Annecy Announces Special Prize, MIFA Pitch Prize Winners

Jamie Lang
·4 min read

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On Friday evening, the Annecy International Animation Film Festival announced 13 special award winners in advance of Saturday night’s Official Awards ceremony. Both events will be streamed for free on the festival’s YouTube page at 5 p.m. CEST (8 a.m. PST).

Annecy artistic director Marcel Jean was joined, via prerecorded video clips, by a clutch of the evening’s big winners, and screened brief clips from several after they were announced.

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Junior Jury Awards, voted for by a special jury of for short and graduation films went to Taylor Meachum’s “To: Gerard,” from DreamWorks Animation and Tsz Wing Ho’s “Catgot,” backed by the School of Creative Media at City University of Hong Kong, respectively.

Among the most coveted of Annecy’s special prizes, the Fipresci Award for a short film went to Theodore Ushev’s “The Physics of Sorrow.” Already a hit at both Toronto and Clermont Ferrand, the Oscar-nominated director’s latest, a first-person account from an nameless narrator recounting life highlights from childhood through to a melancholic twilight in Canada, was always a favorite and made Variety’s list of 10 shorts not to miss.

Michelle Chua’s “The Fox & The Pigeon,” backed by the Sheridan College Faculty of Animation, was named as the first winner of the brand new YouTube Award, a €10,000 ($11,227) purse given to the makers of a film from the Graduate Films competition.

Another Variety title not to miss, DreamWorks’ “To: Gerard,” from debut director Taylor Meachum, won the Junior Jury Award for a short film, while Tsz Wing Ho’s “Catgot,” backed by the School of Creative Media at City University of Hong Kong, won the jury of 11-14 year-olds’ recognition, taking the prize for a graduation film.

In what is likely to be one of the film’s final major festival honors, Jérémy Clapin’s “I Lost My Body,” more than a year after its Cannes Critics’ Week triumph, won the André Martin Award for a feature film. The prize is named after, and awarded in honor of, the famed French film critic and animation filmmaker.

On Thursday, MIFA, the world’s most important animation market, announced winners of the MIFA Pitches sidebar for short, feature, TV and specials, and digital experiences projects.

Ciclic Prizes for the top feature, short film and TV project pitches went to Juan Pablo Zaramella’s “Coda,” Flóra Buda’s “27 – My Last Day at Home” and Oussama Bouacheria’s “Mehdi: Delivery Notice.” The Disney Plus prize for a new series went to Guillaume Dousse’s “Where It Falls.”

2020 ANNECY SPECIAL PRIZES:

PRIX FIPRESCI FOR A SHORT FILM

“The Physics of Sorrow,” (Theodore Ushev, Canada)

JUNIOR JURY AWARD FOR A SHORT FILM

“To: Gerard,” (Trevor Meacham, U.S.A.)

JUNIOR JURY AWARD FOR A GRADUATION FILM

“Catgot,” (Tsz Wing Ho, Hong Kong)

ANDRÉ-MARTIN AWARD FOR A FRENCH FEATURE FILM

“I Lost My Body,” (Jérémy Clapin, France)

ANDRÉ-MARTIN AWARD FOR A FRENCH SHORT FILM

“The Shoreline,” (Sophie Racine, France)

YOUTUBE AWARD

“The Fox & The Pigeon,” (Michelle Chua, Canada)

VIMEO STAFF PICK AWARD

“A Mind Sang,” (Vier Nev, Portugal)

CANAL+ YOUTH AWARD

“Cinema Rex,” (Eliran Peled, Mayan Engelman, Israel)

YOUNG AUDIENCE AWARD

“The Tomten and the Fox,” (Are Austnes, Yaprak Morali, Norway, Sweden, Denmark)

FESTIVALS CONNEXION – AUVERGNE-RHÔNE-ALPES / IN PARTNERSHIP WITH LUMIÈRES NUMÉRIQUES & MÈCHE COURTE AWARD

“Empty Places,” (Geoffroy de Crécy, France)

CITY OF ANNECY AWARD

“Wade,” (Upamanyu Bhattacharyya, Kalp Sanghvi, India)

BEST ORIGINAL MUSIC AWARD FOR A FEATURE FILM, SPONSORED BY THE SACEM

“On Gaku: Our Sound,” (Tomohiko Banse, Grandfunk, Wataru Sawabe)

BEST ORIGINAL MUSIC AWARD FOR A SHORT FILM, SPONSORED BY THE SACEM

“Home,” (Anna Bauer, U.K.)

2020 MIFA PITCHES PRIZEWINNERS

FEATURES FILMS

CICLIC PRIZE

“Coda,” (Juan Pablo Zaramella, Argentina, Chile)

CRISTAL PUBLISHING PRIZE

“Eugène,” (Anaïs Caura, France)

TITRAFILM PRIZE

“Journey to Teulada,” (Nicola Contini, France, Italy)

SHORT FILMS

CICLIC PRIZE

“27 – My Last Day at Home,” (Flóra Buda, Hungary, France)

SACD PRIZE

“300 000 kms Per Second,” (Clément Courcier, France)

STUDIOS ALHAMBRA PRIZE

“Bigger than Us,” (Aurélie Garnier, France)

ARTE FRANCE PRIZE & CILCIC PRIZE – SHORTWAY

“The World’s After,” (Florentina Gonzalez, Argentina)

NEF ANIMATION PRIZE

“Girl. Dog. Cancer. Space,” (Kiana Naghshineh, Germany)

OPEN WORKSHOP PRIZE

“Hello Summer,” (Martin Smatana, Czech Republic)

AUVERGNE-RHÔNE-ALPES CINÉMA/BOURSE DES FESTIVALS PRIZE

“Grey Sun,” (Camille Monnier, France)

TV SERIES AND SPECIALS

CICLIC PRIZE

“Mehdi: Delivery Notice,” (Oussama Bouacheria, France)

DISNEY PLUS PRIZE FOR A NEW SERIES

“Where it Falls,” (Guillaume Dousse, Denmark)

DIGITAL EXPERIENCES

SACD “INTERACTIVE” PRIZE

“Nana Lou,” (Isabelle Andreani, France)

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