The International Animation Film Festival records 26,300 entries this year, which is an increase in 11 percent compared to the record year 2015.
Talented filmmakers, international guests and animation film fans from all over Switzerland as well as the neighboring countries enriched Baden in the last six days with their presence.
The award for best film in the ‘International Competition’ is awarded to Niki Lindroth von Bahr with The Burden. Negative Space by Max Porter and Ru Kuwahata wins the ‘International Audience Award’. In the Swiss competition, Airport by Michaela Müller is awarded the ‘Best Swiss Film’ and In a Nutshell by Fabio Friedli wins the ‘Swiss audience award’. Joan Zhonga wins the ‘Best Kids’ category and the ‘Young Audience Award’ in the kids film competition with his compelling film Ethnophobia.
The next Fantoche Festival will take place from 4 to 9 September 2018 in Baden.
More than 300 short and feature films, multimedia exhibitions with VR and AR components, industry talks and workshops guaranteed a wide and colourful programme for all generations. Feature films like Loving Vincent, In this Corner of the World and Louise en Hiver have been sold out very quickly. Next to the short film programmes in the three competitions, the country-focus Brexit: Goodbye to All That? and 3 Generations: Cinema, TV, Web, and the exhibitions on ‘Animation goes Multimedia’ met with great public interest.
Side effects of Brexit
The theme ‘Brexit: Goodbye to All That?’ encouraged lively discussions at the festival. Curator Jayne Pilling has chosen films from the last decades, which in one way or another deal with the inner turmoil of Great Britain.
Some films can be understood with a new meaning, depending on the context in which they are viewed. European animation film-maker will move to where the funding continues to flow as he says, “Talents go where they can unfold. I’m not sure if they’ll stay in the UK.”
Pilling is sceptical, but one thing is certain – the festival has connected experts and film-makers from all over Europe in Baden, either to plan future projects or to celebrate fantastic animation films.
Meeting platform for the industry
Many animation experts and filmmakers have been attracted by the Fantoche Industry Day. Table talks provided cooperation possibilities and new collaborations. Interesting insights have been showed at the best practice presentations with experts from Freitag.lab.ag, Blue Zoo Productions and Golden Wolf (both from GB).
A special highlight was the masterclass on Wednesday with Michael Dudok De Wit (threefold nominated and one time winner of the Oscar). He shed light on his use of film language, story writing and landscape with the support of his powerful visual material and also answered questions from the audience.
The Animation Fuckup Night showed all the miserable fails the studios made while producing animations, worst case experiences that would help others to avoid pitfalls. The audience was very pleased and celebrated these experiences with a lot of enthusiasm.
Interactive experiences and generation talks
The two themes ‘3 Generations: Cinema, TV, Web’ and ‘Animation goes Multimedia’ ensured an ideal contrast with diverse events and four exhibitions.
Young and old were fascinated by the technology and their related possibilities. They got inspired by motivated creators. The young ones played the interactive space game ‘Demonz’ in the container at the Theaterplatz.
The generation talk, moderated by the festival director Annette Schindler herself, was followed with great interest. Also the guided tours in the historical museum Baden were successful. In case you missed it, the specialised exhibition Kosmos Kino continues until 25 February 2018.
Conclusion of the festival direction
Festival and artistic director Annette Schindler concludes, “While Loving Vincent is an impressive film about an artist’s genius of a bygone era, fantastic contemporary artists participated at this year’s Fantoche Festival. Michael Dudok de Wit impressed the audience in his masterclass, and our jury members awarded promising talents for a bright animation future.”
Awards “INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION”
Jury – Anete Melece (CH), Fabian Erlinghäuser (IE), Jayne Pilling (GB), Sonja Rohleder (DE), Daniel Sciboz (DE)
Best Film: The Burden, Niki Lindroth von Bahr, SE 2017
High Risk: Vilaine fille, Ayce Kartal, FR 2017
New Talent: Ugly, Nikita Diakur, DE 2017
Best Sound: Impossible Figures and Other Stories II, Marta Pajek, PL 2016
Special Mention: Nachtstück, Anne Breymann, DE 2016
Audience Award: Negative Space, Max Porter, Ru Kuwahata, FR 2017
Awards “SWISS COMPETITION”
Jury – Igor Prassel (SI), Yvonne Van Ulden (NL), Theodore Ushev (CAN)
Jugendjury – Lausanne: Sunshine Burri, Maryam Sunitha Sangaré. Tessin: Alessandra Guastalla, Jie Gabriella Liu, Robin Pellanda, Amaury Szöke. Wettingen: Ursina Bill, Mathilde Dam Hansen.
Best Swiss: Airport, Michaela Müller CH/HR 2017
High Swiss Risk: Living Like Heta, Bianca Caderas, Isabella Luu, Kerstin Zemp, CH 2017
New Swiss Talent: Immersion, Lalita Brunner, CH 2016
Fantastic Swiss: OOZE, Kilian Vilim, CH 2017
Swiss Youth Award: OOZE, Kilian Vilim, CH 2017
Special Mention: La bataille de San Romano, Georges Schwizgebel, CH 2017
Swiss Audience Award: In a Nutshell, Fabio Friedli, CH 2017
Awards “KIDS FILM COMPETITION”
Kids Jury: The films were judged by a jury of seven children aged between six and twelve which awarded the ‘Best Kids’ prize. The kids were supervised by ”Zauberlaterne”.
Best Kids: Ethnophobia, Joan Zhonga, AL/GR 2016
Young Audience Award: Ethnophobia, Joan Zhonga, AL/GR 2016