OIAF 2016: Award Winners
Wrapping up its landmark 40th edition, leading North American animation film festival the Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF) last night announced its 2016 award winners at a ceremony that took place at Saint Brigid’s Centre for the Arts.
With 80 shorts and 7 features chosen from over 2300 international entries, the winners were determined by three juries. Window Horses director Ann Marie Fleming (Canada), Disney Television Animation’s Brooke Keesling (USA) and 2015 OIAF Grand Prize winner Sarina Nihei (Japan) made up the jury for the shorts competition; Features were judged by director/optical effects specialist Elise Simard (Canada), animation historian Giannalberto Bendazzi (Italy) and director Peter Millard (UK); while the Shorts and Series for Young Audiences Competition was judged exclusively by children between the ages of 8 and 12 from the Ottawa area. Read the full list of award winners below:
OIAF 2016 Awards
Nelvana Grand Prize for Independent Short Animation
I Like Girls/J’aime les filles (Dir. Diane Obomsawin, Canada)
From the jury:
Fresh, funny, sweet. We were delighted by the charming coming of age tales, told from different perspectives. The vignettes were strong. The design and colours were excellent. Simple, lovely animation.
Grand Prize for Best Animated Feature
Louise in the Winter/Louise en hiver – (Dir. Jean-François Laguionie, France/Canada)
Category Awards
Cartoon Network Award for Best Narrative Short Animation
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Canadian Film Institute Award for Best Canadian Animation
Blind Vaysha – (Dir. Theodore Ushev, Canada) Interview
Best Experimental/Abstract Animation
Datum Point/Suijun-Genten (Dir. Ryo Orikasa, Japan)
Loved the texture. The granularity of the sound and medium had a visceral quality. Poetic beauty and integration of text, texture and sound. It was mysterious. I don’t know what it was… but I was moved.
Best Undergraduate Animation
Foreign Body/Ciało Obce (Dir. Marta Magnuska, Poland)
A unique story. A mesmerizing metaphor for self-acceptance. Raw sound design was delightfully disturbing.
Walt Disney Animation Award for Best Graduation Animation
Frankfurter Str. 99 (Dir. Evgenia Gostrer, Germany)
Award for Best Commissioned Animation
Honda: Paper (Dir. PES, USA)
A tour de force. The handmade qualities stood out. Appreciated the complex planning and execution of this brilliant piece.
Best Short for Young Audiences
https://vimeo.com/78626670
Three Little Ninjas Delivery Service (Dir. Karim Rhellam/Kim Claeys, Belgium)
Best Animated Series for Young Audiences
Shaun the Sheep: The Farmer’s Llamas (Dir. Jay Grace, UK) Interview
Craft Awards
Best Script
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DHX Public Prize
https://vimeo.com/159069175
Fired on Mars (Dir. Nick Vokey/Nate Sherman, USA)
Clever and funny… and kind of sad.
Best Design
The Absence of Eddy Table (Dir. Rune Spaans, Norway)
Grotesque and beautiful. Amazing to see painting style translated into CG. Appreciated the sophisticated colour palettes and the unique character design.
Best Animation Technique
Velodrool (Dir. Sander Joon, Estonia)
Inventive use of perspective. Great sight gags – unique and not your typical go-to. Does what animation does best – transforms. Loved the sparse colours and design.
Best Sound
Squame (Dir. Nicolas Brault, Canada)
Powerful, dramatic, enveloping, moving. Surprising developments for this piece: We found ourselves enveloped in the perfect marriage of sound and picture. Dramatic as the sounds and story moved. Pleasantly surprised that it was the body was made of sugar.
VIA Rail Award for Best Canadian Student Animation
NIHIL (Dir. Khoebe Magsaysay, Sheridan College)
A selection of the Festival’s award-winning films will be screened on Sunday, September 25 at 7:00 p.m. and 9:15 p.m. in the BEST OF OIAF 16 screening at the ByTowne Cinema (325 Rideau Street). Tickets are available online at animationfestival.ca and will be sold at the Box Office.