The Fruits of the Jury's Labor
Both crazy and serious films were represented in the prize-winners, although with a notable bias toward the latter. The Grand Prize in the International Competition went to Chris Hinton's Flux (Canada, 2002), a hand-drawn film that uses childlike images and an economy of means to explore family life and the inexorability of time. In addition to Strojenie instrumentowmy (see above), a Special Jury Prize was also awarded to Phil Mulloy's The Invasion (U.K., 2001), a dark and often very funny take on paranoia, religion and alien life-forms. Biotope (France, 2001) by Merwan Chabane, one of the few films to employ a straightforward narrative style, received the award for Best First Film, while Robert Bradbrook's Home Road Movies (U.K., 2001), an affecting remembrance of the director's father and his family's road trips, was chosen as the Best European Film. The award for Best Nonnarrative Film went to the exquisite Angela's Ashes: Typographic Experience (U.K., 2001), by Damien Borowik, Sung Hoon Kang and Alexander Kokhwee Ng, in which text from Frank McCourt's bestselling novel takes on the characteristics of his inclement childhood. Hidden (Sweden, 2002), by David Aronowitsch, Hanna Heilborn and Mats Johansson, a film that uses a recorded interview with a twelve-year-old refugee to explore immigration issues, won the "Fabrizio Bellocchio" Prize for Social Content.

Joe Brumm's Causes (U.K., 2000), a provocative, if somewhat simplistic, look at the interconnected factors that create environmental crises, won the Audience Prize and received a Special Mention from the jury. Other Special Mentions were awarded to Marcel Hobi's Geranium Peace (Switzerland, 2001) — a personal favorite — in which people trade banalities as their world collapses around them; La Funambula (Italy, 2002) by Roberto Catani, "for its beautiful artistry;" the amusing 1300cc (U.K., 2000) by Eoin Clarke, which was also an audience favorite; and Zoia Trofimova's Le Trop Petit Prince (France, 2001), cited by the jury as "a beautiful film for children."

Relaxing in a town outside Genzano are: (left to right) Alison Snowden, Jimmy Picker, Liz Fairs, Dave Jones and David Fine. Snowden and Fine had their body of work presented at the festival. Courtesy of David Fine.

In an informal interview the day after the awards ceremony, jury president David Fine recounted that it hadn't been easy to choose the winners in the various categories because the festival offered such a wide diversity of high-quality films. "Each of the five jurors had their own favorites and so, rather than come to a unanimous decision about each prize, there was a general consensus about the group of films that deserved recognition generally." The general feeling among festival goers (based on a rigorously unscientific poll) was that the jury had done a fine job in adjudicating the winners.

Left to right: animation expert and Italia ASIFA member Attilio Valenti, Web animation juror Joshua Held, animator Francesco Filippi, Anita and Irene Bozzetto, Roberto Frattini, Bruno Bozzetto and Normand Roger. Courtesy of David Fine.

In the Italian Competition, the jury awarded the Grand Prize to Liana Dognini's sensitive portrayal of felinicide, Bye Bye (U.K., 2001); a Special Jury Prize to Chi si fa l'aspetti (Italy, 2002), a 3D computer animation by students of the Istituto Europeo di Design; and a Special Mention to Marco Lucente's Portali (Italy, 2001), "for the commitment to the particular method used [traditional animation with integrated computer effects], which promises well for the future."

Animated works created for the Web remain the somewhat suspect stepchild of the animation world, but the new form continues to improve and to gain legitimacy. The jury for the Web Competition, now in its third year, awarded the Best Series prize to Banja (France, 2002), a 3D Flash community adventure game by TeamcHmAn. The prize for Best Short went to the interactive comic strip, Testimony: A Story Machine (Australia, 2001) by Simon Norton, and David Berlioz's Plok (France, 2001) received a Special Mention.