MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE

 

If we wanted to treat animation as one medium, we'd have trouble with this Marshall McLuhan formula. But animation is not one medium, it is a conglomerate of many media. For eleven years, we have been trying to break the clichés about what an animated film is, both in the selection of competition films and accompanying events. This year marks 50 years since the premiere of "Yellow Submarine", a groundbreaking film in the history of cinema, whose creators, using elements of collage, absurd humor and pop art, raised popular culture to the level of sophisticated art, without losing contact with the ordinary audience. Animators from Aardman Studios have also been able to achieve this art of speaking in the language of the absurd about important things. This year also marks the 90th anniversary of the birth of Jan Lenica, a Poznań resident who, together with Walerian Borowczyk, revolutionized animated film, showing that cutouts, and especially collage, can be an original technique par excellence. "Yellow Submarine", Aardman Studios and Jan Lenica have one thing in common - despite all differences - innovation combined with the tradition of mass art. We built the program of this year's Animator around these three trigger words. In addition, as usual, we present a selected festival (Ottawa International Animation Festival), selected national cinematography (Netherlands), retrospectives of recognized artists (Vera Neubauer, Paul Driessen, Rosto, Gerrit von Dijk), shows with live music and many other attractions . We invite.

Marcin Giżycki, Artistic Director of the Festival

Awarded films

GRAND PRIX / GOLDEN PEGASUS: “Neputovanja / Untravel” Ana Nedeljković, Nikola Majdak Jr., Serbia/Slovakia 2018

• Jury’s Statement: A film with a current and universal message, which with the help of puppets and a simple character design achieves an extremely strong emotional effect.

II AWARD (NATIONAL FILM INSITUTE AWARD) / SILVER PEGASUS: “Telefonul / The Call” Anca Damian, Romania 2018

• Jury’s Statement: For an amazing combination of smoothly harmonizing, inventive techniques that moved us with an emotional story.

III AWARD / BRONZE PEGASUS: “Negative Space” Max Porter, Ru Kuwahata, France 2017

• Jury’s Statement: A simple, beautifully made, poetic film about loss and mourning.

CRYSTAL PEGASUS FOR LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT: Daniel Szczechura

AWARD FOR BEST FEATURE FILM: “Photon” Norman Leto, Poland 2017

• Jury’s Statement: This seemingly scientific interpretation of human cognition over time turns into a subtle vivisection of a tormented, but perhaps inept and unreliable narrator. This film uses the conventions of an interview with God in an extremely creative way. The figure of the scientist practices man-splaining; thanks to animation, he sometimes offers dark visions as “proof” but also as “fantasy”, as a result of which the boundaries of these binaries constantly shift and collide. What we have here is a film that is extremely bold, original and unlike anything we’ve seen before.

SPECIAL AWARD FOR THE BEST MUSIC FILM / MUSIC: “Min Börda / The Burden” Niki Lindroth von Bahr, Sweden 2017

• Jury’s Statement: The perfect combination of music, word, image and humor.

SPECIAL AWARD FOR THE BEST STUDENT FILM (RECTOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTS IN POZNAN AWARD): “Love Me, Fear Me” Veronica Solomon, Germany 2018

• Jury’s Statement: A unique film proving that animation is the perfect medium to create something out of nothing even with the tiniest bit of clay.

SPECIAL AWARD FOR ARTISTIC MERIT – IM MEMORIAM OF WOJCIECH JUSZCZAK (SPECIAL AWARD FUNDED BY DITO GEAR™): “Nebula” Marcin Nowrotek, Poland 2017

• Artistic Director’s Statement: For a successful combination of an interesting, experimental form with jazz music.

AUDIENCE AWARD FOR THE BEST SHORT FILM: “Min Börda / The Burden” Niki Lindroth von Bahr, Sweden 2017

AUDIENCE AWARD FOR THE BEST FEATURE FILM: “Seder-Masochism” Nina Paley, USA 2018

ANIMATOR.PL

This edition of the Animator festival saw the inauguration of the Polish Animated Film Competition ANIMATOR.PL – organized in cooperation with the Polish Filmmakers Association.

GRAND PRIX / CRYSTAL ANIMUSZ: “Kwadratura koła / Squaring the Circle” Karolina Specht, Poland 2018

• Jury’s Statement: For a beautiful combination of abstraction and narrative.

GOLDEN ANIMUSZ FOR DEBUT: “Na zdrowie! / Bless You!” Paulina Ziółkowska, Poland 2018

• Jury’s Statement: For a cheerful graphic toast.

GOLDEN ANIMUSZ FOR THE BEST CHILDREN’S FILM OR SERIES: “Basia i nowy braciszek / Babsy and her baby brother” Marcin Wasilewski, Poland 2018

• Jury’s Statement: For subtle and wise presentation of family relationships.

GOLDEN ANIMUSZ FOR THE BEST ORIGINAL FILM: “III” Marta Pajek, Poland 2018

• Jury’s Statement: For a sophisticated depiction of the relationship between a woman and a man.

HONOURABLE MENTION: “Nie masz dystansu / You are overreacting” Karina Paciorkowska, Poland 2017

• Jury’s Statement: For courage and taking a risk.

HONOURABLE MENTION: “Świat, który uleciał na grzbiecie krowy / The World that flew away on the back of a Cow” Wojciech A. Hoffmann, Poland 2018

• Jury’s Statement: For unconventional use of media.

HONOURABLE MENTION: “Bernard” Anna Oparkowska, Poland 2017

• Jury’s Statement: For the composer of music for the film – Mikołaj Trzaska – for correspondence of image and sound.

HONOURABLE MENTION: “The Game” Natalia Oliwiak, Poland 2017

• Jury’s Statement: For a hypnotic, trance journey.

HONOURABLE MENTION:“Kosmiczne trio / The Amazing Adventures of Not So Special People from Outer Space” Katarzyna Miechowicz, Poland 2018

• Jury’s Statement: For humour referencing the 70’s

Trailer

Recap