Dirty Work Blends Mixed-Media Craft in Award-Winning Beat Cancer Off
Skwigly
Award-winning Brazilian studio Dirty Work is celebrating a landmark moment in its history as Beat Cancer Off, the animated centrepiece of Fuck Cancer and VML Health’s awareness campaign, continues its impressive run across global festivals. Directed by Gustavo Leal and Faga Melo, the film has quickly become one of the most talked‑about pieces in health creativity – not only for its fearless message, but for the unmistakable craft and attitude that Dirty Work poured into every frame.
The film’s awards run began at the New York Festivals Advertising Awards in June, where it stormed the healthcare categories with a Grand Prix (Purpose), a Gold (Purpose) and a Bronze (Branded Content & Entertainment: Product Services). Its momentum continued a week later at Cannes Lions, earning two Golds (Entertainment Lions for Music, Health & Wellness), three Silvers (across Film and Film Craft – including a second Film Craft win in a separate sub‑category) and two Bronzes (Audio & Radio, Health & Wellness). For Dirty Work, the recognition marks a defining moment: a celebration of the studio’s ability to fuse technical ambition with cultural resonance.
Beat Cancer Off is a mixed-media film that seamlessly blends traditional 2D animation, cut-out animation, 3D animation, puppetry and live action, building a visual language that feels retro, handmade, and unmistakably modern. With a distinctly playful tone, the film uses unexpected visual metaphors to explore 21 different expressions for masturbation, highlighting its connection to cancer prevention. The film’s cheeky attitude is amplified by an original track from Jamute, whose retro‑inspired composition gives the campaign its playful rhythm and cultural edge.
Dirty Work’s directors describe the project as a rare chance to take a serious subject and build a world around it that’s joyful, strange, and impossible to ignore. The studio’s craft has now been recognised at the highest levels of the industry, and the team is already looking ahead to new projects that push the boundaries of animation and storytelling.
The film explores the fascinating ways different cultures and languages talk about masturbation. Each animation technique was carefully chosen to reflect the humour, visual language and storytelling traditions behind a particular expression. That diversity gives the film a unique richness and makes it resonate with audiences well beyond its country of origin. Our biggest creative challenge was finding the right comic tone for each scene – humour was essential to making such a sensitive subject approachable, while ensuring every metaphor felt distinctive, culturally authentic and entertaining.
– Gustavo Leal and Faga Melo, Dirty Work directors
Dirty Work’s role in the campaign was to take a striking scientific insight – that men who ejaculate 21 or more times per month may reduce their risk of prostate cancer by up to 22%, according to the landmark Health Professionals Follow‑up Study – and turn it into a piece of creativity people would genuinely connect with. By blending multiple techniques and building a world that felt playful and unexpected, the studio created a film that made audiences stop, smile and pay attention.