Claude Cloutier takes home awards for Best of the Fest and Best Comedy Short, while Best Director and Best Character-Based Short honors go to Joanna Quinn; live awards ceremony honored both 2020 and 2021 winners.
Last weekend, the Los Angeles Animation Festival (LAAF) delivered a live and in-person Awards Ceremony for its 2021 competition, with an additional program celebrating winners of the 2020 festival. Top prizes for 2021 were Best of the Fest/Best Comedy Short awarded for Claude Cloutier’s Bad Seeds, Best Director/Best Character-Based Short for Joanna Quinn’s Affairs of the Art, and Best First-Time Filmmaker/Best Student Comedy for Alex Tullo’s Barking Orders. An LAAF Special Jury prize went to Best Stop-Motion winner Little Hilly byTaiwanese directors Huang Yun Hsien and Liao Pei Yu.
The 2021 Winners:
BEST OF THE FEST:
- Bad Seeds
BEST DIRECTOR:
- Joanna Quinn for Affairs of The Art
BEST STUDENT DIRECTOR:
- Connor Radding for The Midnight Sun
CHARACTER-BASED:
- Winner: Affairs of The Art
- Silver: Echo
- Bronze: The Boy and the Jazz
STUDENT CHARACTER-BASED:
- Winner: Sangsangba
- Silver: Dad’s Hibiscus
- Bronze: Wander
COMEDY SHORT:
- Winner: Bad Seeds
- Silver: Mondo Domino
- Bronze: Basketball Explorer
STUDENT COMEDY:
- Winner: Barking Orders
- Silver: The School Bell
- Bronze: Social Prostitution
STOP-MOTION:
- Winner: Little Hilly
- Silver: The Forbidden Zone
- Bronze: Heart of Gold
EXPERIMENTAL:
- Winner: Sensual Pill
- Silver: Jung and Restless
- Bronze: Lah Gah (Letting Go)
STUDENT EXPERIMENTAL:
- Winner: Bamboo Pillow
- Silver: Desiderium
- Bronze: Elephant In Castle
MUSIC VIDEO:
- Winner: Concession Stand Girl
- Silver: Intro
- Bronze: Agapito
STUDENT MUSIC VIDEO:
- Winner: Gary the Duck
- Silver: Joel Sarakula – Sunshine Makes Me
CGI:
- Winner: Paddy
- Silver: Zemfira – Austin
STUDENT CGI:
- Winner: There You Are
- Silver: Legend of The Claw
STUDENT 2D:
- Winner: How SmallSilver: Heart of Gold
DESIGN:
- Winner: Memento Mori
- Silver: On/Off
- Bronze: Harvest
STUDENT DESIGN:
- Winner: Fall of The Ibis King
- Silver: Tug of War
- Bronze: The Explorer
MOTION DESIGN:
- Winner: Mountain
- Silver: Hide
- Bronze: Beautiful Journey
STUDENT MOTION DESIGN:
- Winner: 3:45
- Silver: Blip
COMBINATION ANIMATION & LIVE-ACTION:
- Winner: Gruf and Me
- Silver: Bufdir
- Bronze: Fit for The Future
MIXED MEDIA:
- Winner: She Was Crying Sugar
- Silver: The Bear
STUDENT MIXED MEDIA:
- Winner: House of Memory
- Silver: Interface
- Bronze: Thorns and Fishbones
BEST SHORT FROM A SERIES
- Winner: Astrolology: Libra the Pied Piping
- Silver: Curious World of Linda
HUMANITARIAN PROJECT:
- Winner: MILA
BEST INTERNATIONAL:
- Winner: Warmth
- Silver: The Rhino and Redbill
- Bronze: Checkpoint
BEST STUDENT INTERNATIONAL:
- Winner: Kid
- Silver: Out of Touch
- Bronze: Psychophonic
DOCUMENTARY:
- Winner: A Different Kind of Different
- Silver: My Aunties
- Bronze: Subjective Vision: Myriam Bocarro
STUDENT DOCUMENTARY:
- Winner: Illegitimate Voice
- Silver: Mom’s Hair
- Bronze: Skeleton of A Moth
COMPOSITION & SOUND:
- Winner: Roy Berardo for Sangsangba
FIRST-TIME FILMMAKER:
- Winner: Barking Orders
PERFECT COMBO AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE:
- Winner: Aurora
PARALLAX AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE:
- Winner: A Bite of Bone
PARALLAX AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN COMEDYA:
- Winner: Gary the Duck
LAAF SPECIAL JURY AWARD:
- Winner: Little Hilly
FILMFEST AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE:
- Winner: Echo
BEST ANIMATION FOR CHILDREN:
- Winner: Still with You
- Silver: Odd Dog
- Bronze: Ursa: The Song of The Northern Lights
UNPRODUCED SCREENPLAY:
- Winner: Beebops written by Kevin Macauely
- Silver: A Pirate and A Princess written by Mark Kelly
- Bronze: Boz: Bikers of Oz written by Drew Henriksen & Ken Hewski
OFFICIAL SELECTION SCRIPTS:
- A Long Way Home by Steven Bogart
- Kingdom City by Michael Lamberti
- Salem & The Witches of Hollow City by Joe Boi
- Dogsin Godsworld by Kathey Tessalone
- Sea of Pearls by Ahmad Marouf
- Tuft Enough by Randy Gross
- Norah’s Ark by Thomas Pace
- Horn of Plenty by Adele Biraghi-Maschi, Lucas Maschi
- Shadow Run by John Thibault
- The Pirate Queen by Sarah Fenelon
Attendees receiving their 2020 awards in-person included some of the director-animators of last year’s 1st place documentary short Vicky & Xingyu, a collaborative project of members of Sheila Sofian’s USC John Hench Division’s documentary animation class; May McDonough, who won the Unproduced Screenplay Award for Eviscerated: A Zombie Musical; and FilmFest Distribution’s Award for Excellence in Design’s prize winner Greg Garay for his USC thesis film Izzy’s Demons.
Source: Los Angeles Animation Festival
