Manchester Animation Festival Names 2019 Award Winners

Last week saw the fifth iteration of Manchester Animation Festival, the UK's largest animation event. This year's festival took place from November 10-14 at HOME, Manchester and saw a 22% increase in attendance over the previous year. It was preceded by an Academic Conference and a Family day, making for five full days of animation happenings.

MAF have now announced the winners of this year's Film and Industry Excellence Awards, following the official ceremony hosted by Barry Purves on November 14. Once again, the awards themselves were designed by the legendary puppet and model makers Mackinnon & Saunders.

The Best Short Film award was given to stop-motion Girl In The Hallway from Canadian filmmaker Valerie Barnhart.  Sweet Night, a digital 2D short from Belgium's Lia Bartels was awarded the Special Mention.

Best Student Film went to Border Line, a traditionally animated 2D film from director Megan Earls. Special Mention went to The Stained Club, a CGI short from French team Mélanie Lopez, Simon Boucly, Marie Ciesielski, Alice Jaunet, Chan Stéphie Peang and Béatrice Viguier.

Best Commissioned Film went to Do You See What I See?, director Simon Ball's portrayal of the experiences of people living with Posterior Cortical Atrophy (PCA), a rare form of dementia which affects the visual areas of the brain. Special Mention went to Australian short Accents directed by  Robertino Zambrano.

The winner in the Best Immersive Film category was Gymnasia, Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski's dialogue-free stop-motion horror. Travel Oregon: Only Slightly (More) Exaggerated from Kylie Matulick and Todd Mueller won the Audience Award.

In the Industry Excellence categories, the first winner was Max Loubaresse, taking home the Award For Storyboarding for Passion Animation Studio's 101 Dalmation Street. The Award For Scriptwriting went to Greg Levine for Boulder Media's Littlest Pet Shop: Fetch the Story Stick.

Lastly, the Award for Character Design was won by Agnes Lecreux for Dimitri and a Fun Surprise, with Mark Nute taking home Best Character Animation for Bluey.

The Manchester Animation Festival will return in November 2020.


[source: MAF]