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‘Bad Seeds’ and ‘Affairs of the Art’ Lead LAAF 2021 Winners

Claude Cloutier takes home awards for Best of the Fest and Best Comedy Short, while Best Director and Best Character-Based Short honors go to Joanna Quinn; live awards ceremony honored both 2020 and 2021 winners.

Last weekend, the Los Angeles Animation Festival (LAAF) delivered a live and in-person Awards Ceremony for its 2021 competition, with an additional program celebrating winners of the 2020 festival. Top prizes for 2021 were Best of the Fest/Best Comedy Short awarded for Claude Cloutier’s Bad Seeds, Best Director/Best Character-Based Short for Joanna Quinn’s Affairs of the Art, and Best First-Time Filmmaker/Best Student Comedy for Alex Tullo’s Barking Orders. An LAAF Special Jury prize went to Best Stop-Motion winner Little Hilly byTaiwanese directors Huang Yun Hsien and Liao Pei Yu.

The 2021 Winners:

BEST OF THE FEST:

  • Bad Seeds 

BEST DIRECTOR:

  • Joanna Quinn for Affairs of The Art

BEST STUDENT DIRECTOR:

  • Connor Radding for The Midnight Sun

CHARACTER-BASED:

  • Winner: Affairs of The Art
  • Silver: Echo
  • Bronze: The Boy and the Jazz

STUDENT CHARACTER-BASED:

  • Winner: Sangsangba
  • Silver: Dad’s Hibiscus
  • Bronze: Wander

COMEDY SHORT:

  • Winner: Bad Seeds
  • Silver: Mondo Domino
  • Bronze: Basketball Explorer

STUDENT COMEDY:

  • Winner: Barking Orders
  • Silver: The School Bell
  • Bronze: Social Prostitution

STOP-MOTION:

  • Winner: Little Hilly
  • Silver: The Forbidden Zone
  • Bronze: Heart of Gold

EXPERIMENTAL:

  • Winner: Sensual Pill
  • Silver: Jung and Restless
  • Bronze: Lah Gah (Letting Go)

STUDENT EXPERIMENTAL:

  • Winner: Bamboo Pillow
  • Silver: Desiderium
  • Bronze: Elephant In Castle

MUSIC VIDEO:

  • Winner: Concession Stand Girl
  • Silver: Intro
  • Bronze: Agapito

STUDENT MUSIC VIDEO:

  • Winner: Gary the Duck
  • Silver: Joel Sarakula – Sunshine Makes Me

CGI:

  • Winner: Paddy
  • Silver: Zemfira – Austin 

STUDENT CGI:

  • Winner: There You Are
  • Silver: Legend of The Claw

STUDENT 2D:

  • Winner: How SmallSilver: Heart of Gold

DESIGN:

  • Winner: Memento Mori
  • Silver: On/Off
  • Bronze: Harvest

STUDENT DESIGN:

  • Winner: Fall of The Ibis King
  • Silver: Tug of War
  • Bronze: The Explorer 

MOTION DESIGN:

  • Winner: Mountain
  • Silver: Hide
  • Bronze: Beautiful Journey  

STUDENT MOTION DESIGN:

  • Winner: 3:45
  • Silver: Blip

COMBINATION ANIMATION & LIVE-ACTION:

  • Winner: Gruf and Me
  • Silver: Bufdir
  • Bronze: Fit for The Future

MIXED MEDIA:

  • Winner: She Was Crying Sugar
  • Silver: The Bear

STUDENT MIXED MEDIA:

  • Winner: House of Memory
  • Silver: Interface
  • Bronze: Thorns and Fishbones  

BEST SHORT FROM A SERIES

  • Winner: Astrolology: Libra the Pied Piping
  • Silver: Curious World of Linda

 HUMANITARIAN PROJECT:

  • Winner: MILA

BEST INTERNATIONAL:

  • Winner: Warmth
  • Silver: The Rhino and Redbill
  • Bronze: Checkpoint

BEST STUDENT INTERNATIONAL:

  • Winner: Kid
  • Silver: Out of Touch
  • Bronze: Psychophonic

DOCUMENTARY:

  • Winner: A Different Kind of Different
  • Silver: My Aunties
  • Bronze: Subjective Vision: Myriam Bocarro

STUDENT DOCUMENTARY:

  • Winner: Illegitimate Voice
  • Silver: Mom’s Hair
  • Bronze: Skeleton of A Moth 

COMPOSITION & SOUND:

  • Winner: Roy Berardo for Sangsangba

FIRST-TIME FILMMAKER:

  • Winner: Barking Orders

PERFECT COMBO AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE:

  • Winner: Aurora

PARALLAX AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE:

  • Winner: A Bite of Bone

PARALLAX AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN COMEDYA:

  • Winner: Gary the Duck

LAAF SPECIAL JURY AWARD:

  • Winner: Little Hilly

FILMFEST AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE:

  • Winner: Echo

BEST ANIMATION FOR CHILDREN:

  • Winner: Still with You
  • Silver: Odd Dog
  • Bronze: Ursa: The Song of The Northern Lights 

UNPRODUCED SCREENPLAY:

  • Winner: Beebops written by Kevin Macauely
  • Silver: A Pirate and A Princess written by Mark Kelly
  • Bronze: Boz: Bikers of Oz written by Drew Henriksen & Ken Hewski

OFFICIAL SELECTION SCRIPTS:

  • A Long Way Home by Steven Bogart
  • Kingdom City by Michael Lamberti
  • Salem & The Witches of Hollow City by Joe Boi
  • Dogsin Godsworld by Kathey Tessalone
  • Sea of Pearls by Ahmad Marouf
  • Tuft Enough by Randy Gross
  • Norah’s Ark by Thomas Pace
  • Horn of Plenty by Adele Biraghi-Maschi, Lucas Maschi
  • Shadow Run by John Thibault
  • The Pirate Queen by Sarah Fenelon

Attendees receiving their 2020 awards in-person included some of the director-animators of last year’s 1st place documentary short Vicky & Xingyu, a collaborative project of members of Sheila Sofian’s USC John Hench Division’s documentary animation class; May McDonough, who won the Unproduced Screenplay Award for Eviscerated: A Zombie Musical; and FilmFest Distribution’s Award for Excellence in Design’s prize winner Greg Garay for his USC thesis film Izzy’s Demons.

Source: Los Angeles Animation Festival