The Ottawa International Animation Festival ended a successful run Sunday night despite local animators losing in their category.
The festival went well this year, says Kelly Neall, managing director of the festival, after the closing ceremonies.
“It was incredibly smooth with a great team,” she says.
Otto Adler, honorary president of the festival, says the animators and fans made the festival a success.
“Without artists, no films. Without films, no festival,” he said in his speech during the ceremony.
“It was amazing to see so many enthusiastic animation maniacs cheering for their films.”
He later says in an interview, “Animation is living. It’s a really fantastic festival.”
Adler has worked as a curator for animation festivals all over the world and has served on juries and committees.
However, the night wasn’t as good as it could have been for local animators Nick Cross and Dave Cooper. They lost in their music video sub-category and their commissioned films category. Cooper and Cross made a video for the song “King of Magazines” by rock band Danko Jones.
“I’m really pissed off,” says Cooper with a straight face. Then, he suddenly smiles. “No, just kidding.”
Both animators say they are happy with the winners.
“They were all deserving,” says Cooper.
Cross adds that he didn’t participate in the festival to win.
“We weren’t doing it with any intention of winning awards,” he says. “We were doing it for the sake of doing it.”
Stieg Retlin’s music video of “Dirty ROM Dance Mix” by musician Nullsleep won best music video. Bastien Dubois’ “Madagascar, A Journey Diary” won best commissioned animation.
Other winners include Rao Heidmets “Inherent Obligations” for best independent film, Adam Elliot’s Mary and Max for best feature film and Michal Socha’s "Chick" for best student film.
“This year was a lot of fun and we’re looking forward to next year,” says Neall, managing director. “Every year is a new challenge.”
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