Winners 6th ANIMACAM Edition
Animacam Online Animation Short Film Festival grants 3.000 euro to the Belgian film Roller Monster, Best Animated Short Film Award
The also Belgian production The Mechanical Waltz has won the Audience Award of 2.000 euro, among 50 animated short films from 33 different countries worldwide.
Roller Monster, Belgian film produced and directed by Manu Gomez, has won the Best Animated Short Film Award, granted by the Contemporary Art Museum MAC Gas Natural Fenosa of A Coruña (Spain), in the 6th edition of Animacam Online Animation Film Festival. The direction of the Museum and the Animacam Organization, based in Galicia, has explained that “Roller Monster is a singular, delirious and truly free animated adaptation of one of the most important works in the contemporary literature, as The Metamorphosis by Kafka is”. In addition, they has emphasized that “this film reflects perfectly the distress and impotence of the main character, Gregor Samsa, as well as the cruelty of his father and the vulnerability of his mother, always through a great plasticity and a specially relevant style”. In essence, Roller Monster is a superb animated creation, which has started its festivals tour being released globally in Animacam, something the organization of the festival considers “truly an honor”
The director and producer of Roller Monster is Manu Gomez, a recognized and experienced Belgian artist of Spanish ancestry resident in Brussels. This author has a great career in the world of image and plastic arts as a painter, graphic artist, filmmaker and sculptor, with exhibitions in Paris, Brussels, Canada or the Unesco Palace in Beirut. Regarding his movie career, he has created around twenty productions, sixteen of them being animations, screened in several TV channels worldwide and awarded in many international festivals such as Cannes, Annecy, Sitges or Los Angeles.
On the other hand, the Audience Award of 2.000 euro, granted by Arranz Dental, has been for The Mechanical Waltz, the second animated short film in the career of the also Belgian artist Julien Dykmans. This animation speaks about repression and freedom through puppets which free from the control imposed by its masters in order to enjoy a new world where they control their movements by themselves. According to the Animacam audience, “this work made in 3D is a magnificent allegory of the freedom, a traditional topic which continues to be very present nowadays”. With this award, The Mechanical Waltz reaches the best end possible after being awarded and selected in festivals such as Sound & Image Challenge in Macau, BIFFF Brussels or Siggraph.
The announcement of these awards closes the Official Section of the 6th Edition of Animacam Festival which, in words of the own organization, “has been a success given the magnificent quality of the selection of this year and the great amount of users who followed the festival on the web”. From now on, Animacam continues with its programme, including the Tribute to the Spanish artist Miguelanxo Prado and different activities which will be celebrated in the next weeks for animation lovers and the audiovisual world in general.