winners2020

Un musical animato originale ed eccezionale di una donna che diventa un buco nero perché ha paura di perdere tutto così da tenerlo tutto dentro fino a quando non si rompe e vomita l’intero universo. Il film “O ‘Black Hole” si distingue come una miscela magistrale di tecniche di animazione e stili che ci raccontano una vecchia storia di creazione cosmica che esce dalla distruzione. Portandola in un modo visivamente affascinante, rivelando un’intera galleria interessante di personaggi assolutamente strani e strani, questa straordinaria “ode cosmica” animata attira un’attenzione speciale sull’elevata libertà artistica dell’autore, fortemente supportata dalla straordinaria colonna sonora composta da Harry Brokesha.

And the Winner of the PFA13 Main Competition is “O Black Hole” by Renee Zhan (United Kingdom, 2020).

An original and exceptional animated musical of a woman who becomes a black hole because she’s afraid of losing everything so that she keeps it all inside her until she breaks down and vomit the whole universe out. Film „O’ Black Hole“ stands out as a masterly executed blend of animation techniques as well as styles telling us an old story of cosmic creation coming out of the destruction. Bringing it in a visually fascinating way, revealing a whole interesting gallery of utterly strange and odd characters, this amazing animated „cosmic ode“ draws a special attention to author’s high artistic freedom greatly supported by extraordinary music score composed by Harry Brokesha.

Una critica spiritosa sull’assurdità delle cosiddette invenzioni intelligenti della società moderna e sulle sue noiose routine quotidiane. Con un umorismo dolce-amaro l’autore gioca magistralmente con l’idea di rivelare l’ultima stupidità di diventare schiavi di un’invenzione umana chiamata era digitale. Trattando la categoria del tempo come qualcosa che è necessario superare in modo efficiente nel senso di risultati quotidiani “migliori e più veloci” per “battere il sistema”, l’autore combina saggiamente l’animazione sperimentale con quella documentaria.

The first special mention of our main jury goes to “Time o’ the Signs” by Reinhold Bidner, Austria 2019.

A witty critique about the absurdity of smart inventions of modern society and its dull daily routines. With a bitter- sweet humor author masterly plays with the idea of revealing the ultimate stupidity of becoming slaves to all- human invention called digital era. By treating category of time as something that one needs to efficiently overcome in sense of daily “better and faster“ achievement to “beat the system“, author wisely combines experimental with documentary animation.

Straordinaria animazione ben prodotta e magistralmente eseguita su un episodio realmente accaduto della famigerata storia della mafia italiana – la cosiddetta “N’drangheta” – organizzazione criminale brutale e potente. Con un eccellente ritmo narrativo combinato con lo stile di disegno artistico di spicco dell’autore, specialmente nel trattamento dei personaggi, questa animazione di 15 minuti dà l’impressione come se stessimo guardando un lungometraggio. Grande omaggio a un eroico atto di resistenza di un singolo uomo che si oppone al sistema marcio e spietato.

The second special mention goes to “The big wave” by Francesco Tortorella, Italy 2020.

Extraordinary well- produced and masterly executed animation about a real episode from the infamous history of Italian mafia- so called the „N’drangheta“- most brutal and powerful criminal organization. With an excellent narrative pace combined with author’s prominent artistic drawing style especially in character treatment, this 15 minutes animation gives the impressions as if we’ve been watching a full-lenght feature film. Great homage to a heroic act of resistance of single man standing strong versus the rotten, merciless system.

The winner of the Visual&Music Competition is “Dummy” by Igor Imhoff (italy, 2020), a short animation able to realize a perfect synthesis between images and music, through an involving and bold technique that coherently depicts and matches the music track.

The short film winner of Poetry&Animation Competition is “Elusiveness” by Marija Vulić (Serbia, 2020) for using an original and refined technique, which hybridizes cut-out with pixilliation, in order to accompany an ancient tale with a still modern message at the end. The film has the charm of a story built with elements taken from folk crafts, it moves you, evokes and enchants.

“Ci siamo presi del tempo per analizzare con cura e nel dettaglio, nonostante la nostra evidente inesperienza, tutti i video. Abbiamo poi ritenuto consono confrontarci e condividere le nostre opinioni, decidendo, infine, che il titolo di miglior video debba andare a “One left” di Sebastian Doringer (Austria, 2020), considerando il particolare stile dei disegni ed il perfetto doppiaggio che, unito ai suoni, divertenti ed intriganti, lo rendono coinvolgente e ironico. Secondo noi questo video cercava di trasmetterci, con personaggi buffi e scene esilaranti, il messaggio di prendere la vita nelle proprie mani e reagire, perché, anche se non sembra, abbiamo il potere di cambiarla nelle scelte di tutti i giorni.”

“Despite our obvious inexperience, we took the time to analyze all the videos carefully and in detail. We than compared and shared our opinions as appropriate, and we finally decided that our winner for best video should go to “One Left”, considering the particular style of the drawings and the perfect dubbing which, combined with the funny and intriguing plot, makes it engaging and ironic. In our opinion, this video tried to convey, with funny characters and hilarious scenes, the message to take life into your own hands and react, because, even if it doesn’t seem like it, we have the power to change it in everyday choices.”

“We would also like to make an honorable mention for “The Song of the Lost Boy” by Daniel Quirke (Inghilterra, 2020). for its novelty, for its attention to detail and the compelling and tought-provoking story.”

The winner of the AnimaKids Competition is “Hopus” by Lucie Kokoliová (Czech Republic, 2019).
Here is the motivation from our little jurors: First of all the graphic design work is very well done: each character, each background and detail are carefully done and precise.
Than the story is a comedic and interesting one, that can hold many morals, The tale is full of very pleasant twists. The film is curious, creative and fun. You never get bored of watching it because as soon as you watch any of the scenes, you burst with laughter, in short, it’s a real blast!

The film “B.O.P.” also wins ex aequo, directed by Ladislav Jambor and Lukáš Ďurica (Slovakia, 2019)