Romain Segaud and Cristel Pougeoise’s Tim Tom, a charming short about two spiral-bound writing pads and their quest to meet each other, has won this year’s Prix Ars Electronica’s Golden Nica Award for Computer Animation and Visual Effects. This homage to the silent films and Warner Bros.-style cartoons is also this year’s top prize winner at Siggraph 2003. Segaud and Pougeoise, graduates from France’s top CG school Supinfocom, were also awarded 10,000 Europs in prize money from the Prix.
Koji Yamamura’s Oscar-nominated Mt Head, (Atama Yama) and Carlos Saldanha/Blue Sky Studios and 20th Century Fox short, Gone Nutty: Ice Age (which is included in the Ice Age DVD release) were awarded prizes for Distinction in Computer Animation and Visual Effects.
Honarary mentions were given to Siri Melchior’s The Dog Who Was a Cat Inside, Wayne Lytle’s Pipe Dream, Thorsten Fleish’s Gestalt, Eric Armstrong’s Oscar-winning The ChubbChubbs, Jordi Moragues’ Mantis, Tippett Studios’ Animation for Blockbuster Video, Jerome Decock, Cecile Detez de la Dreve, Olivier Laneres and Melina Milcent’s At the End of the Thread, Christoph Ammann’s visual effects piece Untitled, Luc Froehlicher’s GDF Dolce Vita, Pete Docter and Roger Gould’s Oscar-nominated Mike’s New Car, Satoshi Tomioka’s Justice Runners and Ludovic Houplain’s Royksopp.
Initiated by Austria’s ORF Upper in 1987, Prix Ars Electronica has become an internationally renowned seismograph for artistic expression in digital media. This year’s 17th edition of the awards marked an all-time record of 2,714 entries from 85 countries. Five expert juries awarded six Golden Nicas, 12 Distinction Awards and 61 Honorary Mentions this year. The official presentation ceremony will take place at the Ars Electronica Festival on Monday, September 8 at the ORF Upper Austrian Regional Studios in Lina. ORF2 will broadcast the ceremony on Sunday, September 14 at 11: 15 p.m.
The Computer Animation and Visual Effects jury included Pixar Studio’s Loren Carpenter, BUF Compagnie’s Olivier Cauwet, Polygon Pictures’ Hiroshi Chida and Shuzo John Shiota, Flat Black Films’ Bob Sabiston and Animation Magazine’s own publisher and editorial director Rita Street. For a complete list of winners in all the other categories, visit http://prixars.orf.at
