The 2005 Ottawa International Animation Festival concluded over the weekend with the closing awards ceremony honoring the best of the fest. Held at the National Arts Centre on Sunday, the event was followed by a screening of the award winning films.
The Mercury Filmworks Grand Prize for Animated Feature was awarded to Aron Gauder’s Nyocker! (The District!). The entry from Hungary was selected for its "visual innovation, energetic style and fearless satire of contemporary culture and politics.” Meanwhile, the student award went to CalArts grad J.J. Villard’s Chestnuts Icelolly, an edgy, traditionally-animated surreal of an ostracized boy who gets the last laugh.
Winner of the Grand Prize for Commissioned Animation is Die Toten Hosen Walkampf from German Filmmaker Andreas Hykade. The judeges selected the film for its "beautiful choreography of color and shape with riotous set pieces and intimate touching moments.” Taking home the Nelvana Grand Prize for Independent Short Animation is Igor Kovalyov’s Milch (U.S.), characterized as “oblique but perceptive storytelling, which through a myriad of closely observed details takes us into an atmospheric, touching and sad story of childhood.”
Henry Selick’s new CG short, Moongirl, claimed the Short Film Special Jury Prize in the kids’ competition. The flagship project for Laika (formerly Vinton Studios) reminded the judges of Selick’s charming 1996 stop-motion feature film, James and the Giant Peach.
The award for Television Series for Adults was given to e Adult Swim favorite Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law from Richard Ferguson-Hull. The episode "Birdman of Guantanamole" was singled out for its risque humour and over-the-top parody of the superhero cartoon. On the children’s TV side, the winner is Codename: Kids Next Door, which won for the installment Operation A.R.C.H.I.V.E.
Rounding out the list of top winners are Bruce Alcock’s At the Quinte Hotel (Canadian Film Institute Award for Best Canadian Animation), and fellow Canadian Peter Lepeniotis’ Surly Squirrel (National Film Board of Canada Public Prize).
Other winners are:
School Competition
ENSAD (France) showreel
Special Mention: Supinfocom Valennes, France
New Media Competition
Animation Short Made for the Internet
Mole in the City from Roque Ballesteros/U.S.
Special Mention to Manege Frei/Ljubisa Djukic/Germany and Three Feathers and a Rainworm by Igor Coric/Serbia \
Interactive Animation
American Penguin Project by Minki Park/U.S.
Independent Short Films Competition
Narrative Short Work
Ichthys by Marek Skrobecki/Poland
Experimental/Abstract Work
_grau by Robert Seidel/Germany
Special Mention
Bow-tie Duty for Square Heads by Stephan-Flint Muller/Germany
First Professional Work
City Paradise by Gaelle Denis/U.K.
Student Films Competition
Elementary/Secondary Film
Piper the Goat and the Peace Pipe by Lev Polyakov/U.S.
Undergraduate Film
Fish Heads Fugue and Other Tales for Twilight by Lauren Indovina, Linsey Mayer-Beug/U.S.
Graduate Film
Overtime by Oury Atlan, Thibault Berland, Damien Ferrie/France
Special Mention:
Death by Heart by Malin Erixon/Sweden
Meeting Me by Angela Steffen/Germany
Commissioned Films Competition
Promotional Work
Coinstar ‘Shoe’ by PES/U.S.
Special Mention: Delirium Films Opening Title by Nebojsa Rogic/Serbia
Music Video
Phoenix Foundation "Hitchcock" by Reuben Sutherland/U.K.
Kids Competition
Short Film Made for Children
Gopher Broke by Jeff Fowler and Blur Studio/U.S.
More information on the festival can be found at www.awn.com/ottawa.
