The first award-winner honored last weekend was the animated film by Tomasz Popakul, “Ziegenort”. The film was awarded by the jury of the Brno16 Short Film Festival. In the jury, there was, among others, Polish director Grzegorz Jaroszuk (“Frozen Stories”). This year, 45 fiction and animated films from around the world competed for the laurels of the Brno festival.
The animated film by Popakul was the first winner ever of the International Visegrad Fund award for the film of high artistic value made in the Visegrad countries. “Ziegenort” is a story of a teenage fish-boy who has to face the first problems of growing-up. The film by Popakul is the most popular short film of the last year. So far, it was given over 15 awards abroad. “Ziegenort” is produced by the animated film studio NOLABEL based in Krakow. This year's, 55th edition of the International Short Film Festival in Brno was held from 15 to 18 October.
The second Polish animated film, which was awarded last weekend, is “Ex animo” by Wojciech Wojtkowski, produced by Fumi Studio from Warsaw. The film by Wojtkowski was awarded by the jury of the Greek Be There! animated film festival, which was held from 16 to 19 October on the island of Corfu. In the jury evaluating the films in the main competition, there was Zbigniew Czapla – the author of the award-winning animated films, among others, “The Ritual”, “Paperbox”, and – recently – “Toto”. The jury decided to honour the film by Wojtkowski and present it the Best Music Award. Giving the award to the film, the jury argued that “Ex animo” depicted the great power of imagination shown through the perfect connection of image and music.” Tomasz Jakub Opałka is the author of the music for the film “Ex animo”.
The full list of the films awarded at the festival in Brno can be found here and you can read more about the Greek festival Be There! here.