Manchester Animation Festival 2022

FLEE, BUSLINE35A, SAVE RALPH AND MORE SCOOP TOP PRIZES AT MANCHESTER ANIMATION FESTIVAL

14 December 2021

During a virtual ceremony on Thursday 25th November, the winners of the 2021 Industry Excellence Awards and Film Awards at Manchester Animation Festival (MAF) have been unveiled.

As the climax to the UK’s largest animation festival – in it’s very first hybrid edition this year, and having enjoyed a hugely successful year welcoming an international array of guests and delegates – MAF presented the coveted Manchester Animation Festival trophies and Industry Excellence Awards.

MAF trophies were presented to Flee, the winner of the very first Best Feature Film Award at MAF,  Navozande, The Musician, which scooped the Best Short Film gong; BusLine35A, which took home Best Student Film, Save Ralph secured the Best Commissioned Film prize and Blue Curry took home the inaugural prize for Best Children’s Film. Selected by the MAF audience Night of The Living Dread won the Audience Award, with special mentions granted to films Affairs of The Art & All Those Sensations in My Belly in the short film category, My Grandmother is an Egg in the student film category, and What Really Happened During the Attica Prison Rebellion in commissioned films.

Upon receiving the award for BEST SHORT FILM, Navozande, The Musician director Reza Riahi said: “I’m so honoured, I can’t wait to celebrate with you at the festival in future editions”

Accepting the award for BEST STUDENT FILM, BusLine35A director Elena Felici said: “It’s so unique and unexpected to have that email arrive in your inbox that you’ve won something at an Animation Festival, it’s huge, we’re so grateful as this will help us to spread the message of the film, which is the most important thing to us.”

On hearing the news, winner of BEST COMMISSIONED FILM, Save Ralph animator Andy Gent said: “I am very honoured and delighted to accept this award on behalf of the entire Save Ralph team and The Humane Society International”

The very first BEST CHILDREN’S FILM AWARD went to Blue Curry, directed by Magali Dunyach, Chien-Ju Hung, Jimin Jung, Vajra Pancharia and Léa Pietrzyk. Upon winning the film, the team said “We are extremely excited to receive this award at MAF, the whole team is stoked!”.

The AUDIENCE AWARD went to Night of The Living Dread, directed by Ida Melum. This award was selected by the MAF Audience (both online and in venue) with over 3760 ballots cast for the eligible films screening at MAF in total.

Film award winners have been selected by MAF’s esteemed juries. The Short Film Jury consisted of Maria Anestopoulou from Animasyros International Animation Festival, the co-creator of Aardman Animations & Netflix’s Robin Robin Dan Ojari and News & Features Editor at Den of Geek, Kirsten Howard. The Film Feature Jury consisted of Producer at Nørlum Animation Studio Claus Toksvig Kjaer, Contributing Editor at Screen International Nikki Baughan and the other co-creator of Aardman Animations & Netflix’s Robin Robin Mikey Please.

The Industry Excellence Awards have been judged by writer Mark Oswin, storyboard artist Althea Aseoche, Animation Director at Jellyfish Pictures Kevin Spruce and character designer Kenneth Anderson. Information on the MAF juries are here.

The Industry Excellence Awards, which recognise individuals working in the industry in the fields of writing, storyboarding character design and character animation, have have been awarded to Sophie Dutton for Hey Duggee : The Pet Badge for best Scriptwriting and Graeme Young for It’s Pony for Best Storyboarding; Character Design has been awarded to Daniel Amar for Sunrise and the Best Character Animation award has been presented to Phillip Ward for Obki.

SCRIPTWRITING – Sophie Dutton – “This award means so much to me! Hey Duggee was a show I’d always dreamed of working on, so for this to happen is a dream come true.”

STORYBOARDING – Graeme Young – “Oh my goodness, thank you so so much for this award, I am not only honoured to be nominated in this category, I am so thrilled to win!” 

CHARACTER DESIGN – Daniel Amar – “I am really happy to have received this award, and that my work has been seen and valued.”

CHARACTER ANIMATION – Phillip Ward – “Thank you so much for the award, it’s definitely a proud career moment for me!” 

The awards presented to winners were crafted by master model makers Mackinnon and Saunders, who have brought some of the world’s best known animated characters to life – from Bob the Builder, Postman Pat and Fifi and the Flowertots, to Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride and Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox.

Festival Director Steve Henderson commented: “We were delighted to return our Festival competition to cinemas, bigger and better than before with the inclusion of our Feature Film Competition that showcases the breadth of amazing animated features made internationally and our Shorts Films for Children category that presents all ages with a warm and welcoming break from the sometimes stale diet of online kids content that can be found online. We’re happy to add these to our existing Short, Student, Commissioned and Audience Awards. It was a thrill seeing audiences once again bask in the glow of the big screen as they sampled the very best that the world of animation has to offer”

“We were also excited to be able to showcase some incredible talent as part of our Industry Excellence Award, which once more prove that our animation industry is producing incredible talent working on amazing projects”

Manchester Animation Festival 2022 is confirmed for November 2022 and the call for entries for the Film Competition and Industry Excellence Awards will open in the spring of 2022 and be announced via the festival website, newsletter and social media channels. A schedule of year-round programming is also due to be announced in the coming months.

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