The 4th Annual Blue Water Film Festival (BWFF) announced this year’s juried award winners at the Closing Night Award Ceremony at the UC San Diego Park & Market on Sunday, June 11. The festival, held from June 8-11, screened over 40 feature, short and animated films.
“This year’s festival will be remembered as a gathering of acclaimed animated environmental filmmakers with truly compelling stories about our oceans, water and the environment,” said Greg Reitman, Festival Director and Founder. “We are honored to showcase some of the best animated environmental films curated around the globe.
The winner of the Grand Jury Best Animated Film award was The Snail and the Whale, directed by Max Lange and Daniel Snaddon, adapted from the picture book by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler. The family adventure follows a snail hitching a ride on the tail of a huge humpback whale. When the unlikely friends swim too close to shore, whale’s rescue rests on snail’s tiny shell.
Produced by Magic Light Pictures, the 27-minute film premiered on BBC One for Christmas 2019, and went on to win honors from the Annie Awards (Best Special Program, 2021), the Banff Rockie Awards (Best Children’s Animation, 2020) and the BAFTA Children & Young People’s Awards (Best Animation, 2022).
The Special Jury Best Animated Film was awarded to The Floating World, directed by Hiroshi Yokota for the Roads to Regeneration documentary shorts collection. Produced by SAP in association with Hot Docs, the hybrid film explores how cultural traditions intertwine with sustainable practices.
In the piece, a university student struggling with an environmental studies assignment searches for inspiration at an art gallery, and is magically transported into a painting of 19th-century Japan. In Edo, today’s Tokyo, she witnesses a range of everyday sustainable practices — using ashes in the dyeing process, fertilizing fields with night soil, repurposing used kimonos into towels and rags — that helped the country overcome environmental collapse.
Additional award winners were:
- Global Citizen Award — Yvon Chouinard, Founder, Patagonia
- Pioneer Award — Dr. Wallace J. Nichols, best-selling author, Blue Mind
- Eco Hero Award — Rob Machado, pro surfer and environmentalist
Jury members were Vrinda Sood, (CEO, Citrus Ink Studios), Chris Henderson (animation producer) and Veronica Taylor (voice of Ash Ketchum in the English-language dub of Pokémon).
The opening night reception and screening was sponsored by The Israel Consulate and showcased Stevie Salas short film The Water Walker, followed by Mathew Mishory’s Where Are the Marcuses? at the MOPA – Museum Of Photography. The Vistal Bar & Restaurant at the Intercontinental Hotel hosted this year’s filmmaker brunch where $15,000 in prizes were given to attending filmmakers beginning with DELL Technology, Apricorn Technology, Lectrosonics, FilmIc Pro and Sennheiser were presented to the winners.
Founded in 2020, the Blue Water Film Festival celebrates the United Nations World Oceans Day (June 8) in San Diego, home to the Scripps Oceanographic Institution. The theme of the Festival is our “Blue Planet”; its purpose is to encourage attendees to think broadly about how climate change affects planet Earth and about the actions needed to bring us into balance. About 50% of all film selections are non-U.S. productions, in line with BWFF’s mission of promoting cross-cultural understanding through film.
Supporters of BWFF 2023 include the Dale and Laura Kutnick Foundation; Walter Munk Foundation; Promotional Partners Umbrella Media, Nautilus Magazine, U.S. Sailing Association, Animation Magazine; Sustaining Sponsors Austrian Consulate, Israeli Consulate, Patagonia Films, Hilton San Diego/Del Mar, Himalaya, Merriam Vineyards, DELL Technology, Image ProGraf, Lectrosonics, Sennheiser, Complete Production Group, and Baja Brewing; Eco Sponsors including Maui Loa, Aura Cacia, Boochcraft, Eco Bags, Eliah Sahil Organics, FilmIc Pro, Kore Infrastructure, Open Water, Batch 22, 1% for the Planet, Ego Id Media, Shore Buddies, Frame Shop, Apricorn, Generaciones Asociadas; Location Partners UC San Diego Park & Market, Digital Gym Cinema, La Paloma Theatre, MOPA, Vistal Bar & Restaurant, The Mangelsen Gallery and the San Diego local arts community.
