ANIMA 2018: The National & International Juries Announced
Skwigly
Since 2015, ANIMA has been part of the very exclusive list of festivals whose awards are recognized as a qualification for the Oscars. However, a prize at ANIMA is not only a ticket for the Oscars but also the assurance of a great international career.
For example the short film AMONG THE BLACK WAVES by Russian filmmaker Anna Budanova, winner of the Anima 2017 Grand Prix, has since been doing the rounds of international festivals such as Calgary, Leeds, Buenos Aires and many others, and is in the running at this very moment for an Emilie Award, the new prizes for European animation, due to be announced on Friday 8th December in Lille.
After her win at Anima, Britt de Raes’ CATHERINE, Award for the Best Belgian Short Film 2017, has gone on to win the Award for the Best International Short Film at the Animasivo festival in Mexico, the Award for the Best Film of 5 to 24 minutes at the Cinanima festival in Portugal and the Audience Award in the animation category at the Leeds Festival.
This year, the selection panel for ANIMA checked out over 1,650 films coming from some forty countries. These were narrowed down to 196 short films, which will be submitted for the appreciation of two professional juries, made up of an equally divided mix of international industry professional men and women.
Jury members for the 2018 international competition hail from France, Canada and Portugal. Pierre-Luc Granjon started at Folimage in 98, and now has several short films to his credit. He is currently working on a feature film project with Foliascope. The Canadian independent animator Janet Perlman has developed her absurd sense of humour in a number of short films including one that was nominated for an Oscar. Filmmaker, illustrator and teacher, José Miguel Ribeiro, won the Cartoon D’Or in 2000 with his 25-minute film “The Suspect” and is currently at work on a feature, “Nayola”, written by Virgílio Almeida, a co-production between Portugal, Belgium, Luxembourg and Angola.
The difficult task of deciding the fate of the Belgian short films has gone to Chris Ullens, Jen Hall and Anu-Laura Tuttelberg. Chris Ullens is a Belgian filmmaker who now lives and works in London. He has directed commercials for KFC, Red Bull, Nickelodeon, Kellogg’s, Sony Ericsson and Kirin Beer and his music videos have won numerous international prizes. Jen Hall is the co-founder and director of the Manchester Animation Festival. And finally, Anu-Laura Tuttelberg graduated in animation from the Estonian Academy of the Arts in 2013. Her graduation film “Fly Mill” (2012) has been seen in over a hundred festivals around the world and rewarded with many prizes.
The 37th ANIMA is set to take place from 9th to 18th February, in Flagey. The list of films in the Official Selection can be found here.