The Quickdraw Animation Society, organizers of Calgary, Canada’s indie animation celebration GIRAF (Giant Incandescent Resonating Animation Festival), announced the winners of its 19th edition. This year’s top jury awards were given to Canadian directors Alexandra Myott & Jean-Sebastien’s A Crab in the Pool and to South Korean animator Jinkyu Jeon’s The House of Loss.
“Jurying a film festival like GIRAF demands that you give screening after screening your full attention, try to remember everything you saw, and then compare apples and oranges. After watching what felt like hundreds of short animations in the span of one weekend, with eyeballs glued open, it’s amazing that we are still able to form coherent sentences. Yet, here we are, and we have the incredibly warm and enthusiastic community around this festival and Quickdraw to thank for making this process fun and fascinating.
We knew making choices would be a challenge after seeing the quality and range of films in the first screening. Each one had something special to offer to audiences, whether it was a truly innovative style, a new technique, an original way of telling a story, or some ineffable charm. The three of us all have different tastes, concerns, and things that move us based on our own experiences. But we also enjoyed the opportunity to notice what makes a film work for us, and we embraced the challenge of articulating that to each other. We loved so many of the films for different reasons and are thrilled to honor these selections as ones that stood out.”
— GIRAF 2023 jurors Laura Harrison, Theresa Tam & Emily Pelstring
The winners are:
Best Canadian: A Crab in the Pool
“This film’s eccentricity had a purpose within the narrative and felt true to a child’s perspective. The transitions between fantasy and reality were handled beautifully. The meaning of the narrative was revealed slowly and with subtlety, offering audiences an emotionally moving window into the experience of grief. We also appreciated the details that transport us to suburban Quebec.”
Best International: The House of Loss
“The way this story is animated is bound with everything it asks the viewer to reckon with: generational divides; the inevitably changing world; care for the suffering. The film helps us access painful states of being in an uncompromising way, ultimately allowing us to be softened by the tenderness of holding loss without release or solution.”
Jury Honorable Mentions:
- Cut Knife Creek – Best Canadian
- Whatever Moves Is Alive – Best Dismembodiment
- Final Nail in the Coffin – Best Sense of Humor
- Garrano -Best Style
- Intersextion – Best Sound
Audience Award – Best Canadian: VRDLK: Family of Vurdulak
Audience Award – Best International: Electra
Audience Choice Runners-Up:
- Return to Hairy Hill – Best Canadian
- Shackle – Best Itnernational
More information for GIRAF available at giraffest.ca. Catch up with the Quickdraw Animation Society at quickdrawanimation.ca.
