The Cresta Awards, celebrating its 30th year, has revealed its 2023 Shortlist, describing the finalists as ‘breaking new boundaries’ for the competition.

In all 250 entries have been shortlisted by Cresta, which is known for its independent and unbiased take on creative standards, where the honours are decided by aggregating marks from a distinguished global jury that works deliberately in isolation to help avoid groupthink and cultural bias.

The jury also has a rotating membership, with roughly a third of new jurors added each year to the 120+ group of creative leaders.

Dentsu Inc. of Tokyo leads Asian regional participation on the shortlist, with 13 entries, many for its work on the ‘Healthy AR Streamers’ project.

Dentsu Inc. is only pipped for the top spot on shortlist nominations by last year’s overall network of the year winner, Serviceplan, which as Serviceplan/plan.net has 14. The Dentsu Creative global network also figures large with 14 more entries, reaped by projects across its US and Portugal offices.

A strengthened cohort from the Middle East was also apparent in this year’s shortlist, which for many years was dominated by agencies and clients from Western Europe and the United States.

“It’s a great shortlist this year… a real pleasure to watch and learn from!” said Lewis Blackwell, CEO of Cresta

“We work hard to have the best work from around the world and, given our judging system, nothing gets on the shortlist that isn’t rigorously filtered by a very diverse and demanding jury.”

He added that “much of the work in the newer digital categories is really breaking new boundaries for the competition, and indeed is a record of the changing world in general. You can see how society is altering, how business is resetting its values, when you look at some of the astonishing inventiveness that we are covering in our shortlist.

The fresh creative energy is great to see in this, our 30th year.”

The winners will be revealed on 28 September. You can more at www.cresta-awards.com