Valerie Barnhart’s powerful stop motion film wins for best short; Megan Earls’ ‘Border Line’ wins for best student film.
Manchester Animation Festival (MAF), the UK’s largest animation event that aims to celebrate animation in all its forms, has announced the winners of its Film Awards and Industry Excellence Awards for 2019 at a November 14 ceremony. The awards were designated as follows:
Best Short Film
- Girl in the Hallway directed by Valerie Barnhart – The film was a powerful and haunting cut out and stop motion Canadian film.
Special mention in this category went to:
- Sweet Night, a Belgian digital 2D short directed by Lia Bertels
Best Student Film
- Border Line, a traditional 2D film directed by Megan Earls
Special Mention in this category went to:
- The Stained Club, a French CGI film directed by a team made up of Mélanie Lopez, Simon Boucly, Marie Ciesielski, Alice Jaunet, Chan Stéphie Peang and Béatrice Viguier
Best Commissioned Film
- Do I See What You See?, this short, directed by Simon Ball, was about the experiences of people living with Posterior Cortical Atrophy (PCA), a rare form of dementia which affects the visual areas of the brain.
Special mention in this category went to:
- Accents, an Australian short directed by Robertino Zambrano.
Best Immersive Film
- Gymnasia, directed by Chris Lavis & Maciek Szczerbowski, this Canadian stop motion horror contains no dialogue.
Audience Award
- Travel Oregon: Only Slightly (More) Exaggerated, the second part of the animated campaign directed by Kylie Matulick & Todd Mueller for Travel Oregon by Wieden & Kennedy Portland. The film is designed to give viewers more of a creative glimpse of the magical feeling of being in Oregon.
With the Industry Excellence Awards, the MAF team celebrates people who work hard every day on scripting, storyboarding, designing and animating some of the favorites in television programs and commercial work.
The Award for Storyboarding
- Max Loubaresse for 101 Dalmatian Street from Passion Animation Studios
The Award for Scriptwriting
- Greg Levine for Littlest Pet Shop: Fetch the Story Stick from Boulder Media
The Award for Character Design
- Agnes Lecreux forDimitri and a Fun Surprise
The Award for Character Animation
- Mark Nute for Bluey.
The fifth edition of Manchester Animation Festival took place November 10-14. The event saw a 22% increase in delegates attending. The festival was proceeded by an academic conference hosted by University of Salford and a special family day, all in all totaling five back to back days of animation.
MAF returns in November 2020.
Source: Manchester Animation Festival
