POLISH ANIMATORS AWARDED AGAIN

Since the last weekend, when Poles received awards of the Swiss animation film festival Fantoche our animators have a run of luck. In the last week “Ziegenort” by Tomek Popakul and “Katachi” by Kijek/Adamski scored the awards of another two festival.

It was on Saturday evening when the Serbian Animanima festival reached its end. Among 56 films screened as a part of the international competition there were three Polish animations – “Toto” by Zbigniew Czapla, “Katachi” by Kijek/Adamski and “Ziegenort” by Tomek Popakul. Films were judged by the international jury that consisted of: Georges Schwizgebel ( Swiss animation director and a laureate if this year’s Special Prize for the Contribution to the Art of Animation assigned by the festival), Andrea Martignoni ( Italian animation historian) and Mark James Roels (co-director of the praised animation „Oh Willy!”). Grand Prix of the festival – the Golden Peg Bar - went to a French animation ”Banquet of the Concubine” by Hefang Wei. Jury decided to award also special mentions – among them the Special Mention for the Best Animation that went to a Polish “Ziegenort” by Popakul. The Serbian special mention is the first one received by the film that was awarded abroad seven times so far. It worth to mention that two episodes from Polish series for children – “Casperade” by Wojtek Wawszczyk and “Flapper and Friends” by Krzysztof Brzozowski and Jacek Łechtański were screened as a part of Films for Children competition.

The second festival where Poles were awarded was a Ukrainian KROK. The festival held entirely at the boat, that in ten days goes on a cruise from Odessa to Kyiv, this year celebrated its 20th birthday this year. Six Polish animated films were featured as a part of the international competition - „Darling” by Izabela Plucińska, „Kinefaktura” by Marcin Giżycki, „Ziegenort” by Tomek Popakul, „Toto” by Zbyszek Czapla and „Katachi” by  Kijek/ Adamski. The international jury awarded five statutory prizes – among them the one in the “Applied and commissioned film” cathegory that went to “Katachi” by Kijek/Adamski. This is the third festival – after Los Angeles IFF and Chroatian Supertoon where the videoclip to Shugo Tokumaru's song is awarded.

More on the award winners of each of the festivals can be found at the official websites of Animanima and  KROK