Music Video Awards 2025

As the annual Kinsale Advertising Festival approaches, we thought we'd re-cap on our 2025 Music Video Winners. Entries this year showcased an abundance of creative visual production talent that genuinely challenged our judging panel when they had to decide on who deserved the iconic Shark Trophy. A HUGE thank you to our panel of judges who gave their time viewing and re-viewing of every single entry. And of course, congratulations to all those, whose talents and efforts were acknowledged and a really big thank you to all those all for entering and supporting The Shark Awards.

Our jury awarded 33 International Wins and 9 Wins in tne Irish section and a very rare TWO Grand Prix winners – only ever awarded for truly outstanding work that judges cannot separate.

Record Label of the Year

Congratulations to XL Recordings with an impressive 3 x Wins and a total of 16 videos shortlisted.

Great White Shark - Record label of the Year.

“We're grateful to the artists we work with at XL, and to all the directors, producers and crews we have collaborated with. This is an honour and a testament to the hard work of everyone in XL's visual department: Caroline, Josh, Texas, Jake, Millie, Lola and Mez, thank you all!” 

Scott Wright, XL Recordings.

Production Company of the Year

This was a close call and we'd like to sincerely congratulate ProdCo. on their Award with 4 Wins and 14 shortlisted!  ProdCo. are known for championing bold creative work along with emerging talent, with directors ONDA and Luna Carmoon taking home top prizes.

ProdCo - MV Production Company of the Year 2025

Luna, who won Best New Director and Best Rock Video for Fontaines DC 'Here’s the thing' had this to say: “I feel very grateful to be nominated and awarded alongside so many talented individuals. These videos were a labour of love and my first videos. What a joy it was to make them with such a lovely hardworking team. And I can now celebrate the winnings with them and be noticed for the love that bled into them”.

ProdCo. also won Best Hip Hop/Grime Video and Best Production Design for Megan Thee Stallion 'Mamushi'.

Grand Prix Winners

Director Valentin Guiod

Judges were blown away by the entry from BIRTH (Paris) for DJ Snake x Mamadou & Mariam “Patience (Sabali)”, directed by Valentin Guiod.  Valentin not only won a Grand Prix but also took home 3 x wins for Best Direction, Best Cinematography and Best Dance/Electronic Video. As their first time entering our Music Video Awards, this was an impressive start. This video has since garnered over 1.3million views on Youtube.

“DJ Snake represents the vibrant and bold spirit of contemporary North African culture, whilst Amadou & Mariam symbolise the global rise and empowerment of African music.  Bringing these visionary artists together offered a unique chance to create something powerful and visible – a tribute to Africa, its challenges and its beauty. It’s rare to have the chance to develop an 11 minute music short film – one that allows silences and rhythmic pauses to let the story unfold and even take precedence over the music.  We even reworked the song to fit the narrative and the visual storytelling.  This collaboration and the writing took one full year to reach its final draft”. Valentin Guiod, BIRTH.

The second Grand Prix was a resounding “Yes” from the Judges for Pulse Films - RM 'Lost' directed by Aube Perrie. This video also won for Best Direction, Best Music Video and Best R&B/Soul Video.

Rik Green, Global Head of Music Videos, Pulse Films.

Pulse also won Best Pop Video for Jade “Angel of my dreams”, and Best Writing Idea/Concept went to Fontaines DC “Starburster”, all directed by Aube Perrie.  Congratulations to everbody involved.

Ireland Winners

Huge Congratulations to our Irish winners and a special thank you for making the trip to London for the Presentation.

The biggest winner of the evening in the Ireland categories was Ellius Grace (Director) and Kate Gurren (Producer) who took home 4 x wins – Best Music Video and Best Direction for Christy Moore 'Boy in the Wild' and Best Low Budget and Best Concept for James Vincent McMorrow 'Things we tell ourselves'.

Ellius Grace & Kate Gurren

“I was chuffed to win four Shark Awards for ‘Boy in the Wild’ and ‘Things we Tell Ourselves’, as these were two of my favourite shoots from 2024. It was great to see the videos projected and to acknowledge all the hard work put in by the amazing crews on both projects. It was great to be there in person this time around, having won previously but was unable to attend. While they never make me much money, music videos are always my favourite shoots to do in each year. I’ve met and collaborated with some of the best cast and crew through these projects, not to mention some of the best musicians too”.  Ellius Grace

Best Cinematography and Best Colour Grading went to Rich Gilligan for Paul Noonan & Brian Crosby 'My bones a scaffold'.

Best Editing went to Donnagh Fitzpatrick / House9 Films for Charles James and the Rise “Greatest Prize”.

Our judges named Ashish Prasai as Best New Director for Curtisy 'Tell me I’m Good'.

And finally Best Rock Video went to Colin Peppard/Scratch Productions for Chalk 'Afraid'.

International Winners

Partisan Records went home with 3 Wins for Best Choreography and Best R&B/Soul Video for Ezra Collective and Best Rock Video for IDLES. 

Object and Animal won 2 x Wins for Best Colour Grading (entered by Ethos & Electric Theatre Collective), CANADA in Barcelona won 2 x Wins for Best Pop Video and Best Music Video on a Low Budget, Partizan Entertainment (US) won for Best Animation, Best Editing went to Stitch Editing.

Mathematic (Paris) won Best Post Production VFX for Megan Thee Stallion “Koa”, KODE won Best Artiste Performance for RAYE and finally Best Casting went to Giada Bossi (Milan)/Agile Films.