The U.K.’s largest animation festival, Manchester Animation Festival (MAF), has announced the winners of its Film Awards and Industry Excellence Awards for 2019 following the official ceremony hosted by Barry Purves on Thursday, November 14.
Best Short Film was awarded to the powerful, haunting cut-out and stop-motion Canadian film Girl in the Hallway, directed by Valerie Barnhart, with a Special Mention going to Sweet Night, a Belgian digital 2D short directed by Lia Bertels.
The winner of Best Student Film was the compelling and thought-provoking Border Line, a traditional 2D film directed by Megan Earls, with a Special Mention going to The Stained Club, a French CGI film directed by a team made up of Mélanie Lopez, Simon Boucly, Marie Ciesielski, Alice Jaunet, Chan Stéphie Peang and Béatrice Viguier.
Judged to be the Best Commissioned Film was Do I See What You See? a short film directed by Simon Ball, about the experiences of people living with Posterior Cortical Atrophy (PCA), a rare form of dementia which affects the visual areas of the brain. A Special Mention was given to the Australian short Accents, directed by Robertino Zambrano.
The award for Best Immersive Film went to Gymnasia, the Canadian stop-motion, non-dialog horror directed by Chris Lavis & Maciek Szczerbowski. And the Audience Award went to Travel Oregon: Only Slightly (More) Exaggerated, the second part of the vibrant animated campaign directed by Kylie Matulick & Todd Mueller for Travel Oregon by Wieden & Kennedy Portland, designed to give viewers more of a creative glimpse of the magical feeling of being in Oregon.
With the Industry Excellence Awards, the MAF team celebrate all of the people who work hard on the day job scripting, storyboarding, designing and animating some of our favourite television programmes and commercial work.
The winner of the Award for Storyboarding was Max Loubaresse for 101 Dalmatian Street from Passion Animation Studios, and the Award for Scriptwriting was taken home by Greg Levine for Littlest Pet Shop: Fetch the Story Stick from Boulder Media,
The Award for Character Design was won by Agnes Lecreux for Dimitri and a Fun Surprise, and the Award for Character Animation went to Mark Nute for Bluey.
The fifth edition of Manchester Animation Festival took place November 10-14 and saw a huge 22% increase in delegates attending the event at HOME in Manchester. The festival was preceded by an academic conference hosted by University of Salford, and a family day — adding up to five back to back days of animation. MAF will return in November 2020.
www.manchesteranimationfestival.co.uk
