The V&A's brand film lets a mannequin come alive among 5,000 years of creativity

The V&A's campaign film 'Creativity. It's What Makes Us' had to champion the belief that creativity is what makes us human, exploring self-expression and youth culture while showcasing the museum's range from fashion and jewellery to photography and sculpture.

A masked mannequin encounters incredible art, design and performance inside the museum until the boundless creativity within its walls brings it to life as a dancer.

Directed by Georgia Hudson through Park Pictures with Oscar-nominated cinematographer Seamus McGarvey as DoP, the two-minute film tells the story of a mannequin encountering the museum's treasures in its iconic London site, awakening into dancer and lead choreographer Max Cookward (BBC Young Dancer 2019, Contemporary Finalist). Post house Rascal coordinated the sound design synchronised to a haunting original soundtrack by FredWave, led by audio creative director Neil Johnson and sound producer Jai Mhach Durban.

The film ran as the V&A's brand campaign in 2023, and Rascal won Gold for Best Sound Design at the Creative Circle Awards 2023 for the work. The source reports no viewership figures.

The V&A holds centuries of fashion, jewellery, photography and sculpture behind one London facade, and its 2023 brand film 'Creativity. It's What Makes Us' compresses that range into a single character: a masked mannequin who drifts through the museum's iconic site encountering incredible art, design and performance — until the creativity around it brings it to life.

That life is dancer Max Cookward, BBC Young Dancer 2019 Contemporary Finalist and the film's lead choreographer, animating the mannequin as the physical argument for the campaign's thesis: creativity is what makes us human. Director Georgia Hudson shot the two-minute film through Park Pictures with Oscar-nominated cinematographer Seamus McGarvey.

Sound carries as much of the film as image: post house Rascal, led by audio creative director Neil Johnson and sound producer Jai Mhach Durban, coordinated the sound design against a haunting original soundtrack by FredWave, in what Hudson describes as an experimental score built through constant back-and-forth between the three. The work took Gold for Best Sound Design at the Creative Circle Awards 2023.

Starting the film with the collection's most inert object — a mannequin — makes the museum's effect measurable: art is what moves it.

Casting a real award-winning dancer and choreographer grounds the fantasy in performance craft the V&A actually exhibits.

An experimental, rhythm-driven soundtrack lets the edit cut to feeling rather than exhibit labels.

Aiming the stylised, youth-culture lens at a younger demographic tackles the museum's stale-perception problem directly.

A museum with everything can advertise with a single body: let one inanimate figure absorb the whole collection until it moves — the range shows, the thesis lands.

The film ran as the V&A's brand campaign through 2023 and won Rascal Gold for Best Sound Design at the Creative Circle Awards 2023. The following year the museum and adam&eveDDB followed with the 'If You're Into It' campaign targeting 18–35s. The source reports no viewership figures.