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CEE ANIMATION FORUM 2020 Awards

The CEE Animation Forum reveals its award winners

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- The Georgian project Igi has won in the feature-film category; other victors hail from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania, Romania, Estonia and Portugal

The CEE Animation Forum reveals its award winners
Igi by Natia Nikolashvili

Georgian director Natia Nikolashvili's project Igi has won big at the CEE Animation Forum, which took place online from 6-8 October, picking up the €1,000 Award in the Feature Film category and directly earning a selection for Cartoon Movie 2021. Produced by Vladimer Katcharava, of Tbilisi-based 20 Steps Production, the first feature-length film by the director, whose short animation li.le screened in the Berlinale’s Generation in 2017, is a story of the titular hunter, Igi, in a prehistoric tribe whose members are still bent over. He is the first one to straighten up and see the world from a different angle, which gives him new possibilities and new ways of thinking, making him the real leader of the tribe, to the chagrin of the ruling Chief Kass.

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In the Series/TV Specials category, the €1,000 Award went to No Happily Ever After by the Czech Republic's Gabriela Plačková and Alžběta Göbelová. It also received the Kids Kino Industry Accreditation. Produced by Mária Móťovská for Helium Film, the project is a stop-motion mockumentary insight into the lives, trials and tribulations of today's mythical creatures from the old fairy tales. Each episode follows a creature from a different European country as the crew of fictional documentarians led by director Hans Andersen Jr scouts their natural habitat to find new, interesting subjects they can interview.

The €1,000 Award in the Short Film category went to The Garden of Heart, the fourth short animation by Hungarian director Olivér Hegyi. The eight-minute film, produced by Bálint Gelley for CUB Animation, is the story of a nervous painter-to-be who has to overcome his own demons during a university entrance exam, which appear as pests in his imagined inner garden.

In the XR category, Paperback VR by Lithuanian director Robertas Nevecka and producer Giedre Burokaite (Animus Animalis [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Aistė Žegulytė
film profile
]
), of Vilnius-based Meno avilys, received the €1,000 Award. This series of virtual-reality experiences is based on the most famous works of Lithuanian classical literature, adding interactivity and intertextuality, and actualising some of the topics. The viewer becomes one of the characters in the works, immersively participating in the plot and feeling the various emotional states of the character.

Finally, the Audience Award, also worth €1,000, went to the animated series Baldies by Czech writer-director Eliška Podzimková and producer Jiří Sádek (The Noonday Witch [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jiří Sádek
film profile
]
), of COFILM. The 13x7-minute series and the 25-minute TV special deal with cancer in a manner appropriate for their target audience – children aged eight to ten.

Here is the full list of CEE Animation Forum 2020 award winners:

Feature Film category

Award
Igi - Natia Nikolashvili (Georgia)

Series/TV Special category

Award
No Happily Ever After - Gabriela Plačková, Alžběta Göbelová (Czech Republic)
Special Mention
Betti and Lola - Hana Tintor (Croatia)

Short Film category

Award
The Garden of Heart - Olivér Hegyi (Hungary)
Special Mention
The Pet Named Stress - Laura Martinović (Croatia)

XR category

Award
Paperback VR - Robertas Nevecka (Lithuania)

Audience Award
Baldies - Eliška Podzimková (Czech Republic)

CEE Animation Workshop Scholarship
King Wray - Anton Groves, Damian Groves (Romania/UK)

Animation Sans Frontieres Scholarship
Face Recognition - Martinus Klemet (Estonia)

Cartoon Forum 2020 Direct Selection
Baldies - Eliška Podzimková (Czech Republic)
Daisy and Dot - István Heim (Hungary)

Cartoon Movie 2021 Direct Selection
Igi - Natia Nikolashvili

Animarkt Stop Motion Forum Accreditation
In Her Face - Margarida Madeira (Portugal)

Kids Kino Industry Accreditation
No Happily Ever After - Gabriela Plačková, Alžběta Göbelová

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