On Sunday, November 19, 2000, the Holland Animation Film Festival concluded its five-day festival with the presentation of its awards. This year's event was the first to hand out an award for independent animation films. With this competition, the festival sets out to promote the short, artistic animation film, and, as a result, encourage media attention toward independent animation. The student jury, composed of Joan Ashworth (animation filmmaker, England), Henk Beumers (animation filmmaker, the Netherlands) and Menno de Nooijer (animation filmmaker, the Netherlands) awarded the First Prize to "Chay Abah," by Sander Alt. The applied animation jury, composed of Mikhail Aldashin (animation filmmaker, Russia), Ron Diamond (producer, Acme Filmworks, U.S.A.), Marc Glassman (journalist, Canada), Han Hoogerbrugge (plastic artist and Flash animator, the Netherlands) and Piet Schreuders (graphic designer, the Netherlands) awarded the Grand Prix to "Metetra: = Equal," by Hitoshi Suenaga. The independent shorts jury, composed of Pierre Hébert (animation filmmaker, Canada), Jerzy Kucia (animation filmmaker, Poland), Anatoly Prokhorov (producer, Pilot Moscow Animation Studio, Russia), Marjut Rimminen (animation filmmaker, England) and Rob Stevenhagen (animation filmmaker, the Netherlands) awarded the Grand Prix, Non-Narrative Films to "#11, MAREYMOIRÉ" by Joost Rekveld and the Grand Prix, Narrative Films to Michel Dudok Wit's "Father And Daughter," which won the Grand Prize and the Journalists' Prize at Cinanima 2000 a week earlier. For a complete list of winners, go to the festival Website.
