The 2024 edition of Animation Is Film (AIF) wrapped up in Los Angeles with the announcement of the winners of its seventh annual film festival.
In addition to the film competition, AIF’s weekend of sold-out screenings, special events and filmmaker Q&As included a sneak peek at Disney’s Moana 2, presented by directors David Derrick Jr. and Jason Hand; a “Work in Progress” look at Yoppaman, with co-creators Zack Fox and Chibu Okere; a filmmaker panel with director David Lowery and producer Alfonso Cuarón of An Almost Christmas Story; and a Q&A with The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie director Pete Browngardt.
“With virtually every screening and event sold out, this year’s Animation Is Film festival eclipsed each previous edition in terms of attendance and energy,” said Matt Kaszanek, Executive Director of AIF. “How enormously gratifying it was to see so many new faces alongside our regulars. Congratulations — and thank you! — to all of the filmmakers for an extraordinary year in animation. Animation is film. Scream it from every rooftop!”
The festival also included filmmaker masterclasses from Chris Sanders, director of DreamWorks Animation’s The Wild Robot; screenwriters Meg LeFauve and Dave Holstein of Inside Out 2 in a presentation by Write for Animation; and the filmmaking team behind Transformers One, including director Josh Cooley, production designer Jason Schreier, animation supervisor Stephen King and lead character designer Amy Christenson. Special screenings of Miyazaki, Spirit of Nature; Mononoke the Movie: Phantom in the Rain; Takeshi Koike’s Redline (15th Anniversary); and Adult Swim’s Invincible Fight Girl, along with award-winning short films (such as the Best of Annecy, curated by Women in Animation) and a student showcases, rounded out the event.
AIF Prize Winners:
Flow, directed by Gints Zilbalodis, won the feature film competition’s top honor — the Grand Prize. The fantasy adventure, told without dialog, follows a cat at the brink of the end of the world learning to survive alongside other species. Winner of the Jury Award at 2024 Annecy International Animation Film Festival.
“Without a word of dialog, Gints Zilbalodis weaves sound, music and immersive animation to show how powerful the medium can be when coupled with the right story. Flow seriously considers how human actions are impacting the environment, and what effect that has on animals, centering their perspective in a way that only animation can,” said the Jury.
One of two Special Jury Prize feature film winner, Memoir of a Snail, the second longform ‘clayography’ from director Adam Elliot after Mary and Max, clinched the Cristal Award for Best Feature Film at the 2024 Annecy Film Festival — making him the first director to receive this honor twice. The stop-motion drama captures the life of a snail enthusiast as she undergoes immense hardships and learns to love herself despite them.
“The distinctive personality of Adam Elliot’s stop-motion feat flows directly from its well-crafted screenplay. Wobbly lines and endearingly odd character designs work in concert with the film’s dark (but never despondent) sensibility, which embraces human imperfection and finds beauty in unlikely forms,” the Jury said.
A Silent Voice director Naoko Yamada’s highly anticipated new feature The Colors Within was also awarded a Special Jury Prize. GKIDS is due to release the Science SARU production in theaters nationwide on January 24.
The film centers on Totsuko, a high school student with the ability to see the ‘colors’ of others. The auric visions influence her life, such as being attracted to the calming color given off by her classmate Kimi. This devotion leads the girls and a quiet new friend they meet by chance to form a band, and strengthen their bonds.
In the short film competition, Wander to Wonder, directed by Nina Gantz, took home the Grand Prize. In this short, taking place in the 1980s, Mary, Billybud and Fumbleton once starred in the children’s television program Wander to Wonder. They are left alone in the studio after the show’s originator passed away.
“Bonkers in the best way possible, Nina Gantz’s profound meditation on grief won this jury over with its unique visual style and sense of hope,” said the Shorts Jury.
In an “incredibly difficult decision” the Special Jury Prize for Shorts went to A Crab in the Pool, directed by Jean-Sebastien Hamel and Alexandra Myotte — “a poignant short about family and loss.”
The short follows young adolescent, Zoe, a ball of anger haunted by an intimate terror. Theo, still a child, flees reality into a fantastical world. During a scorching summer day, the two children will have to burst the abscess of their relationship so as not to lose each other.
The 2024 AIF expert jurors included:
- Features Jury: Kambole Campbell (Journalist, Film/TV/Culture Critic), Peter Debruge (Head Film Critic, Variety), Carolyn Giardina (Senior Entertainment Technology & Crafts Editor, Variety), Karen Ryan (producer, Nimona), Drew Taylor (Senior Writer, The Wrap)
- Shorts Jury: Tom Caulfield (filmmaker), Nic West (Chair of the John C. Hench Division of Animation + Digital Arts), Ramin Zahed (Editor-in-Chief for Animation Magazine)
The 7th annual Animation Is Film took place October 18-20 at the TCL Chinese 6 Theatres in Hollywood. The festival was produced by GKIDS in partnership with Annecy International Animation Film Festival. More information at AnimationIsFilm.com.
