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‘The Burden’ Wins Top Prize at Fantoche 2017

‘Negative Space’ by Max Porter and Ru Kuwahata wins International Audience Award.

The International Animation Film Festival records 26,300 entries this year, which is a plus of 11 percent compared to the record year 2015. Talented filmmakers, international guests and animation film fans from all over Switzerland as well as the neighboring countries enriched Baden during the last six days with their presence.

The title Best Film in the International Competition is awarded to Niki Lindroth von Bahr with The Burden. Negative Space by Max Porter and Ru Kuwahata wins the International Audience Award. In the Swiss Competition, Airport by Michaela Müller is awarded as Best Swiss and In a Nutshell by Fabio Friedli wins the Swiss Audience Award. Joan Zhonga wins the Best Kids and the Young Audience Award in the Kids Film Competition with his compelling film Ethnophobia. The next Fantoche Festival will take place from September 4-9, 2018 in Baden, Switzerland.

More than 300 short and feature films, multimedia exhibitions with VR and AR components, industry talks and workshops guaranteed a wide and colorful program for all generations. Feature films like Loving Vincent, In this Corner of the World and Louise en Hiver have been sold out very quickly. Next to the short film programs in the three competitions, the country focus “Brexit: Goodbye to All That?” and “3 Generations: Cinema, TV, Web,”, the exhibitions on “Animation goes Multimedia” were met with great public interest.

The full list of winners at Fantoche 2017 is shown below:

AWARDS -- INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION
Jury: Anete Melece (CH), Fabian Erlinghäuser (IE), Jayne Pilling (GB), Sonja Rohleder (DE), Daniel Sciboz (DE)

  • Best Film: The Burden, Niki Lindroth von Bahr, SE 2017
  • High Risk: Vilaine fille, Ayce Kartal, FR 2017
  • New Talent: Ugly, Nikita Diakur, DE 2017
  • Best Sound: Impossible Figures and Other Stories II, Marta Pajek, PL 2016
  • Special Mention: Nachtstück, Anne Breymann, DE 2016
  • Audience Award: Negative Space, Max Porter, Ru Kuwahata, FR 2017

AWARDS -- SWISS COMPETITION

Jury: Igor Prassel (SI), Yvonne Van Ulden (NL), Theodore Ushev (CAN)

Kids Jury: Lausanne: Sunshine Burri, Maryam Sunitha Sangaré. Tessin: Alessandra Guastalla, Jie Gabriella Liu, Robin Pellanda, Amaury Szöke. Wettingen: Ursina Bill, Mathilde Dam Hansen

  • Best Swiss: Airport, Michaela Müller CH/HR 2017
  • High Swiss Risk: Living Like Heta, Bianca Caderas, Isabella Luu, Kerstin Zemp, CH 2017
  • New Swiss Talent: Immersion, Lalita Brunner, CH 2016
  • Fantastic Swiss: OOZE, Kilian Vilim, CH 2017
  • Swiss Youth Award: OOZE, Kilian Vilim, CH 2017
  • Special Mention: La bataille de San Romano, Georges Schwizgebel, CH 2017
  • Swiss Audience Award: In a Nutshell, Fabio Friedli, CH 2017

AWARDS -- KIDS FILM COMPETITION
Kids Jury: Supervised by Zauberlaterne, the films were judged by a jury of seven children aged between 6 and 12 which awarded the Best Kids prize.

  • Best Kids: Ethnophobia, Joan Zhonga, AL/GR 2016
  • Young Audience Award: Ethnophobia, Joan Zhonga, AL/GR 2016

‘Negative Space’ by Max Porter and Ru Kuwahata.

Side Effects of Brexit

The theme “Brexit: Goodbye to All That?” encouraged lively discussions at the festival. Curator Jayne Pilling has chosen films from the last decades, which in one way or another deal with the inner turmoil of Great Britain. Some films can be understood with a new meaning, depending on the context in which they are viewed. European animation film maker will move to where the funding continues to flow: “Talents go where they can unfold. I’m not sure if they’ll stay in the UK.” Pilling is skeptical, but one thing is certain: the festival has connected experts and film makers from all over Europe in Baden. Either to plan future projects or to celebrate fantastic animation films.

Meeting Platform for the Industry

Many animation experts and filmmakers have been attracted by the Fantoche Industry Day. Table talks provided cooperation possibilities and new collaborations. Interesting insights have been showed at the best practice presentations with experts from Freitag.lab.ag, Blue Zoo Productions and Golden Wolf (both from GB). A special highlight was the masterclass on Wednesday with Michael Dudok De Wit (threefold nominated and one-time winner of the Oscar). He shed light on his use of film language, story writing and landscape with the support of his powerful visual material -- and also answered questions from the audience. The Animation Fuckup Night showed all the miserable fails the studios made while producing animations: worst case experiences that would help others to avoid pitfalls. The audience was very pleased and celebrated these experiences with a lot of enthusiasm.

“While Loving Vincent is an impressive film about an artist’s genius of a bygone era, fantastic contemporary artists participated at this year’s Fantoche Festival,” commented festival and artistic director Annette Schindler. “Michael Dudok de Wit impressed the audience in his masterclass, and our jury members awarded promising talents for a bright animation future.”

Interactive Experiences and Generation Talks

The two themes, “3 Generations: Cinema, TV, Web” and “Animation goes Multimedia,” ensured an ideal contrast with diverse events and four exhibitions. Young and old were fascinated by the technology and their related possibilities. They got inspired by motivated creators. The young ones played the interactive Space Game Demonz in the container at the Theaterplatz. The generation talk, moderated by the festival director Annette Schindler herself, was followed with great interest. Also the guided tours in the historical museum Baden were successful. In case you missed it: the specialized exhibition “Kosmos Kino” continues through February 25, 2018.

Source: Fantoche Festival