Festivals

Estonian Stop-Motion Animation 'Winter in March' Gets Cannes CINEF Award

ZF Team 23 May 2025

Estonian animation short 'Winter in March' still

An Estonian animation short (from an Estonian-based, Armenian-born animation director) won the CINEF 3rd prize (ex aequo) at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival.

'Winter in March' by Natalia Mirzoyan is an Estonian Academy of Arts film (supervised by Anu-Laura Tuttelberg) and Rebel Frame (Estonia) production in conjunction with the Armenian ArtSteop studio. It is co-produced by Black Boat Pictures (France) and White Boat Pictures (Belgium).

The film speaks of a very contemporary situation: authoritarian states.

Helpless in the face of a repressive state, a young couple leaves their home – an escape that turns into a surreal nightmare.

The 16-minute film was chosen to premiere at La Cinef, the Cannes Film Festival's student section. In 2025, 16 student films participated (chosen out of 2679 film entries coming from 646 film schools worldwide).

This film is a documented state of March 2022. For some reason, it became important to me to record the feelings of my Russian friends — a mixture of horror, guilt, helplessness, and depression. I recorded several interviews on my phone, without any particular purpose at the time.

When I arrived in Estonia, where I had to make a film at EKA, I remembered those recordings. I decided to focus the film on just one story — the couple. Kirill is an animator, and Dasha is the director of a children’s theater. They are kind people who did what they could in St. Petersburg: went to protests, supported Navalny. I always found them a touching couple — tall Kirill and tiny Dasha. In early March, they left St. Petersburg for Tbilisi, and their journey became the heart of the film. - Natalia Mirzoyan

Natalia Mirzoyan is no stranger to the world of indie animation. Her previous 2020, 2D animation short, 'Five Minutes to Sea,' was a a favorite of animation and film festivals.