28th World Festival of Animated Film – Animafest Zagreb ended on Saturday with the award ceremony held in Cinema Europa. After six days devoted to animation it’s time to present the awards to the best films and authors.
Grand Competition Short Film jury decided to give Grand Prix – Short Film to La Chute by Boris Labbé, produced by Sacrebleu Production in France. The Golden Zagreb Award for creativity and innovative artistic achievement went to Nikita Diakur for his film Fest (Germany, self-produced) that brings fresh perspective, digital innovation and creative use of contemporary technology.
Zlatko Grgić Award for the best first film made outside of an educational institution was awarded to German-Mexican work 32-Rbit by Victor Orozco Ramirez for the impressive personal animated vision rooted in the contemporary social media landscape.
By the decision of Grand Competition – Feature Film jury Grand Prix – Feature Film went to This Magnificent Cake! (Belgium, France, Netherlands) by Emma De Swaef and Marc James Roels. . Jury gave them the award for a masterful exploration of history of their own country in both humoristic and cruel way, as well as for amazing cinematography and creating both convincing and expressive character design.
Student Film Competition and Croatian Film Competition jury decided to give Dušan Vukotić Award for the best student film to Facing It (UK) by Sam Gainsborough. The same jury also decided to award special mention to films Take Me Please (Hungary, Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design Budapest) by Olivér Hegyi and Bless You! (Poland, The Polish National Film, Television and Theater School in Lodz) by Paulina Ziółkowska.
Best Croatian Film of this year’s Animafest is Cyclists by Veljko Popović, while the special mention went to Jelena Oroz for Two for Two.
Vimeo Staff Pick Award went to Rachel Gutgarts for A Love Letter to the One I Made Up (Israel, Bezalel Academy).
Best film for children Award was awarded to the film Birdlime (Canada), by Evan DeRushie and the special mention went to the American film Two Balloons by Mark C. Smith.
Each of the jury members also presented one special mention award, and they went to How Steel Was Tempered by Igor Grubić, Polish film III by Marta Pajek, Iranian film Mr. Deer by Mojtaba Mousavi, Dutch-Belgian film Finity Calling by Jasper Kuipers and to the French film Negative Space by Ru Kuwahata and Max Porter.
Lastly, Mr. M – Short Film audience award went to Alice Guimarães and Mónica Santos for their film Between the Shadows, while the Mr. M – Feature Film audience award will travel to Patrick Imbertand Benjamin Renner in France for The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales.
29th World Festival of Animated Film – Animafest Zagreb will be held from 3rd to 8th June 20.
