Annie and Boo by Johannes Weiland took home the Grand Prix, among other awards. © Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg/Schaefer Filmproduktion.

The Man Without a Head claimed the Special Jury Prize. Courtesy of Onyx Films, Iguana films, La Maison and Imagina.

The various award categories this year included Best Animation (Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers), Best Rendering (Audi — Drink Like a Fish — directed by Frank Budgen and post-produced by Framestore-CFC), Art Direction (Annie and Boo) and Best Script (Cortex Academy by Frederic Meyer and Cedric Jeanne). Best Feature Film (Matrix Revolutions) and Best Student Film (Annie and Boo — again) were the only really clearly defined categories — even if the win for Matrix Revolutions over Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers caused an audible intake of breath in the audience!

The Grand Prix Imagina went to Annie and Boo and the Special Jury Prize to The Man Without a Head by Juan Solanas — a very French art film about a headless man preparing for a longed-for date.

Plenty to Talk About
Still, controversial awards categories always lead to lively discussions afterwards — and there were plenty of those at the post-awards disco until the early hours.

The awards themselves were the familiar Imagina teapots —in hand-blown glass this year — and pretty hefty if you are carrying three of them around a disco floor.

Yet again, the prize teapots baffled the gendarmes at Nice airport, where Framestore’s Andy Daffy was required to delve down into his suitcase to prove his three had no explosive properties – and, in fact, can’t even hold tea!

Hopefully next year we will see a return to more specific categories such as Music Video, Short Film, Art Film, etc. to allow the awards audience to see a wider selection of the nominees; however, one of the great advantages of Imagina over other similar events is the daily consecutive screenings of all the nominees in each category — so the really diligent can see the entire range of nominated films for themselves.

New Talent
Imagina is always a good place to catch up with the latest student work from around Europe and meet representatives from great schools such as Supinfocom (France), L’ENSAD (France), the Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg (Germany) and the U.K.’s Bournemouth University, among others. The student village section of the expo floor was larger than ever this year and attracted a constant flow of visitors between conference sessions.

I enjoyed sponsor Nvidia’s opening day student event — Bridging Expectations — hosted by the company to encourage networking between the schools, recent graduates and professionals. It is often difficult for aspiring graduates to make contact with the professional speakers at the big events and this informal gathering was intended to break down the barriers a little. The free pizza was also a big draw.