The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity has named Susan Credle as the recipient of its Lion of St Mark, the festival's lifetime distinction for individual contribution to the creative industries.

The announcement was carried on the festival's official channels. Credle becomes the latest figure selected for the honour, which sits outside the festival's competitive jury system.

What is the Lion of St Mark?

The Lion of St Mark is the festival's highest non-competitive award. It recognises sustained contribution to the creative economy rather than the performance of a single campaign. Cannes Lions' main awards programme runs through a tiered shortlist structure across more than 20 disciplines, with Grand Prix, Gold, Silver, and Bronze trophies awarded through jury deliberations during awards week. The Lion of St Mark bypasses that process entirely.

Unlike a category Lion, the Lion of St Mark requires no entry fee, no case film, no agency credits, and no shortlist. The festival's leadership selects the honouree directly.

How is the recipient chosen?

The selection sits with the festival's leadership. There is no public nominations process, no open shortlist, and no voting window. The decision is announced when the festival confirms the honouree, typically several weeks before the main awards week opens in Cannes.

That mechanism gives the Lion of St Mark its trade-press weight. The announcement functions as a standalone editorial event, with outlets profiling the recipient's career, agency affiliations, and prior award history in the weeks before the on-stage presentation.

What changes in this year's awards race?

Nothing in the competitive standings. The Grand Prix trophies in Film, Titanium, Creative Effectiveness, Creative Data, and the other categories are still decided by the category juries. Shortlists will still publish on the festival's standard schedule. The Lion of St Mark does not affect any of those decisions.

What the award does alter is the festival's framing. The Lion of St Mark recipient typically closes the main awards week with a stage address from the Palais des Festivals, drawing a finale-week press cycle that runs alongside the final round of jury deliberations.

Why does the timing matter?

The Lion of St Mark announcement typically lands in the festival's spring preview window, ahead of the jury president reveals and the agency-of-the-year shortlists. The order shapes how trade outlets build their Cannes Lions coverage: the lifetime honour anchors the festival's profile pieces, while the competitive awards fill the daily news cycle.

The sequencing also explains why the festival holds the Lion of St Mark name back until it has secured the recipient's confirmation. Once public, the name becomes the centrepiece of the festival's own marketing for the closing days of awards week.

What remains unconfirmed?

The festival has not yet disclosed:

• The date of Credle's on-stage presentation
• Any accompanying tribute film or panel session
• The list of additional speakers and jury presidents joining the festival's wider lineup

The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity runs annually in Cannes, France. Awards Review will update this story as the festival publishes further detail on Credle's presentation, the jury roster, and the awards-week shortlist schedule.