Awards Updates: AAFCA, LEJA & MyFrenchFilmFestival’s Animated Winners

The African American Film Critics Association (aafca.com) presented the 16th Annual AAFCA Awards honoring outstanding achievement in film and the organization’s selections for their top 10 films of the year in Beverly Hills on Wednesday, February 19.

While animation was left off of the top films list, DreamWorks Animation’s The Wild Robot was awarded the prize for Best Animated Feature, as well as receiving the Best Original Score honor for composer Kris Bowens.

Lupita Nyong’o received the Best Voice Performance award for her role as ROZ in The Wild Robot. The Best Visual Effects honors went to Dune: Part Two (as well as Best Sound).

The 15th MyFrenchFilmFestival announced the prize winners designated by the International, International Press and the Content Creators juries. Winners of the Audience Awards have also been revealed.

Among the honorees, the International Press jury awarded a Special Mention to Mars Express by Jérémie Périn. The jury stated:

“Jérémie Perin’s animated film is a stylish, suspenseful tale integrating science-fiction world-building and noir codes. Mars Express paints a complex, vivid vision of life in 2200 and digs into thought-provoking issues relating to personhood, and the boundaries between human and artificial. Périn adroitly juggles philosophical concerns and outer-space action, reminding us that our current decisions will have far-reaching consequences.” ­