Organizers of the 25th World Festival of Animated Film – Animafest Zagreb have announced the winners of this year’s competition, which over six days brought more than 300 films and numerous complementary programs to theatrical and open-air screening in Zrinjevac, Croatia. The 2015 Grand Prix for best short film was awarded to We Can’t Live Without Cosmos by Russia’s Konstantin Bronzit.
The shorts jury — comprised of Chris Landreth, Jayne Pilling, Veljko Popović, Yumi Joung and Leslie Felperin — noted that We Can’t Live Without Cosmos deserved the top prize for having “a deceptively simple and classical narrative which reveals through its mastery of purely visual storytelling, nuance and detail the evolution of a deep friendship, shattered by loss and bereavement.”
Jurors were also invited to select a special mention. These were: Man on the Chair by Dahee Jeong (Popović), Mimma by Calvin Antoine Blandin (Pilling), The Sleepwalker by Theodore Ushev (Landreth), Nuggets by Andreas Hykade (Joung) and The Master by Riho Unt (Felperin).
The Short Film jury also bestowed The Golden Zagreb Award for artistic achievement to World of Tomorrow by Don Hertzfeldt (“an exquisite, haunting and irrepressibly humorous exploration of memory, nostalgia and what it is to be human.”) and the Zlatko Grgić Award for best first film to Amélia and Duarte by Alice Guimarães and Mónica Santos (“For its poetic narration, its fluid storytelling, its acting, its wonderful pixilation technique and its overall emotional punch”).
The feature film Grand Prix went to Alê Abreu’s The Boy and the World, which the feature jury– Jung Henin, Siniša Juričić and Mihai Mitrica — lauded for its combination of innovative artwork, politics and emotions. A special mention was given to Sang-ho Yeon’s The Fake for its uncompromising take on the dark side of human nature.
Prizes were also awarded to:
- Grand Prix for Croatian Film – Life with Herman H. Rott by Chintis Lundgren
- Special Mention for Croatian Film – Nikola Tesla’s Secret Laboratory by Bruno Razum
- Dušan Vukotić Award for Best Student Film – Meanwhile by Stephen McNally
- Special Mentions for Student Film – The Whole by William Reynish; Afternoon Class by Seo-ro Oh
- Best Commissioned Film – Paradise Awaits
- Best Site-Specific Video – Microphobia by Nikki Schuster
- Best Children’s Film – Gift by Jacoba Freyja
- Special Mention for Children’s Film – Lune by Patrick Delage & Toma Leroux
- Public Award for Best Short – Bear Story by Gabriel Osorio
- Public Award for Best Feature – Song of the Sea by Tomm Moore
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