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‘Through the Hawthorn’ Wins Grand Prix Award at Stuttgart

The UK’s Through the Hawthorn…, by Anna Benner, Pia Borg, and Gemma Burditt, wins the Grand Prix award at the 2014 Stuttgart Festival of Animated Film.

Stuttgart, Germany -- The 2014 the Stuttgart Festival of Animated Film (ITFS) proved its reputation as a cultural highlight event and magnet for all animated film fans, attracting a record 85,000. The 21st edition of ITFS surprised with numerous new locations like Renitenztheater, L-Bank and the New Castle. New program highlights have been established – such as the extended Game Zone, the reorganization of the German Voice Actor Award as an independent gala event, as well as the introduction of industry event highlight, “Stories and Series in the New Castle.”

“We would have never thought that we could beat the record figures from last year”, says Dittmar Lumpp, Managing Director Organization and Finances of the ITFS, on the last day of the festival.

“The ITFS has developed into a major cultural event, which extends far beyond the Stuttgart and Germany. I am particularly happy that new formats like the German Voice Actor Award have been received so well,” adds Ulrich Wegenast, Managing Director Programme of the festival.

The two managing directors regard the strongly expanded Game Zone as a great success. “Let's Play” was the motto, and it was played extensively -- whether on small consoles or on the big LED screen. In addition, there were presentations, exhibitions, workshops and talks revolving around the games theme.

The German Voice Actor Award did not only find a new venue with the Renitenztheater, but was also held as an impended event -- “Animation Comedy” -- for the first time. “In the past, the German Voice Actor Award has always been part of the big closing gala at the end of the festival. Thus, there was little opportunity to present the nominees in detail. We are very pleased that we were able to change that now,” says Dittmar Lumpp.

Under the title “Stories and Series in the New Castle,” the ceremonies for the German Screenplay Award and the best Tricks for Kids - Series were held in the festive White Hall of the New Castle in Stuttgart. The gala event was also the launch for the Animation Production Day, a co-production and co-financing market for German and international animation projects, jointly organized by the FMX and ITFS.

Last year’s added locations -- the Mercedes-Benz Museum (with the Animated Com Award and numerous events of the children’s film festival Tricks for Kids) and the Stuttgart zoo Wilhelma -- have proven successful.

Thousands of animated film fans gathered at the open air cinema and turned the Schlossplatz into Stuttgart’s living room. Despite the good weather and the admission free festival garden, the film programs in the local cinemas were well attended; especially the screenings of the International Competition were regularly fully booked.

“And the winner is…” On Sunday evening, April 27, 2014, the 21st Stuttgart Festival of Animated Film ended with the award ceremony. The awards (called Trickstar) are endowed with a prize money of over 70,000 euros. Guests included Oscar-winners Chris Landreth, Thomas Stellmach and Alexandre Espigares, Emmy-winner Eric Shaw, as well as celebrities from politics, commerce and culture such as the CEO of the MFG Film Funding in Baden-Wuerttemberg, Prof Carl Bergengruen, and the CEO of the U. I. Lapp GmbH, Andreas Lapp.

 AWARDEES OF THE 21ST STUTTGART INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF ANIMATED FILM

INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION
Grand Prix
15.000 euros, sponsored by the State of Baden-Wuerttemberg and the City of Stuttgart
“Through the Hawthorn…”
United Kingdom 2013
Anna Benner, Pia Borg, Gemma Burditt

Lotte Reiniger Promotion Award for Animated Film
10.000 euros, sponsored by MFG Film Funding Baden-Wuerttemberg
“Home”
United Kingdom 2012
Luiz Stockler
Royal College of Art

SWR Audience Award
6.000 euros
“Mr Hublot”
Luxembourg 2013
Alexandre Espigares, Laurent Witz

YOUNG ANIMATION

Award for the best student film
2.500 euros, sponsored by Landesanstalt für Kommunikation Baden-Wuerttemberg (LfK) and MFG Film Funding Baden-Wuerttemberg

“The Shirley Temple”
United Kingdom 2013
Daniela Sherer
Royal College of Art

Special Mention
“The Age of Curious”
United Kingdom 2013
Luca Toth
Royal College of Art

“Matzofim” / “Floats”
Israel 2013
Idan Barzilay, Mor Israeli
Bezalel Academy of Arts & Design

ANIMOVIE

Award for the best animated feature film
“Kotonoha no Niwa” / “The Garden of Words”
Japan 2013
Makoto Shinkai

TRICKS FOR KIDS

Award for the best children’s animated short film
4.000 euros, supported by Studio 100 Media GmbH
“L´Automne de Pougne” / “Poppety in the Fall”
France 2012
Pierre-Luc Granjon, Antoine Lanciaux

Special Mention
“The Dam Keeper”
USA 2013
Robert Kondo, Dice Tsutsumi

Award for the best animated series for children
2.500 euros
“The Amazing World of Gumball: The Hero”
United Kingdom 2012
Mic Graves

CARTOONS FOR TEENS

Award for the best animation for youths
2.500 euros, sponsored by Nippon Art GmbH and AV Visionen GmbH.
“Milles-pattes et crapaud” / “The Centipede and the Toad”
Anna Khmelevskaya
France 2013

Special Mention
Les deux vies de Nate Hill “/ “The Two Lives of Nate Hill”
France 2013
Jeanne Joseph

TELE 5 “LEIDER GEIL” AWARD
5.000 euros, sponsored by TELE 5
“Pommes Frites”
Netherlands 2013
Balder Westein

ANIMATED COM AWARD
Awards for the best applied animation in the fields of advertising, technology and spatial communication -- Sponsored by Animation Media Cluster Region Stuttgart, Daimler AG, U.I. Lapp GmbH

Main prize
2.500 euros, sponsored by Animation Media Cluster Region Stuttgart
Vodafone “Add Power”
Germany 2013
Sebastian Strasser, Radical Media

Category Advertising
BBC Winter Olympics “Nature”
United Kingdom 2013
Tomek Baginski, Stink (Juice)

Category Technology
Watch Dogs “Exposed”
Hungary 2013
Istvan Zorkóczy, Digic Pictures

Category Spatial Communication
Frankfurt Book Fair “While you were Sleeping”
New Zealand 2012
Mike Mizrahi, Marie Adams, Inside Out Productions

Category Special Award of Daimler AG: “Future needs Derivation – Individual Mobility”
2.500 euros, sponsored by Daimler AG
“1900 - 2000”
France 2013
Caroline Le Duff, Gabrielle Locre, Agathe Pillot, Armelle Renac, Benoît Berthe, Vivien Risser, Supinfocom

Category Special Prize Lapp Connected Award
2.500 euros, sponsored by U.I. Lapp GmbH
“Jack”
Netherlands 2013
Quentin Haberham, HKU Hilversum

48H ANIMATION JAM – CRAZY HORSE SESSION

Live competition award
“A Horse Throat”
Jenna Marks, David Barlow-Krelina (Canada)
In co-operation with M.A.R.K. 13, Landesanstalt für Kommunikation (LFK) and MFG Film Funding Baden-Wuerttemberg

Special Mention
“Creation”
Islam Mazhar, Ahmad Abdelhameed (Egypt)

GERMAN SCREENPLAY AWARD

2.500 euros, sponsored by Telepool GmbH    
“Latte Igel und der Wasserstein” by Andrea Deppert and Martin Behnke

GERMAN VOICE ACTOR AWARD

2.500 euros
Josefine Preuß as Mary Katherine (M.K.), “Epic”
FOX, USA 2013

COMPETITION FOR PROJECTS Arab Animation Forum 2014 in cooperation with the Robert Bosch Stiftung

“Clean up the living-room we’ve got visitors coming”
Ghassan Halawani (Libanon)

Source: ITFS

Jennifer Wolfe's picture

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.