Britain's biggest and longest running short film festival, Encounters, the 12th Bristol International Short Film Festival, celebrated the very best in animated short filmmaking on Saturday, Nov. 25, 2005, with the presentation of its awards at a packed ceremony at Bristol's Watershed Media Centre.
Eight of the festival's 15 awards were won by animated shorts, with Leigh Hodgkinson's FLIGHTY picking up two of the Orange sponsored DepicT! 90-second awards. Joanna Quinn's hugely popular DREAMS AND DESIRES -- FAMILY TIES picked up another award to add its a very cluttered mantlepiece, and Cosgrove Hall's Barry Purves was on hand to present the first Children's Jury Award to the CG animated COUCOU CLOCK, directed and animated by Audrey Fobis and Francois Cailleau.
The complete list of winners is:
* ITV West Award, which recognizes the wealth of talented filmmakers in the region. This year's prize money of £1,000 went to Aardman Animations' THE ADVENTURES OF BIG JEFF: BUSHCRAFT ALPHABET, directed Tom Parkinson, for his irreverent animated short starring Big Jeff, the Aussie with no cozzie!
* Best of British Award is a cash prize of £1,000 and this year's winner was the animated tour-de-force DREAMS AND DESIRES -- FAMILY TIES, directed by Joanna Quinn (U.K.).
* animate! Artist Award, for innovation in manipulated image, was awarded to EMPIRE, directed by Edouard Salier (France). Jury member Philip Ilson (animate! coordinator and Halloween Film Festival director) who presented the award also made special mention of GUY 101, directed by Ian Gouldstone (U.K.).
* Cosgrove Hall Films Children's Jury Award was presented by award-winning Cosgrove Hall animation director Barry Purves to COUCOU CLOCK, directed and animated by Audrey Fobis and Francois Cailleau (France).
* DepicT!/Animation Award was given to popular choice FLIGHTY by Leigh Hodgkinson, who also won £2,000 and a free year's subscription to LoveFilm.com. Both awards were presented by DepicT! jury member director Damien O'Donnell (EAST IS EAST).
* Orange DepicT! Audience Award was voted for online by visitors to the www.lovefilm.com and DepicT! websites, and via text for Orange customers. Audiences also loved Leigh Hodgkinson's witty film, FLIGHTY, which picked up a second award a top of the range mobile handset and a second free membership to LoveFilm.com!
* International Newcomer in Animation Award recognizes originality and technical achievement and the £2,500 prize was awarded to Claude Barras for his wonderful short, THE GENIE IN A TIN OF RAVIOLI (Switzerland).
* Cartoon D'Or Nomination. The British animation entry, which now goes forward for consideration for the prestigious European award was announced as Daniel Gray and Tom Brown's quirky student film T.O.M. produced at the University of Wales.
* BBC New Film-Makers Award (created by BBC Three and BBC New Talent) is a £5,000 cash prize, which this year was given to CUBS, Tom Harper's shocking short about urban fox hunting, which won from a field of more than 350 entries. All the shortlisted films for this award will be transmitted on BBC Three on Dec. 8, 2006.
* DepicT!/Live-Action Award (sponsored by Aardman, Films@59, Orange, LoveFilm.com and Arts & Business). DepicT! challenges filmmakers to make a film in under 90 seconds. This year's live-action winner, AND THE RED MAN TURNED GREEN, was directed by Ruth Meehan who won £2,000 and a year's subscription to LoveFilm.com.
* NAHEMI/KODAK Prize for Creative Filmmaking was awarded to the hilarious and brilliantly edited WITH DICKINSON AND I, directed by Miles Carter from the University of the West of England.
* NAHEMI/Cinematography Award was presented to Sadik Ahmed for his documentary short filmed in Bangladesh, TANJU MIAH, from the National Film and Television School.
* U.K. Film Council Audience Award the £500 prize was won by THE END OF THE SENTENCE, directed by Marisa Zanoti (U.K.). Zanoti's black comedy was the people's choice as this award was voted for by the thousands of ticket buyers who attended the Festival.
* International Jury Award is given in recognition of outstanding quality and innovation and this year's prize of £3,000 was awarded to Czech film TRICKO (THE T-SHIRT), directed and written by Hossein Martin Fazeli.
The award was presented by the international jury members, Christopher Olofsson (program director for the Uppsala Int'l Short Film Festival in Sweden) and Peter Ignacio (director of acquisitions from AtomFilms), who also gave honorable mentions to RABBIT by Run Wrake (U.K.) and LINERBOARD by Jens Jonsson (Sweden).
* South West Screen Audience Award celebrates the audience's favorite film from the South West and awards a cash prize of £1,000, plus mentoring from an industry professional from the region. The winner was James Breese for his provocative and moving film, BENJAMIN'S STRUGGLE.
For further information, visit www.encounters-festival.org.uk.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
