Peter Lord Named President of the European Animation Pride Awards
Having started with an initiative at the 2015 Annecy festival by Didier Brunner, Olivier Catherin, Jean-Paul Commin and Denis Walgenwitz, the European Animation Pride Awards Association was constituted in Paris.
The association is inspired by the Annie Awards, which acknowledges not only awards in films, but also in all of the components of making a film (character design, direction, editing, voice acting etc).
Its purpose is to organize an annual awards ceremony, voted on by an assembly of European animation professionals, to celebrate the expertise, the quality, and the diversity of the productions of such caliber, whether they're feature films or other forms of media.
The Board of Directors elected at this meeting consists of: Peter Lord (director/producer, Aardman, United Kingdom) as President, Jean-Paul Commin (consultant and former producer/distributor, France) as General Secretary, Marie Bro (producer, Dansk Tegnefilm, Denmark), Didier Brunner (producer, Folivari, Vice President of the film association SPFA, France) and Paul Young (producer, Cartoon Saloon, Ireland) as Co-Chairs, and Ton Crone (director of the VNAP, Association of Dutch Animation Producers, the Netherlands) as Treasurer.
The newly-elected president, Peter Lord, stated: As professionals working in Europe in the great, inclusive and multi-faceted world of animation, we can and should feel pride every day to be involved in such a dynamic industry.
Peter Lord
What a wonderful idea it is, then, to make that pride in our profession as public as possible through this new initiative - the European Animation Pride Awards. In all its forms, in all its marketplaces and across all media, European animation leads both technically and artistically and I welcome this opportunity to celebrate its scope and diversity.
The other members of the Board are Olivier Catherin (director of Noranim, France), Doris Cloven (director of Anima Festival, Belgium), Juan Carlos Concha (director/producer, Apeman Studio, Spain), Fabrice Fouquet (director/storyboarder, President of Agraf, France), Odile Perrin (coordinator, Gobelins School of the Image, France), Stephan Roelants (producer, Melusine productions, Luxembourg), Michael Rose (producer, Magic Light Pictures, United Kingdom), Luc Toutounghi (producer, Se-Ma-For, Poland), Denis Walgenwitz (director and President of the AFCA, France).
The inaugural European Animation Pride Award ceremony is expected for December 2017.
