OIAF Wraps with Awards
by Staff Editors
(September 24, 2022 – Ottawa, ON) The Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF), the largest festival of its kind in North America, has announced the winners of its 46th edition at its first in-person festival since 2019.
The festival has awarded director Atsushi Wada’s Bird in the Peninsula (pictured above) the Grand Prize for Short Animation and Koji Yamamura’s Dozens of Norths the Grand Prize for Feature Animation. The Japanese animated short, lizuna Fair (dir. Sumito Sakakibara), was awarded Best Non-Narrative Short.
This year’s Canadian Film Institute Award (CFI) for Best Canadian Animation winner, The Flying Sailor (dirs. Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis), lifted audiences’ spirits amidst its depiction of an explosive moment in Canadian history.
Decided by the Festival’s attendees, the Wacom Public Prize was awarded to Sierra (dir. Sander Joon), a tale of a father and son who work together in unexpected ways. Best Narrative Short, Letter of a Pig (dir. Tal Kantor), created moments for reflection and explored intergenerational trauma through a new lens.
The OIAF welcomed the expertise of Hugo Covarrubias (Chile), Marc Bertrand (Canada), Pilar Newton-Katz (United States), Terril Calder (Canada), Jonni Phillips (United States), and Marko Tadic (Croatia) as jurors for this year’s Official Competition. Covarrubias, Bertrand and Newton-Katz formed the Festival’s Features Jury, while the Shorts Jury was comprised of Calder, Phillips, and Tadic.
The Kids Jury included children from the Ottawa area between the ages of 8-12, who selected the Young Audiences 3+ and 7+ Competitions winners.
In keeping with tradition, the OIAF 2022 award statues were designed by Ottawa-based, scrap metal artist, Tick Tock Tom. The statues are working phénakisticopes featuring an animation by New York artist George Griffin,
Following is the Complete Competition Prize Winner List
Grand Prize for Short Animation:
Winner: Bird in the Peninsula (dir. Atsushi Wada)
Jury Comment: By challenging the medium through its cryptic universality, the following short film is glacially-paced with captivating movement. Expressive, comedic, complete, and concise.
Grand Prize for Animated Feature:
Winner: Dozens of Norths (dir. Koji Yamamura)
Jury Comment: This film engages the spectator to use their five senses. It breaks the boundaries and structures of storytelling. The imagery used is consistent with the creative process. The author successfully describes a world and an ecosystem of the senses. Everything is beautifully tied together: creativity the senses and visual poetry.
Wacom Public Prize:
Winner: Sierra (dir. Sander Joon)
First Runner Up: The Flying Sailor (dirs. Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis)
Second Runner Up: Dog Apartment (dir. Priit Tender)
Canadian Film Institute (CFI) Award for Best Canadian Animation:
Winner: The Flying Sailor (dirs. Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis)
Comment: For its striking, inventive combination of animation styles and its
thoughtful, poetic evocation of the dignity of humanity in times of
catastrophe.
Special Mention: Animal Collective – We Go Back (dirs. Winston Hacking & Michael Enzbrunner)
Comment: For its witty, unpredictable, and imaginative journey through pop
culture history and personal memory
Animated Short Competition – Category Prizes
Best Non-Narrative:
Winner: lizuna Fair (dir. Sumito Sakakibara)
Jury Comment: For its immersive unearthing and exploratory polyrhythm which creates a kinetic experience within its medium.
Best Narrative:
Winner: Letters to a Pig (dir. Tal Kantor)
Jury Comment: By viscerally tearing down walls for internal conversation, the affecting narrative and structure at the core of the following film provide a challenging, hard-hitting story. Exploring multi-generational trauma through a fresh new lens.
Best Commissioned:
Winner: The Humane Society International – Save Ralph (dir. Spencer Susser)
Jury Comment: Whilst artfully playing with the viewer’s emotions, the following film breaks beyond the confines of traditional marketing. With an empathetic character at its core that resonants long past the film’s initial viewing.
Bento Box Award for Best Student Animation:
Winner: The Seine’s Tears (dirs. Alice Letailleur, Eliott Benard, Etienne Moulin, Hadrien Pinot, Lisa Vicente, Nicolas Mayeur, Philippine Singer & Yanis Belaid)
Jury Comment: Firmly standing on all levels of narrative, directing, visual design, sound, technique, and editing — the following film addresses a relevant historical event which echoes into our current political landscape.
Animation for Young Audiences 3+ Competition:
Winner: My Name is Fear (dir. Eliza Plocieniak-Alvarez)
Special Mention 1: Toddler Talks (dir. Diane Reichenbach)
Animation for Young Audiences 7+ Competition:
Winner: Luce and the Rock (dir. Britt Raes)
Special Mention: Lost Brain (dir. Isabelle Favez)
Animated Series Competition:
Winner: My Year of Dicks ‘The Sex Talk’ (dir. Sara Gunnarsdottir)
Comment: For its visually innovative mix of collage, rotoscope, archival footage and drawings that all enhance the clash between imagination and real life.
Special Mention: Safe Mode: Lana Among the Lillies (dir. Justin Tomchuk)
Comment: For its refreshingly bizarre and bold non-linear approach along with its striking designs.
Virtual Reality Competition:
Winner: Biolun (dir. Abel Kohen)
Comment: For its storytelling that guides and sparks curiosity, and use of light to reveal the darker parts of an underwater world…and maybe humanity.
Canadian Student Competition:
Winner: I Had a Dream of A House at Night (dir. Charlie Galea McClure)
Jury Comment: For its clever use of collage, cut-outs, engravings and assorted techniques to create an unstable, uncertain and mystifying environment.
Special Mention 1: Sculptor (dir. Andreas Fobes)
Special Mention 2: Mileage (dirs. Jennifer Wu, Kym Santiana, Ruyee Lu, Christopher Hsueh, Joy Zhou, Miranda Li, Nicole Taylor-Topacio, & Saul Benavides)
Animated Short Competition – Craft Awards
Best Script:
Winner: Drone (dir. Sean Buckelew)
Jury Comment: Introducing contemporary issues told through a romantic protagonist, the following satire provokes a sympathetic response with its timely narrative and proficiently-crafted screenplay.
Best Design:
Winner: Backflip (dir. Nikita Diakur)
Jury Comment: Experimenting with conceptual design which goes beyond the traditional expectations of animation, the following film questioned our perceptions on sentience. The film is a visual exploration, a scientific examination, a social experiment, and even a radical slapstick comedy.
Best Technique:
Winner: Hotel Kalura (dir. sophie koko gate)
Jury Comment: Imagine a parallel dimension where Andy Warhol teamed up with Nico from The Velvet Underground, and created a 1940’s noir. Working with a classical love story which implements a fresh rhythm with the delicious aesthetic.
Best Sound Design:
Winner: Zoon (dir. Jonatan Schwenk)
Jury Comment: Working in tandem with the other-worldly visuals with a soundscape which provides texture to the ambient environments, the following film exemplifies a symbiotic & complementary relationship between sound and image.
The Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF) is one of the world’s leading animation events providing screenings, exhibits, workshops and entertainment since 1976.
Also see: September film festivals.
