The Animacam Online Animation Short Film Festival has announced the top prize winners of its 6th edition. Both the Best Animated Short Film Award (3,000 euro prize) and Audience Award (2,000 euro) were awarded to Belgian films: Manu Gomez’s Roller Monster and Julien Dykmans’ The Mechanical Waltz. The winners were selected from 50 competing shorts hailing from 33 different countries.
Roller Monster director Manu Gomez is an accomplished multidisciplinary artist who has featured in exhibitions in Paris, Brussels, Canada and Beirut. His film resume includes nearly 20 productions, 16 of which are animations, which have screened on international TV channels and received awards from top festivals including Cannes, Annecy, Sitges and the LA Film Festival.
The Best Animated Short Film Award is awarded by Spain’s Museo de Arte Contemporáneo / gasNatural Fenosa. The directors of the Museum and Animacam stated: “Roller Monster is a singular, delirious and truly free animated adaptation of one of the most important works in the contemporary literature, as The Metamorphosis by Kafka is … This film reflects perfectly the distress and impotence of the main character, Gregor Samsa, as well as the cruelty of his father and the vulnerability of his mother, always through a great plasticity and a specially relevant style.”
The Mechanical Waltz by Julien Dykmans has previously won distinguished awards and been selected for festivals including Sound & Image Challenge in Macau, BIFFF Brussels and SIGGRAPH.
According to the Animacam audience, “this work (The Mechanical Waltz) made in 3D is a magnificent allegory of the freedom, a traditional topic which continues to be very present nowadays.” The Animacam Audience Award prize is granted by Arranz Dental.
 and Audience Award (2,000 euro) were awarded to Belgian films: Manu Gomez’s Roller Monster and Julien Dykmans’ The Mechanical Waltz.){kind=link}