Twelve finalists for the Grand Prize of the Saatchi & Saatchi OK Go Music Video Challenge, organised in association with BUG Music Videos and Talenthouse, have been announced today (June 7th), together with the People's Choice prizewinner. 

A judging panel comprised of members of the Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide Creative Board, the BUG Music Videos team, and OK Go's lead singer Damian Kulash, came up with a set of finalists from different parts of the globe for the the Grand Prize, in which the winner will be offered an all-expenses paid trip to Cannes for the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, where the winning video will be screened at the Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors' Showcase on Thursday 20th June. 

The finalists, who all created videos for the brand new as-yet unreleased OK Go song I'm Not Through, are: Eran Amir (Germany), Carolina Aguirre Barrandeguy (UK), Sara Brink (USA), Nelson de Castro (USA), Roberto Espinosa (USA), BJ Golnick (USA), Alice Lam (USA), Benjamin Minot & Jacqueline Bulnes (Italy), Shan Palmer (USA), Riccardo Salvi & Alberto Falcone (UK), Lavado Stubbs (Bahamas) and Jonah Sugden (UK).

And Fort Lauderdale-based BJ Golnick has been declared the recipient of the People's Choice award in the competition - collecting more public votes than any other entrant in the competition for his interpretation of I'm Not Through as a fastmoving romantic thriller involving time travel (below).

It's the third successive year that Saatchi & Saatchi have invited the international filmmaking community to enter the Music Video Challenge, with the help of BUG, and the objective at unearthing new directing talent. This year Saatchi & Saatchi have also teamed up with Talenthouse, a global platform for creative collaboration, and Grammy award-winning band OK Go, renowned for their cutting edge music videos.

The Grand Prize finalists feature an eclectic range of themes and styles – including contemporary dance, lost virginity, a Bahamian marching band, and outstanding animation. Amos Pizzey, founder/President of Talenthouse has commented: "Talenthouse was thrilled with the creative response to the Saatchi & Saatchi OK Go Music Video Challenge on our platform. The submissions came from around the world and showed the depth of new untapped talent that can be liberated online in our brave new world." 

Check out all the finalists here