“Impossible Figures and Other Stories” Scoops Grand Prix | LINOLEUM 2022 Winners Announced
Skwigly
This year, films from all over the world competed for two nominations – International Competition and Commissioned Films Competition at the LINOLEUM Contemporary Animation and Media Art Festival.
The International Competition featured 36 talented works by Berlinale, Cannes, Venice and Annecy participants that competed for the main prize. The best film was chosen by experts in the theory and practice of world animation: Aneta Ozorek, founder and Artistic Directress of Kaboom Animation Festival; Olga Bobrowska, directress and co-founder of the StopTrik International Film Festival; and Waltraud Grausgruber, directress of the “Tricky Women/Tricky Realities Festival” in Vienna.
The Grand Prix of the LINOLEUM 2022 festival for “artistic power, mesmerizing scenes, visual imagination, and powerful message” went to the animated film “Impossible Figures and Other Stories” directed by Marta Pajek (Poland).
“This film starts with a big bang and tells the story of humankind. With fascination, we are having, buying, and owning more. No matter the cost, no matter amount of freedom we must sacrifice. It’s a story of Earth exploitation but also of growing totalitarianism, urge to follow the strong leaders, building new better people in the new better world, for any cost,” – the jury members emphasized.
This year’s Commissioned Films Competition was judged by Hanna Rybak, a Ukrainian animation director, illustrator, and animator who worked with the clients like Facebook/Meta, Google, Lyft, TED; Sunčana Brkulj, whose films were selected by Annecy many times; and Shadi Adib – director, designer and animator of shows and feature films.
The Special Mention of the jury “For its completely unique and boundary-pushing esthetics, for the exquisite attention to detail, and for simply standing out from the crowd” goes to the music video “Black midi – Welcome to Hell” directed by Gustaf Holtenäs and Sevi Iko dømochevsky (Spain).
The award for the best film in the Commissioned Films Competition went to “Miranda! – El arte de recuperarte”, directed by Dante Zaballa (Argentina).
In total, during 5 days of the LINOLEUM festival, the audience saw 244 films on MEGOGO and attended 9 online master classes at the Projector video library. Despite the war, offline screenings of special programmes took place in Kyiv and Kharkiv. In a week, on September 17-18, they will be held in Chernivtsi too.
This year’s LINOLEUM was planned as an offline festival in 11 cities of Ukraine, including Mariupol and Kherson. However, February 24 has dramatically changed the lives of Ukrainians – both in the country and abroad. The festival team is very grateful to the partners who helped organize and implement this year’s festival – MEGOGO media service, Projector online institute, Mate Agency, Tak Treba Production studio, Ukrainian Film School, Skwigly Animation Magazine and the British Council in Ukraine.
Media partners: Kinowar, Marie Claire, Moviegram and Telegraf.design.
Partners who contributed to the programme: London International Animation Festival, O!PLA. Focus on Poland special project, Estonian Academy of Arts, Latvian Animation Association and Dovzhenko Centre.
We are also grateful to all authors who submitted their films and accepted an online screening, the speakers who shared their experience, and the jury members who evaluated all the films.
Although the festival is over, there are still many exciting things ahead. Soon all lectures will be available online. The special project I’M FINE!, supported by the British Council as part of the UK/Ukraine season, continues to raise the topic of emotional burnout – interviews with the filmmakers will be published weekly. An additional screening is planned from 10 to 30 October on the MEGOGO platform.
So do not forget to follow the news of LINOLEUM and stay with us. Everything will be Ukraine!