While the winners for the 2014 AVA Digital Awards won’t be announced until Feb. 1, we’re showcasing select entries that stand out. Keep checking back to see if your work will be highlighted.

Creator: Eric Raum Title of Entry: “Shoulder To Shoulder” Location: Dubai Category: 149. PSA

PSAs are very serious messages, often conveyed in a tone-deaf manner. You’ve seen them before – a spokesman staring into a camera droning on about a disease, cause, or charity. Instead of this approach, Eric Raum takes a very weighty subject and wraps it in drama and emotion.

Eric lived on a military base in Iraq and witnessed first hand the escalating suicide rate among service members. With the help of a graphic artist, Eric traveled to Kuwait to shoot a PSA with real soldiers facing a military-wide problem.

Within the span of a minute, Eric manages to blend film styles from Alfred Hitchcock to John Frankenheimer to create a riveting film capturing the problem while presenting a solution.

To learn more about Eric’s Army suicide awareness PSA, read his story on his website, ericraum.com.