Xavier Fauthoux’s animated film for It’s A Man’s Man’s Man’s World has won the Saatchi & Saatchi James Brown Music Video Challenge 2012 – organised in association with Universal Music Enterprises, the James Brown Estate, Genero.tv and BUG.

The French director has been chosen as the Grand Prize winner for the James Brown Music Video Challenge. In addition, Universal Music Enterprises (UMe), along with the James Brown Estate has chosen his entry to be the official music video for the track, with a prize of US $4,000, which will be funded by Universal and Genero.tv.

Xavier Fauthoux’s video for Its A Man’s Man’s Man’s World – a soul classic by James Brown from the early 1960s – employs illustration and animation to recall key moments of the singer’s own life, against the soundtrack of one of his greatest and most soulful songs. The result is a very powerful and thought-provoking piece that works brilliantly with the song, and succeeds in evoking the era in which it was recorded.

As a result of winning the Grand Prize of the competition, Fauthoux will be invited to work on a project in a key office in the Saatchi & Saatchi global network, working alongside some of the best creatives in the business. His film will also be featured at BUG 32 – the forthcoming BUG event at the BFI Southbank in London – later this month.

His win is the culmination of a competition that saw member filmmakers of Genero.tv invited to submit their videos for one of four classic James Brown songs – Try Me, Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag and Sex Machine, as well as Man’s World.

From the entries submitted UMe also selected three additional films to become the official music videos for the other James Brown songs in the competition. The directors who will also each receive a prize of US $4,000 from Universal and Genero.tv are Columbian filmmaker Camilo Rodriguez for Try Me; American Chief Mojo and Doug Hardee for Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag; and Mexican director Luis Cisneros for Sex Machine (Part 1).

The judging panel consisted of members of the Satchi & Saatchi Worldwide Creative Board, Genero.tv, BUG, Ume, and representatives from the James Brown Estate. Directors featured in this year’s New Directors’ Showcase were invited to help judge the winner.

It was the second year in succession that BUG were involved in organising a Music Video Challenge with Saatchi & Saatchi following the highly successful competition with Moby in 2011.

David Knight, Director of BUG said: “The music of James Brown will always inspire people to dance – and it has certainly inspired some impressive entries to the James Brown Music Video Challenge. Ultimately Xavier Fauthoux’s video for It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World is a very worthy winner of The Grand Prize. This work not only captures the essence of this fantastic song, it tells a heart-rending story of the life of James Brown himself.”

Andrew Lane, co-founder of Genero.tv commented: “We absolutely loved Xavier Fauthoux’s video, which truly captured such an iconic James Brown song and told a story through powerful imagery and animation. Well done also to all the other official music video winners, and finalists, you should be very proud of your work!”

Of the winning directors. Fauthoux started out as a web designer at Ubisoft, specialising in 2D/3D animation and VFX Supervision, before setting up ‘Shoot The Boss’, an independent digital animation and motion graphics studio in Montreuil, France.

Rodriguez was born in Bogota in 1987, and is a screenwriter and director who makes short films and documentaries; Chief Mojo and Doug Hardee are based in Tampa, Florida, where Chief Mojo runs video-production company The Mojo Ranch; 23 year-old filmmaker Luis Cisneros hails from Mexico, and describes himself as a ‘simple person, from a small town that loves filmmaking.’

• View the Grand Prize winner and official music videos here