‘Guida,’ ‘Edmond,’ ‘Kung Fu Badger’ and ‘Manoman’ scoop awards at the Manchester Animation Festival.
‘Edmond’ by Nina Gantz wins award for Best Graduation Film at the inaugural Manchester Animation Festival.
The awards ceremony was hosted by animation director Barry Purves who led an entertaining evening of celebration and thanks. The awards themselves were created by Mackinnon and Saunders.
Guida director Rosana Urbes commented on winning the short film award, “Thank you so much, I’m so happy to know that Guida is there with you tonight!”
Nina Gantz, director of graduation competition winner Edmond said, “I want to thank you very much for the award, very, very honored to get it, I can’t believe I am going to get the lovely, lovely prize that Mackinnon and Saunders have made it’s really beautiful.” The graduation award winner also received a copy of Toon Boom Harmony.
Evan Macnamara from Paper Panther, the company which led the workshop that created Kung Fu Badger, accepted the award on behalf of the young directors saying, “I want to thank you on behalf of the directors of Kung Fu Badger. I’m sure the film will support them, their future endeavors and build up the next generation of animators and film makers.”
The winner of the Audience Award Manoman, Simon Cartwright said, “Thank you so much for voting for us for the audience award, it means a great deal that the film is going down well up north, I want to say a huge thank you to everyone involved in making the film, to the audience for voting and thanks to the team for putting together this incredible festival, I hope we can do it all again next year.”
A total of 933 films were submitted from 67 different countries before the selection was whittled down by the festival team and voted for by the festival jury. Creative director and producer at Karrot Animation, Sarah Legg, program Executive of BBC Children’s Animation and Acquisitions and Jez Stewart animation curator at the British Film Institute (BFI) were on the festival jury.
Source: Manchester Animation Festival
Formerly Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network, Jennifer Wolfe has worked in the Media & Entertainment industry as a writer and PR professional since 2003.
