Weird Market Announces the Awards of Its 14th Edition
Skwigly
The winners of the 14th Weird Market consecrate the visual and social potential of the animation sector. The reference market for animation, video games and new media has revealed the award-winning titles in 2022, the first time that Valencia was the official venue. A list of titles that reflect a picture of the sector and where all kinds of techniques and themes are addressed. The event also premieres a trophy, a design made by the Valencian artist SAM who plays with the iconic cubes, a hallmark of the event since its origins.
The jury of the WFest short film contest, made up of American Jamie Lang, French Charlotte Sanchez, Spanish María Manero Muro and Portuguese João Apolinário, has distinguished the Japanese production Iizuna Fair by the director nominated for the BAFTA Awards as the best international short film, Sumito Sakakibara. In the European section, the award went to the Dutch film Pig by Jorn Leeuwerink, while He Ran Towards His Comrade by Genís Rigol was chosen as the best national short film, a work that premiered internationally at the event after having won the Movistar+ Short Film Project Award last year. In addition, a special mention has been awarded to The Record by the Swiss Jonathan Laskar.
For its part, the audience has also chosen their favorite works; In the national competition, the winner was Good Night Mr Ted by Nicolás Sole (Best National Short Film), a work in which the director delves into a classic black and white police story with a teddy bear as the main character. In the part of the international contest, the best valued was Sprite Fright by the Dutchman Matthew Luhn, a mixture of comedy and horror made in Blender by an author who has participated in world-wide success titles such as the Toy Story saga, Monsters Inc. or Ratatouille, (all of them from Pixar studios).
AWARDS FOR THE BEST PROJECTS
Weird Market is based on a double philosophy based on the present and the future of the animation sector. As a result of this reason for being, the most outstanding projects are distinguished from among the 170 selected for its official catalogue. Feature films, short films, animation series, video games, webseries, transmedia projects, comics and board games that show the paths along which the industry is advancing and that compete to achieve one of these awards, an incentive for their development.
In this area, the Movistar Plus+ Short Film Project Award has gone to Buffet Paraíso, by Héctor Zafra. An animator who makes his directorial debut after having been part of the team of outstanding titles such as Mum’s the Word by Khris Cembe or the winner of the Goya Award, Birdboy: The Forgotten Children by Alberto Vázquez and Pedro Rivero. The award involves the acquisition of the broadcasting rights of the short film by Movistar Plus+ and an amount of 9,000 euros for a period of 2 years (unlimited number of screenings), being the first year exclusively for the aforementioned channel; In addition, the work will be officially premiered in the 2023 or 2024 edition of this market.
Among the novelties of this edition is the Weird Market – Spanish Screenings Anímate Award, which has gone to the Spanish series Brian the Brain by Tomás Peña (BLISS). An adaptation of the comic by Miguel Ángel Martín where a boy with a brain with telepathic and telekinetic powers shows the hard path of growing up at the same time that he becomes a laboratory guinea pig.
This award was announced last September within the framework of the San Sebastian Festival, Spanish Screenings On Tour. The first edition of some awards created in collaboration with leading markets in our country and which, in the specific case of Weird Market, consists of the incorporation of one of its selected projects to the program of the Animation! Ventana Sur and the #SpanishScreeningsOnTour activities in the most important market in Latin America. The criteria that determines this concession is its co-production potential with Latin America.
The new talent has its own leading role, the best young creator series project has been taken by the Spanish Manolitos by Diego Porral and Joaquín Garralda. In this way, they obtain a free accreditation for the next edition of Annecy-MIFA (MIFA professional accreditation).
RTVE AWARDS
The list of winners is completed by the three awards granted by RTVE. The first of them, the RTVE Interactive Award for Best Video Game Project, went to Endling Extinction is Forever, by HEROBEAT STUDIOS and HANDY GAMES (Spain, Germany). For its part, IDEA by Arturo Monedero (Spain) has won the RTVE Interactive Video Game Project Award. Lastly, the RTVE Interactive Video Game Weird Plus Award, for the game that breaks the mold, for the most Weird, went to The Fabulous Fear Machine by FICTIORAMA STUDIOS (Spain). The three distinctions are awarded by RTVE’s Interactive Media Department and the three selected can be presented to RTVE’s Interactive Media Department.
The 14th edition of Weird Market has the main sponsorship of the Valencia City Council, the Valencia Provincial Council and the Generalitat Valenciana; the sponsorship of ICAA, HP, Tenerife Film Commission, Huawei and Wacom; and the support of AVEPA, À Punt, Barreira Arte + Diseño, SimpleCloud, Welaw, Tangram Solutions, CREA SGR and La Liga de la Animación Iberoamericana (The Ibero-American Animation League).