ANIMAFILM awards festival winners

By Azernews

By Laman Ismayilova

The 4th ANIMAFILM International Animation Festival was solemnly held in Baku on September 3-7.

This year the festival's theme was dedicated to people with disabilities. The proceeds from the sale of tickets to the festival will go to help childrenwith disabilities.

Over 134 animated films from 40 countries were screened within the competition program. 

The festival featured masterclasses and workshops led by famous animators Masud Panachi, Nancy Danny-Phelps and Nick Phelps (Belgium), Olivier Catherine (France).

The jury included Masud Panachi, Irada Baghirzade (Azerbaijan), Olivier Catherine (France), Nancy Danny-Phelps (jury chairman) and Nick Phelps (Belgium), Mariam Kandelaki (Georgia), Piotr Kardas (Poland), Mehdi Khorushy and Maryam Rouhbakhsh (Iran).

Traditionally, the children jury selected two winners in the categories of "Best Short Animated Film for Children" and "Best Short Animated Film Made by Children" after participating in an educational and entertaining program during the festival.

The winners were announced at the closing ceremony of the ANIMAFILM festival on September 7.

Cinematographer Ramiz Aghayev was awarded the Golden Boat Award (Q?z?l Qay?q) for his contribution to the Azerbaijani animation.

"The Knight and the Princess" (Saudi Arabia, Egypt)  produced by Bashir Eldik and Ibrahim Musa won the prize in the nomination " Best Feature Animated Film". 

The film "Kitchen by Measure '' (Iceland)  filmed by Solrun Ylfa Ingimarsdottir and Atli Arnarsson won the prize in the nomination "Best Short Animated Film".

Lana Ra won the prize for her work "Weird Witches and Fall" (Ukraine)  in the nomination "Best Screenplay for a Short Animated Film."

The film "Emsahar" (Qatar) directed by Hassan Al-Jahni won the prize for "Best Short Animated Film Made for Children".

The film "Monster" (Iran) produced by Koosha Yusefi won the prize in the nomination "Best Short Animated Film Made by Children".

"Rites of Spring" (Cyprus) filmed by Yiorgos Tsangaris won the prize in "Best Short Experimental or Abstract Animated Film". 

"Three Jumps to Happiness" (Poland) directed by Arthur Hanaj won in "Best Short Student Animated Film". 

"Mitch-Match" produced by Géza M. Tóth (Hungary) won the prize in "Best Animated TV series". 

The film "Agapito" filmed by Rafael Vidal Altabert and Julián Gómez Caballero (Spain) won the prize in "Best Animated Music Video". 

The winners of the local competition were also awarded at the festival's closing ceremony. 

The film "Skullcap" directed by Firangiz Gurbanova (Azerbaijan) won the prize in the nomination "Best Azerbaijani Short Animated Film". 

"Little red balloon" by Gunel Eminli (Azerbaijan) won the prize in the nomination "Best Azerbaijani Screenplay for a Short Animated Film". 

Special selection awards of the international jury went to Arafat Mazhar for his animation "Swipe" (Pakistan), Reza Riahi's "Navozande" (France), Ruslan Karimov's "Moan" (Azerbaijan), Raffaele Gabrielli's "The Red Pen" (England),  Andrea Szelesova's "Sisters" (Czech Republic),  Kaiyun Yang's "Nothing is Here" (Taiwan), Juan Medina's "Tio" (Mexico).

The 4th ANIMAFILM organizers expressed their gratitude to all the partners who supported the festival especially the Culture Ministry, the Azerbaijan Union of Film-makers, Creative Azerbaijan Portal, the French embassy in Azerbaijan, the French Institute in Azerbaijan, the Annecy International Animated Film Festival, the Hadigro company, the Mr Chemical company, the US-Educated Azerbaijani Alumni Association (AAA), the Czech Republic embassy in Azerbaijan, the YARAT Contemporary Art Space, the Polish embassy in Azerbaijan, the Ritual Mobile Theater Laboratory platform, the Seni company, the Promo Plus company and the Kekalove Adaptive Fashion company.