30 Years of Joy in the Making

Sony’s surreal ‘Road’ spot, Johnnie Walker’s ‘Keep Walking’ theatrical masterpiece, and the viral manifestos of Expo 2020 Dubai and NEOM are just a few of the iconic projects that have shaped Joy Films’ legacy over the years.

Established in London in 1994 by the dynamic duo - director Mehdi Norowzian and executive producer, Desley Gregory - Joy Films became a global success and merged with Ridley Scott Associates (RSA) until 2009. In 2008 Joy Films shifted its HQ to the Middle East in partnership with Ali Azarmi as its managing partner. Ali’s experience and connections as an ECD of multinational ad agencies in the region took Joy Films towards a more involved creative development. Focusing on top independent directors from all over the world rather than a select roster, Joy Films offers a much greater choice of directors perfectly suited to each creative concept.

Now, as it reflects on its three-decade journey, Joy Films showcases seven standout projects that have left their mark across the UK, UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Watch them all below.

UK

Sony ‘Road’

Agency: BMP DDB Needham

Year: 1995

Winner of a Bronze award at the British Television Advertising Awards, the ‘Road’ was Mehdi Norowzian’s first commissioned TV commercial, marking the launch of his career as a film director and establishing Joy Films. The film showcased Mehdi’s distinctive filmmaking style, blending surreal and abstract storytelling with impeccable editing, casting, styling, in-camera effects, colour grading, and a masterful selection of music and audio effects. The resulting energy is breathtaking. Through metaphors and emotions, Mehdi’s abstract and surreal approach became his signature, which he successfully reinvented in many Joy Films classics.

adidas ‘The Rock’

Agency: Leagas Delaney London 

Year: 1996

The release of adidas’ ‘The Rock’ in 1996 was a pivotal moment for Joy Films. The agency brief to Norowzian was one sentence: Marcel Desailly training with a demolition ball. It was up to Norowzian to visualise, dramatise and bring this great concept to life. 

The team developed a compelling storyboard, opting for a black-and-white aesthetic and using sound effects instead of music to heighten the film's impact. It took three motion control cameras running in three separate studios to pull it off. 

Set against the stark, industrial backdrop of an abandoned power factory in Milan, the production featured an innovative, custom-built rig expertly crafted from scaffolding by Joy Films’ special effects partners. This rig allowed the camera to swing in a perfect circle around the subject, capturing dynamic, fluid motion that traditional techniques simply couldn’t replicate.

The client’s feedback? “Don’t touch a bloody frame.” The project became a triumph of creative problem-solving and technical ingenuity, cementing Joy Films' reputation for producing groundbreaking work.

One 2 One ‘John to Yuri’

Agency: Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH)

Year: 1997

This spot was part of a long-running campaign for which Joy Films produced several highly successful commercials. The campaign posed a thought-provoking scenario: a contemporary celebrity is asked to choose one historic idol they’d like to bring back to life for a one-to-one conversation. 

In this spot, renowned journalist, John McCarthy, the longest-held British captive on foreign land, was to converse with Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first man ever to journey into outer space. 

The script conveys a profound message: John wanted to ask Yuri how it felt to view our world from such a distance, seeing it as seemingly united and peaceful, despite the reality being far from it. 

Since there was scarce archival footage of Yuri from the 1960s, much of the historic footage was reconstructed. The spot won the D&AD Awards 1997 Television Commercials up to 60 Seconds Wood Pencil Award.

Johnnie Walker ‘The Walk’ 

Agency: Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH)

Year: 1999

Another Joy Films’ classic. This theatrical masterpiece sits proudly among the many amazing ads in the Johnnie Walker archives. In it, we witness the evolution of Mehdi’s metaphoric imagery and in-camera effects, which enrich the sensory experience and elevate the story – a narrative centred on conquering fears and rising above vulnerabilities. 

Mehdi employs all his cinematic tools and ingenuity to dramatise Harvey Keitel’s struggles as an actor, rising above his own demons and fears – real or imaginary – providing a useful metaphor for viewers who can relate. 

Filmed in Tunisia at the magnificent Roman Colosseum, the production overcame several challenges, including Harvey falling ill during filming and only one lion being fit to be filmed.

UAE and Lebanon

Qtel ‘I Am Arab’

Agency: Leo Burnett

Year: 2011

This multimedia campaign for the Qatari telecom company was beautifully and poetically conceived by Leo Burnett and directed by Matthias Zentner. Focused on celebrating Arab identity, it showcased the rich diversity of the region’s people, cultures, and lives, breaking stereotypes and elevating each character as a champion of their own path. The campaign became a celebrated anthem across the region.

Expo 2020 Dubai ‘Be There’ and ‘Welcome the Future’

Agency: Ogilvy Dubai 

Year: 2019

The two manifesto launch films, ‘Be There’ and ‘Welcome the Future’, marked a transformational moment for Joy Films. These global productions reached hundreds of millions across all media, including prestigious locations like Piccadilly Circus and Times Square. On YouTube alone, ‘Be There’ generated 52M views, and 'Welcome the Future' generated 23M views.

The concepts were VO-driven in the style of spoken-word poetry. In just six weeks, Joy Films commissioned rappers and spoken-word poets from 13 countries, filmed in multiple locations, composed music, and created CGI to portray the Dubai Expo 2020 experience. The campaign was a phenomenal global success, paralleling the triumph of the Expo itself, which opened in 2021 after a pandemic-induced delay.

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

NEOM ‘Made to Change’

Agency: McCann London

Year: 2021

Joy Films has been producing films for the Saudi market since 2008. The Kingdom’s recent initiatives have propelled the company into several landmark projects, highlighting Saudi Arabia’s lofty ambition and transformative vision.

Among these, the NEOM manifesto film ‘Made to Change’, created in partnership with McCann Enterprise London, stands out tall. The film highlighted all the key industries and sectors NEOM would be pioneering from urban planning, to manufacturing, green energy, vertical farming, health care, education and the role of predictive technologies in future cities. The idea was to design the film with a continuous flow to communicate the seamlessness and how everything is connected. Directed by the brilliant Dave Meyers, Joy delivered the impossible in just six weeks. The production featured intricate set design, CGI, and five days of filming across outdoor and studio locations in Mexico. Viewed by millions worldwide, the film powerfully reinforced NEOM’s futuristic vision, garnering over 22 million views on YouTube alone. It became the reference for many production briefs.