The 20th Annual Sundance Film Festival wrapped up on January 26, 2003 after announcing the festival winners. Animation was represented in the Dramatic Grand Jury Prize winner AMERICAN SPLENDOR, directed by Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini. AMERICAN SPLENDOR tells the story of comic artist Harvey Pekar using documentary footage mixed with narrative live-action and animation created by Gary Leib and John Kuramoto of the New York-based design and animation company Twinkle. The shorts jury presented the Jury Prize in Short Filmmaking to TERMINAL BAR, directed by Stefan Nadelman. The documentary short uses still images, text, music and animation to illustrate the lives of the patrons of a notorious New York City dive bar. The jury also awarded Honorable Mentions in Short Filmmaking to a selection of shorts including the animated films THE FREAK, directed by Aristomenis Tsirbas and FROM THE 104TH FLOOR, directed by Serguei Bassine. The 2003 Sundance Online Film Festival Viewers Award for animation went to BROKEN SAINTS, directed by Brooke Burgess. The Flash-animated BROKEN SAINTS is a graphic novel-styled epic that follows the adventures of four people bound by an unknown force who battle to overcome an apocalyptic evil. Two chapters of the 10-hour online novel were screened in the Sundance Online Film Festival, which featured 31 projects in 4 categories: Animation, Short Subject, Gallery and New Forms. The Animation and Short Subject categories were both in competition for the Online Audience Award. BROKEN SAINTS and the other Sundance Online Film Festival selections can be viewed at www.sundanceonlinefilmfestival.com until February 5, 2003. For the full list of festival winners, visit www.sundance.org.
