Ottawa International Animation Festival - Day Five

Sunset over the River Ottawa.

Awards.

The show was held in Quebec's Museum of Civilization.

this kid in the tie dye cut the line. Hey kid, we all know somebody up front in line.

Get to the back of the queue like the rest. Special disgrace at the Museum of "Civilization"

The NFB was almost shut out. If not for their co-production with Global Mechanic on Bruce Alcock's "Vive La Rose" the Film Board wouldn't have even gotten mention in the Canada-only section of the awards.

A little surprising. I would have taken the safe bet that Cordell Barker's clever "Runaway" would have taken the audience award. After all, the very unclever "Sleeping Betty" mined the shallow area of the same pool and came with awards. It's only the way of the world that better material goes unrewarded.

winners of the High School competition. "Did U See That?" from South Korea.

Yuri Rhee, Ha Jung Kim, Hyun Jung Lee and Pual Kim. If their film wasn't so worthy,

we would think the jury just wanted to see excited Asian girls on stage.

The best film in the festival, David O'Reilly's "Please Say Something" came away with the Best Narrative Film prize.

David O'Reilly graciously accepting his well deserved award.

The Best in Show, quizzically, was given to "Inherent Obligations" by Rao Heidmets from Estonia. Its an OK exercise in Eastern European existential hijynx but I didn't even remember it existed.

I had been mentally preparing my reasoning as to why "Please Say Something" should've won over something like "Runaway" or "Madagascar" (a beautiful travelogue. Nice, but cold). "Madagascar" wound up with three prizes including the audience award.

multiple award winner Bastien Dubois address the audience.

I'm glad that "Please Say Something" was recognized. It's a terrific piece and this sort of work needs to be encouraged. David O'Reilly is a young filmmaker with all the promise in the world. His work is unorthodox and visually confrontational. If professionals in the animation world do not support the constant boundary pushing and expansion of the art form, the process will atrophy. Cordell Barker will continue to make terrific films regardless of acclaim, films like "Madagascar" will continue to be produced.

New York City was well represented within competition this year. Martha Colburn received an honorable mention for "Myth Labs". I think its amongst her weaker works. Her strength is in the explosive nature of her visions. This piece is sprawling and effort-laden. Stieg Retlin picked up the Best Music Video for his 8-bit inspired Nullsleep "Dirty ROM Dance Mix" and Jake Armstrongs "Terrible Thing From Alpha 9" took top undergraduate prize.