By Julian Carrington

Year-end best-of lists and rampant consumerist behaviour are two time-honoured December traditions, and the latest instalment of TIFF’s Packaged Goods program conveniently caters to both customs in a single feature-length presentation. The ongoing series spotlights innovative and exceptional efforts in the field of short-form commercial filmmaking (encompassing ad spots, interactive promos, music videos, and shorts), and programmer Rae Ann Fera has fittingly elected to devote this months’s edition to a look back at the best efforts from around the world that were either produced or awarded in 2011.

Though, sadly, that astonishing Kreayshawn-video-treatment-turned-Russian-Burger-King-commercial is a tad too recent to make the cut, the decision to include award-winning work that debuted last year means that there is a welcome place for Nike’s 2010 World Cup spot, “Write the Future” (embedded above), which is equally astonishing, if for entirely different reasons. Directed by two-time Oscar nominee Alejandro González Iñárritu, the epic three-minute promo won the Film Grand Prix at the 2011 Cannes Lions festival, and apparently cost what can only be described as a “holy shit” amount of money—so much so that most Super Bowl ads look like late night cable access spots by comparison.

Other highlights include Fredrik Bond’s “The Entrance” for Heineken, which ups the ante on the classic “cool guys drink this beer” formula to absurd and utterly joyous new heights; charming stop-motion spots for Chipotle and Lego, and a charmingly saucy stop-motion short from Spike Jonze and Simon Chan; as well as an ad for Australia’s Carlton Draught that pays operatic homage to Dave Chappelle’s celebrated theory that everything looks better in slow motion.

Among Fera’s picks for the year’s best music videos is the breathtaking Icelandic dreamscape conjured by Nabil Elderkin for Bon Iver’s “Holocene;” Foster the People’s “Helena Beat,” as a playful mashup of Mad Max and Lord of the Flies from Ace Norton; a car crash rendered as a Gondry-esque near death experience by Daniels for Manchester Orchestra’s “Simple Math;” and Battles’ “Ice Cream,” directed by Barcelona production collective Canada, which is what we imagine Dov Charney’s most tasteful nocturnal fantasies might look like.

And finally, speaking of Canada, Fera’s 28 selections feature plenty of love for local ad houses. Canadian-produced spots include Red Urban’s “Drive Until: Courage” for VW; a promo called “Love/Hate” from Leo Burnett Toronto, commissioned by the Advertising & Design Club of Canada; and “Cat,” a real-life instance of catvertising in an interactive Skittles promo from BBDO Toronto (which is by no means to be confused with 2011′s hilarious and wholly unauthorized Skittles porno, “Newlyweds“, from U.S. directors Cousins).

Packaged Goods: The Year’s Best screens on Wednesday, December 14, at 7 p.m. at the TIFF Bell Lightbox. For tickets, visit TIFF’s website.