The 9th Fest Anča International Animation Festival wrapped up on Sunday in Žilina, Slovakia, with Spanish directors Maria Álvarez and Elisa Morals taking the main Anča Award (and the 800 euro prize purse) for their film Three Fitted Flies (Tres moscas a medida).
The international jury stated:
“The winning film creates and recreates its own narrative and visual space with inventiveness and constant surprises. Beguilingly simple in its visual design, it engages the viewers with its quirky atmosphere, but also the very personal feelings of the main character, hidden under a fly’s wings.”
The film depicts a small village in a plain and arid region of central Spain, where an old woman tries to bring her late husband back by means of twisted rituals.
Special mentions were also awarded to Celine Devaux’s Sunday Lunch (for its “very personal story that metamorphoses into the most interesting Sunday evening, with the protagonist being devoured by his family, the cosy monochromatic backgrounds, and the menacing sound design”) and Samuel Yal’s Noevus — a fascinating dialog between the art forms of sculpture, dance and animation.
The Anča Student Award went to Frederic Siegel’s Ruben Leaves, with the jury awarding a special mention to Martina Scarpelli’s Cosmoetico. Esteban Azuela’s State of Amnesia clip for punk group Los Viejos took the Music Video Award; a special mention went to Dave Merson Hess for Now It’s Over. And in the Kisd’ Award section, Yulia Aronova’s One, Two, Three was selected by a special children’s committee. All three prize winners received 400 euros.
For the local competition, the Anča Slovak Award along with 600 euros in prize money — supported by the Slovak Literary Fund — was awarded to Marta Prokopova’s Mila Fog. “The film brings a subtle associative story that gives us a space for interpretation and creative participation. The combination of different visual styles and their transformation comes very naturally and fluently. The magnetic visuals, together with a bold and fascinating sound design, bring an essential experience to the audience. The high confidence of the director’s decisions about all of the film’s elements and the timing of it led to a wholesome piece of art.”
The jury awarded a special mention to Zuzana Žiaková’s Brother Deer “for her mastery of classical stop-motion puppet animation in the film, which presents a traditional tale combined with surreal elements.”
