Marc Craste’s haunting black-and-white toon about tragic love and a little trapeze artist with rabbit ears was the big winner at the 16th edition of the Cartoon Forum held in Kolding, Denmark on Saturday.
Out of 25 shorts selected from partner festival entries, jurors Karsten Kiilerich, Philippe Leclerc and Peter Lord awarded Craste’s short, Jojo in the Stars, with the Cartoon D’Or prize. The British animator, who also won a BAFTA for his short last year, received 15,000 euros to work on a new project. Gaelle Denis’ City Paradise, Peter Kaboth’s Falling, Jonas Geirnaert’s Flatlife and Daniel Greaves Little Things were the four other heavyweights nominated in this category.
Craste told the BBC’s Collective that he created Jojo in the Stars as a reaction to 15 years of making commercials. "I made three one-minute films for the [Studio AKA] website–little sketches with gratuitous violence in them. They then asked me to make a longer film using the same characters, but without any murders. And that took me back to the whole circus thing and doing a love story with freaks."
To build his beautiful black-and-white world, Craste used SoftimagelXSI and After Effects. He said 15 years ago, he would have made the same short in traditional animation, but the low coast of animation software enabled him to try the CG approach. Craste is amused by observers who believe he was influenced by German Expressionism and Fellini’s La Strada. "I haven’t," he said. "It actually only goes as far back as the early ’80s, to Eraserhead and Wings of Desire."
For more info about the short, visit www.studioaka.co.uk or www.cartoon-media.be
