The Kaboom Animation Festival (kaboomfestival.nl) held its 2023 awards ceremony on Saturday night in Amsterdam, closing out another energetic, colorful and creative edition. Award-winning shorts, features and student films walked away with Kaboom Awards and cash prizes to help fuel their next explosive projects.
Taking the top prize for Best Short Film is the haunting and powerful stop-motion piece Skinned (Écorchée), from French director Joachim Hérissé and Komadoli studio (sales by Miyu Distribution). The film has picked up a number of international prizes from festivals such as Clermont-Ferrand, Sitges, Hiroshima Animation Season Festival and Animafest Zagreb.
In an old building, lost in the middle of the swamp, live two strange women, Siamese twins by one leg. At night, the Flayed has terrifying nightmares in which she sees her sister’s flesh covering her own body.
Kaboom described the film’s an exploration of an abusive relationship “that deeply affects the boundaries between the other and the self,” with “echoes of Cronenberg and Julia Ducournau.”
Kaboom Awards 2023 Winners
Best Short – Skinned by Joachim Hérissé (France; Komadoli)
Best Student Short – Goodbye Jérôme! by Adam Sillard, Gabrielle Selnet & Chloé Farr (France; Gobelins)
Best Documentary – The Heights by Alejandro Salgado (Spain; La Maleta Films)
Best Dutch Short – Questbound: Forbidden Ventures of the Undead Soul by Owen Buckley & Alexander Bierling (Netherlands; HKU University of the Arts Utrecht)
Best Music Video – “How Many” – Mathieu Boogaerts by Bianca Scali (Germany; Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg Animationinstitut)
Best VR – From the Main Square by Pedro Harres (Germany; Filmuniversitat Babelsburg Konrad Wolf)
Jamie Bolio Award – Ice Merchants by João Gonzalez (Portugal, France, U.K.; COLA, Wildstream, RCA)
Audience Award for Best Short – Freedom Swimmer by Olivia Martin-McGuire (Australia, France; No Thing Production, Sacrebleu Production)
Audience Award for Best Experimental Short – Fur by Zhen Li (U.S.; CalArts)
Audience Award for Best Commissioned Short – An End to War Enough by Simone Massi (Italy; Emergency ONG Onlus)
Audience Award for Best Children’s Film – Momo by Erik Verkerk & Joost van den Bosch (China, The Netherlands; iQIYI, Ka-Ching Cartoon)
Audience Award for Best Feature – Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman by Pierre Földes (France; Cinéma Defacto, Miyu Productions)
Nancy Award – Garrano by David Doutel & Vasco Sá (Portugal, Lithuania; Square Eyes)
