Cat Days, On Happiness Road Win 25th ITFS Awards

Cat Days, On Happiness Road Win 25th ITFS Awards

The Anniversary Edition of the 25th tuttgart International Festival of Animated Film came to an end. This year`s Grand Prix went to the German-Japanese production Cat Days by Jon Frickey, who is now qualified for the Academy Awards.

Jiro, a little boy, feels sick. His father takes him to the doctor's. She diagnoses a harmless condition. But it shakes the core of the boy's identity.

 The film we´re taling has it all: It offers many levels of interpretation, it transcends age, has smart humor, offers an honest and sometimes funny child´s perspective on life...and it has cats! We all felt that it´s hard to make something this level of complexity feel that effortless. The winner of this year´s International Competition is CAT DAYS by Jon Frickey. - Jury Statement

Special mention was received by Gilles Cuvelier from the French Papy3D productions for (Fool Time) JOB . Jonatan Schwenk won the Best Student Film Award with his So, while Anna Mantzaris (Royal College of Art)  won the Lotte Reiniger Award with her Enough .The film centers around impulses we all can feel but never act upon. It explores what would happen if our buried instincts come back to claim their place. Showing glimpses of emotional anarchy and moments of lost self-controll.

For the first time this year, the Tricks for Kids short film competition had its own, very special award ceremony. Children`s jury awarded Tatiana Moshkova from from for her short movie Kokosha ("Coco`s Day").

The Polish Oh, Mother! (Paulina Ziolkowska) won the FANtastic Prize Award, while a separate audience award was reserved for the Oscar-nominated Negative Space (Ru Kuwahata, Max Porter).

In the feature film field, the Taiwenese On Happiness Road (Xing Fu Lu Shang) by Hsin-Yin Sung won the Animovie Award.

We liked the visual style and creative approach which got us immediately into the enchanting coming-of-age story of a young girl growing up in Taiwanese contemporary history. On Happiness Road is a universal tale about family roots, compelling and beautifully told through its captivating animation - Jury Statement

In the production side, Studio Pupil and Tünde Vollenbroek  won the Trhickstar Business Award for her project, House of Broken Hearts, a acollection of tragicomic stories detailing the breakups of 8 young adults and their lovers – the latter of which are symbolized by living objects.

A magnificent Jubilee-Festival has ended – where we looked back with friends, celebrated exceptional special (film) events that prove that animation has arrived at the centre of creative industries - Ulrich Wegenast, managing director programme.

Prize winners of the 25th Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film 2018

International competition

Grand Prix (15,000 euros funded by the state of Baden-Württemberg and the city of Stuttgart )

Award
CatDays
Director: Jon Frickey
Producers: Jon Frickey, Takashi Horiguchi
Germany, Japan 2017, 11:09 min.

Jury statement: “The five of us agreed fairly quickly on this year´s winner. The film we´re taling has it all: It offers many levels of interpretation, it transcends age, has smart humor, offers an honest and sometimes funny child´s perspective on life...and it has cats! We all felt that it´s hard to make something this level of complexity feel that effortless. The winner of this year´s International Competition is CAT DAYS by Jon Frickey.”

Special Mention
(Fool Time) JOB
Director: Gilles Cuvelier
Produzent/Producer: Richard Van Den Boom
Produktion/Production: Papy3D Productions
France 2017, 16:31 min.

Lotte Reiniger Award for animation film
10,000 Euro funded by the MFG Film Promotion Baden-Württemberg

Enough
Director: Anna Mantzaris
School: Royal College of Art
Great Britain 2017, 2:19 min.

SWR Audience Award
Negative Space
Director: Ru Kuwahata, Max Porter
Producers: Edwina Liard, Jean-Louis Padis, Nidia Santiago
Production: Ikki Films
France 2017, 5:30

Young Animation - Award for the best student film
2,500 euros funded by the Landesanstalt für Kommunikation Baden-Württemberg (LfK) and MFG
Film Funding Baden-Württemberg
Award
Sog
Director: Jonatan Schwenk
Producer: Jonatan Schwenk
School: Kunsthochschule Kassel
Germany 2017, 10:14 min.

Statement of the jury: “We were impressed with the general quality of all films in the programme. Congratulations to all participants. We chose to award a powerful story, that delivers an important social message: a reflection of nowadays society. Impeccable execution, a courageous and harmonic use of several animation techniques makes this film a compelling and outstanding work.
Congratulations - SOG.“

Special Mention
Augenblicke
Director: Kiana Naghshineh
Producers: Mareike Keller, Malte Stehr (im Katalog steht das gleiche wie Regie…)
School: Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg - Animationsinstitut
Germany 2017, 3:45 min.

The FANtastic (Prize1,000 euros, funded by the Animation Family, the most loyal fans of ITFS)
Award
O Matko! / Oh Mother!
Director: Paulina Ziolkowska
Producers: Piotr Furmankiewicz, Mateusz Michalak
Production: FUMI STUDIO (steht nicht im Katalog)
School: The Polish National Film, Television and Theatre School - Lodz Film School (Schule wird sonst auch nicht erwähnt…)
Poland 2017, 12:49 min.

Special Mention:
Cubed
Director: Xue En Ge
School: Nanyang Technological University
Singapore 2017, 3:52 min.

TRICKS FOR KIDS SHORTS
Award
Kokosha / Coco's Day
Director: Tatiana Moshkova
Producers: Mikhail Aldashin, Boris Mashkovtsev
Russia 2017, 4:20 min.

Statement of the Children`s Jury:
„….because the film reflects every day life of children“. (Luise)

„….because the film is very imaginative and invites you to dream”. (Anni)

….“because it is realistic, not every kid likes Brussels sprouts“. (Fanny)

Special Mention
Le Vent dans les roseaux
The Wind in the Reeds
Director: Arnaud Demuynck, Nicolas Liguori
Producer: Arnaud Demuynck
Production: Les Films du Nord
France, Switzerland 2016, 26:37 min.

Tricks For Kids – Series
National, MIP Junior 2018
„Animanimals – Sloth“
Germany, 2018, 4:00 Min.
Director: Julia Ocker
Production: Studio FILM BILDER

International, MIP Junior 2018
„Hey Duggee – The Tadpole Badge“
Great Britain, 2016, 7:00 Min.
Director: Grant Orchard
Production: Studio Aka

AMAZON AUDIENCE AWARD
Hybrids
Director: Florian Brauch, Matthieu Pujol, Kim Tailhades, Yohan Thireau, Romain Thirion
School: MoPA
France 2017, 6:22 min.

ANIMOVIE
Award
Xing Fu Lu Shang
On Happiness Road
Director: Hsin-Yin Sung
Producer: Sylvia Feng
Production: On Happiness Road Productions Ltd.
Taiwan 2017, 110 min.

Statement of the Jury: „We liked the visual style and creative approach which got us immediately into the enchanting coming-of-age story of a young girl growing up in Taiwanese contemporary history. On Happiness Road is a universal tale about family roots, compelling and beautifully told through its captivating animation.“

Trickstar Business Award
7,500 € endowed, sponsored by the Stuttgart region

Project “House of Broken Hearts” von Tünde Vollenbroek
Production: Studio Pupil
The Netherlands
Statement of the jury: “ The jury was impressed by the project concept with its various possibilities for exploitation. Exploitation of the project is promising and feasible as a web series or short film on TV, on social media channels, as a mini-game or comic book, etc.”

German Screenplay Award
2,500 euros funded by Telepool GmbH
„Peterchens Mondfahrt“
Authors: Ali Samadi Ahadi und Arne Nolting

German Voice Actor Award
Trickstar
Axel Prahl for the role of „Old Bill“ in the film “Capt`n Sharky”

Special Mention
Jochen Kuhn and Eric Hanson for „Painting in motion“

The jubilee edition of ITFS included, Besides numerous movies the programme consisted of Games, Music, VR/AR and theatre, children`s programme, among them numerous (short)movies, the GameZone Kids and the Children`s Animation Academy rounded off the programme. The next International Festival of Animated Film in Stuttgart will take place from April 30 to May 5, 2019.

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