Legend Of The Origin Of Crawfish Takes Grand Prize at BIMINI

The 2nd Annual International Animated Film Festival "BIMINI," which took place April 1-4, 2004 in the city of Riga, Latvia, bestowed its top prize on LEGEND OF THE ORIGIN OF CRAWFISH by Valentin Olshvang.

The animated film festival "Bimini" has received annual status and is currently the only festival of the kind in Latvia. The festival encourages exchange of creative experience, search of new ideas, styles and technologies as well as integration of Latvian animation into the global cinema process. Another aim of the festival is the introduction of young animators into the world of professional animation of high artistic standards. The program includes animated films both for children and adults that are translated into Latvian and Russian. The festival features competition and non-competition film screenings as well as a retrospective and an informative program.

The winners are:Grand-Prix of the FestivalLEGEND OF THE ORIGIN OF CRAWFISH - Valentin Olshvang (Russia)

The Best Film Up To 5 Min.NIBBLES - Christopher Hinton (U.S.)

The Best Animated Film From 5 To 10 Min.HENRY'S GARDEN - Moon Seun (U.S.)

The Best Animated Film From 10 To 30 Min.INSTINCT - Rao Heidmets (Estonia)

The Best Animated Film Over 30 Min.ABRAFAXE, UNDER THE BLACK FLAG - Tony Power, Gerhard Hahn (Germany)

The Best Experimental Animated FilmORIGIN OF THE WORLD - Katarina Kerekesova (Slovakia)

The Best Animated Film For ChildrenBOXED IN - Will Becher (U.K.)

The Best DebutEXTN. 21 - Lizzie Oxby (U.K.)

Special Diploma For Expressive Emotion Of Love And FaithfulnessTEARDROP - Niina Nevalainen (Finland)

Special Diploma For Skillful Reflection Of Our Everyday Life Through Magnifying GlassKALA - Jonathan Davies (Finland)

Special Diploma For Graphic HumorNEXT - Anatoliy Lavrenishin (Ukraine)

Special Diploma For HumanityTHE YEAR OF THE MONKEY - Ulo Pikkov (Estonia)