ADDY awards, and also the Silver Award (Student Category) at the 2015 American Advertising Awards-California—the next level of the ADDY awards.
The Emmy Awards ceremony took place on 23 April (U.S. time) in Hollywood and Lei’s commercial Anti-Smoking PSA, stood out from over 400 entries and was awarded the 3rd Place at the College Television Awards (Emmy Awards). The Emmy Awards recognise excellent TV production in various sectors of the American television industry throughout the year.
Recently, the same commercial won the Bronze Award (Student Category) at the 2015 American Advertising Awards-Los Angeles, standing out amid several hundreds of student entries and also won the Silver Award (Student Category) at the 2015 American Advertising Awards-California.
Anti-Smoking PSAis now competing at the national level of ADDY awards, which is the largest and most representative competition of the U.S. advertising industry, with the mission to recognise and reward, on an annual basis, the most creative and excellent advertisements. The piece has also been selected to compete at the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP) Awards. Furthermore, the MTV Won't Get Away directed by Lei for American singer Phil Beaudreau, has been shortlisted for the National Film Festival for Talented Youth (NFFTY).
Anti-Smoking PSA is a black-and-white commercial, featuring a young model smoking a cigaret. As the hands of the clock behind her tickle, the model puffs and wrinkles grow all over her face, with a black hole appearing on her clavicle, dramatically showing the harms of smoking.
Lei Cheok Wai is one of the IC grantees studying abroad. Having just graduated with a BA degree from the Film Programme of the Art Center College of Design in California, Lei currently works as a commercial director and MTV producer, hoping to involve in the film industry in future. Lei says, “Winning the awards is only a good start, as there’s still a long way to go and lots of room to improve.” He wishes to become an honour of Chinese people some day.