Winners of 26th Animafest Zagreb include ‘Endgame,’ ‘The Magic Mountain,’ ‘Travelling Country,’ ‘What They Believe’ and ‘Welcome to My Life.’
After an extraordinary week fully devoted to animation, with over 300 films in the program and 200 festival guests, the 26th World Festival of Animated Film -- Animafest Zagreb ended on Saturday with the award ceremony. The jury, consisting of Peter Lord, Normand Roger, Vjera Matković, Cecilia Traslaviña and Raimund Krumme, gave the Grand Prix in Short Film Grand Competition, also the Academy Award-qualifying position, to the film Endgame by Phil Mulloy.
“Bold, shy and witty, but ultimately chilling, this is a film that demonstrates superb storytelling, timing and film craft along with a daring use of the film frame. The whole piece is a minimalist journey into the most dangerous of all games,” the jurors wrote in a statement.
“I first came to this festival in 1992, after which I visited it many times, but I have never won this award,” said Mulloy, who received this prestigious honor in person. “It is a fantastic feeling, this festival is very special and important to me, which makes this award all the more important.”
Each of the jury members also presented one special award. Raimund Krumme to the film Peter’s Forest by Martina Meštrović, Cecilia Traslaviña to the film Broken -- The Women’s Prison at Hoheneck by Volker Schlect and Alexander Lahl, Vjera Matković to the film Before Love (by Igor Kovalyov), Peter Lord to Deer Flower by Kangmin Kim, and Normand Rogers to Peripheria by David Coquard Dassault. The “Golden Zagreb” Award for creativity and innovative artistic achievement went to the film Datum Point by Ryo Orikasa, and “Zlatko Grgić” Award for best first film made out of an educational institution to A Coat Made Dark by Jack O’Shea.
Feature Film Grand Competition jury consisting of Justine Bannister, Marcy Page and Boško Picula gave the award to the film The Magic Mountain by Anca Damian. “We found this film to be a challenging, artistic blend of diverse animation styles that so perfectly, and sometimes even poetically portrayed the haunting existential journey of one man through these stark landscapes and underlined the futility of war -- we also wish to honor the genre of animated documentary by awarding the Grand prix to this beautifully narrated and edited film,” said the jury.
The feature film jury gave the special mention to Anomalisa by Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson.
Eugene Kim, Corrie Francis Parks and Darko Vidačković were the ones to decide on the best Croatian film: Travelling Country by Ivan Bogdanov and Vessela Dantcheva. Marko Dješka’s Ghost Town won a special mention.
The same jury also decided on the best student film. The “Dušan Vukotić” Award for best student film went to Shoko Hari for What They Believe. The jury also gave two special mentions: to About a Mother by Dina Velikovskaya and The Noise of Licking by Nadia Andrasev.
The best site-specific animation is The Rise of Fascism by Slobodan Tomić.
The children’s jury, consisting of Dijana Bosnić, Franka Meštrović, Lucija Milić, Lucija Sabolić and Vid Trkulja, decided on the best Film for Children – Welcome to My Life by Elizabeth Ito, and the film Follow Your Heart by Rob O’Neill won a special mention.
The best animation school at the 26th Animafest Zagreb is Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design.
The audience also chose their favorite film, the winner of “Mr. M” Award -- the best short film Sunday Lunch by Céline Devaux, and among the features, the viewers liked best April and the Extraordinary World by Frank Ekinci and Christian Desmares.
Before the award ceremony, the festival organization was praised by the President of the Zagreb City Assembly Andrija Mikulić, and expressed his hope to see everyone the next year, as well.
The festival is financially supported by the Croatian Audiovisual Centre and City Office for Education, Culture and Sport, as well as Creative Europe -- MEDIA Sub-program.
Source: Animafest Zagreb
Formerly Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network, Jennifer Wolfe has worked in the Media & Entertainment industry as a writer and PR professional since 2003.
