Annecy 2018: 'The Breadwinner', 'Funan' Take Top Honours

The Annecy International Animation Festival has come to a close for another year, and animation creators, industry folks and fans have started heading home. Before the festivities could come to a close though, there was one more order of business to be taken care of. The small matter of the festival's closing awards.

The big winner this year was Cartoon Saloon's The Breadwinner. Nora Twomey's film took home a very impressive three awards- The Jury Award, The Best Original Music award and the coveted Audience Award.  The top Cristal For A Feature award went to Funan, Denis Do's story of a young mother's struggles under the Khmer Rouge regime. The Juried Distinction award in features went to the Chilean feature, The Wolf House.

In the short category, Belgium/Netherlands co-production Bloeistraat 11 won The Cristal for Short Film, plus the Festivals Connexion Award. Weekends, from American filmmaker Trevor Jiminez, took home the Jury Award and the Audience Award. The Jean-Luc Xiberras Award for a First Film went to French/Denmark co-production Egg, and Croation/French co-production Cyclists (Biciklisti) was awarded the Juried Distinction. The Off-Limits Award resulted in a tie, awarded jointly to Brazilian film Boy Transcoded from Phosphene and Shirley Bruno's Haitian/French/Greek co-prouction An Excavation Of Us.

In the TV category, the Cristal went to Tonko House's US/Japan co-production Pig: The Dam Keeper Poems. The Juried Award for a TV special was awarded to Robot Chicken's Walking Dead special and the Juried Award for a TV series went to We Bear Bears for the episode Panda's Art. 

The Cristal for Commissioned Film went to Brazilian production  Leica "Everything in Black and White". The Jury Award went to the music video Mark Lotterman "Happy".

In Graduation Films, The Cristal went to Barbeque from filmmaker Jenny Jokela, and the Juried and Junior Juried Awards went to Inanimate from Lucia Bulgheroni, both from the United Kingdom. French short Hybrids won the Jury Distinction prize.

The final category is the Special Prizes. The City Of Annecy Award was given to Colombian short Butterflies. La Chute was awarded the André-Martin Special Distinction for a French Short Film and the FIPRESCI Award. The André-Martin Award For A French Short Film went to This Magnificent Cake!, and The André-Martin Award For A French Feature Film went to Benjamin Renner and Patrick Imbert's The Big Bad Fox And Other Tales.

Canal+ Creative Aid Award For A Short Film went to Happiness by British filmmaker Steve Cutts. In production feature The Swallows Of Kabul won The Gan Foundation Award For Distribution. French short  Cadavre Exquis won for Best Music In A Short Film.

Last but by no means least were two awards voted on by the festival's younger attendees. The Young Audience award went to Russian short Vivat Musketeers. French short Death, Dad and Son took home the Junior Jury Award For A Short Film.

Congratulations to all the winners! Annecy International Animation Festival will return 10-15 June 2019, for a celebration of Japanese animation.

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