The results are in for the 2019 VIEW Awards, presented as part of the annual VIEW Conference for animation, visual effects, games, computer graphics, XR, interactive and immersive storytelling. Held in beautiful Turin, Italy, VIEW took place Oct. 21-25 this year, offering a week of talks, presentations and workshops with diverse topic experts and artists from around the world.
The 2019 VIEW Award for Best Short Film (2,000 euro prize) went to Facing It, an 8’30” claymation/live-action short written and directed by Sam Gainsborough and co-written by Louisa Wood. The film was produced at the National Film and Television School’s Beaconsfield Studios in Beaconsfield, U.K. It is an exploration of how relationships with people mold us – literally – expressed as waves of emotion form and reform across the main character Shaun’s often surreal plasticine face. The jury praised the unique animation technique used so successfully to convey emotions, and unanimously awarded it the VIEW Award first prize.
Whilst waiting for his parents in a busy pub, Shaun struggles valiantly to join in with the admirably happy people in the crowd, but the more he tries, the more he goes awry. As everything in the pub goes from bad to worse, Shaun finds himself confronted by the painful memories that made him who he is. His feelings, memories and desires overwhelm him and by the end of the evening he is ready to explode.
Jury Award for Story:
Trois Francs, Six Sous, a 6’30”, 3D animated short, was co-directed by Clémence Ottevaere, Florence Blain, Louise Leblond, Varoon Indalkar, Morgane Ladjel, and Hugo Valdelièvre-Rattier as their graduation film at Supinfocom Rubika in Valenciennes, France. The jurors called this animated story of a French farmer during World War II an excellent story well told, and praised the direction. Trailer]
Jury Award for Art Direction:
Blieschow, a 10-minute animated short written and directed by Christoph
Sarow at Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, Germany, who painted and animated the film largely in Photoshop. In the story, city boy Tom visits his grandfather’s farm where he competes with a seemingly better cousin. The jury found Sarow’s film beautiful with a sophisticated palette, and an overall design that served the story well.
Italianmix award for best national short:
Red Hands (Mani Rosse), a nearly 30-minute stop-motion short film by Italian director Francesco Filippi of Studio Mistral. In this film produced by Sattva Films, domestic violence is both physical and psychological. The two young protagonists move toward adulthood using the tools of imagination, dreams and spiritual affinity. To honor this timely story, the jury awarded Filippi with a Wacom Cintiq. [Trailer]
The international and Italianmix awards jury was comprised of President of the Jury Maria Elena Gutierrez (VIEW Conference Director), Jurys Chair Barbara Robertson (journalist), Carolyn Giardina (Tech Editor, The Hollywood Reporter), Danny Dimian (Oscar-winning VFX supervisor, Spider-Man: Enter the Spider-Verse), Glenn Entis (Co-Founder, PDI), Eric Darnell (Chief Creative Director and Co-founder, Baobab Studios; director, Madagascar movies), Max Giovagnoli (Director Visual Arts, Ied Rome) and Constantin Ionescu (Cinema Engineering student, Polytechnic University of Turin, Italy).
Learn more at www.viewconference.it.
