Cannes Lions 2026 - Day 2: TBWA\Lintas’ ‘Don’t Look Up’ delivers India’s sole metal

India’s momentum at Cannes Lions 2026 slowed on the festival’s second awards night, with TBWA\Lintas Mumbai securing the country’s only metal of the day. The agency picked up a Bronze Lion in Film Craft Lions under the Script sub-category for Steadfast’s campaign, ‘Don’t Look Up’, taking India’s overall medal tally to five Lions after two days of competition.

The win comes after India opened the festival with four Lions on Day 1 and entered Day 2 with a handful of shortlisted entries across Film Craft and Design. While several Indian campaigns remained in contention, ‘Don’t Look Up’ emerged as the lone campaign to convert its shortlist into a win on the second day. The result leaves India with a cumulative tally of 5 metals so far at Cannes Lions 2026: 2 Silver Lions and 3 Bronze Lions.

Created by TBWA\Lintas Mumbai for office automation brand Steadfast, ‘Don’t Look Up’ is built on a familiar behaviour seen across India’s cash-driven economy. For decades, people have held currency notes up against the light to check whether they are genuine. The campaign challenges this deeply ingrained habit while highlighting the limitations of manual verification and presenting technology as a smarter alternative.

Rather than taking a straightforward demonstration route, the film leans heavily on storytelling. The script transforms a routine act into an escalating narrative powered by dark humour and unexpected consequences. What begins as a seemingly harmless glance upward quickly spirals into an uncomfortable and absurd situation, creating tension while keeping viewers engaged. The film ultimately circles back to its original premise before revealing a more reliable solution through Steadfast’s counterfeit-detection technology.

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The campaign’s recognition in the Script category is particularly significant because Film Craft Lions celebrates the creative and technical excellence behind filmmaking. Within that framework, the Script sub-category honours the strength of an idea’s narrative foundation, rewarding writing that elevates a commercial beyond a simple product demonstration. Cannes Lions describes Film Craft as a celebration of the artistry involved in visual storytelling, making scriptwriting one of the most competitive areas within the category.

‘Don’t Look Up’ also continues Steadfast’s growing relationship with provocative storytelling. The brand had previously attracted attention with ‘Dirty Money’, another campaign from TBWA\Lintas that used unconventional humour and sharp observations around currency handling to promote its office automation solutions. The latest campaign expands on that approach, demonstrating how a niche business product can be marketed through mainstream entertainment and narrative craft rather than traditional functional advertising.

The film was produced by Ducktape Studios and directed by Raylin, with creative leadership from TBWA\Lintas. Industry observers had already identified the campaign as one of India’s strongest prospects in Film Craft after it secured a shortlist in the Script category earlier in the festival. It was competing alongside other Indian entries in Film Craft, including Ogilvy Mumbai’s ‘Renu Vs The City’ and Talented and ZigZag Films’ ‘Jeere Mein Heera’ for Coca-Cola.

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The Bronze Lion arrives at a crucial stage of the festival, where India is looking to convert a relatively modest shortlist count into meaningful wins. While Day 2 yielded only a single metal, several categories are still awaiting their outcomes, leaving room for the country’s tally to grow this week.

For now, however, ‘Don’t Look Up’ stands as India’s defining success story of the second awards night. In a year where juries have increasingly rewarded strong storytelling and sharply crafted ideas, the campaign’s Bronze Lion reinforces the continuing importance of scriptwriting as a differentiator in commercial filmmaking. It also ensures that India remains on the Cannes Lions scoreboard as the festival moves into its next phase.