ACM SIGGRAPH announced the winners of the Computer Animation Festival’s Best of Show, Jury Prize and Award of Excellence as SIGGRAPH 2007 opened in San Diego, California. The 34th International Conference and Exhibition on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques runs from 5 to 9 August 2007.
The festival jury selected three winners from 905 entries for their use of computer-generated imagery and animation as well as their stories. For the first time in SIGGRAPH history, two of the award-winning films were student productions. A total of 134 titles were selected for the Computer Animation Festival.
The SIGGRAPH Computer Animation Festival has presented new films for three decades. Since 1999, it has also been an official qualifying event for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences award for Best Animated Short Film. Paul Debevec of the University of Southern California’s Institute for Creative Technologies is directing the festival in 2007.
Debevec said: “This year’s winners are an excellent example of how computer graphics enable small, independent groups to create films with sweeping landscapes, complex characters and astonishing effects. Just as computer graphics blur the line between real and virtual, each of these films explores in its own way what is tangible and what is imaginary, and whether that distinction matters at all.”
He noted that 2007 was only the second year in which filmmakers could submit their work to the jury as HD video, improving the jury’s ability to assess the films, particularly the winners.
Debevec added: “The award-winning films are not little cartoons in which scissors dance with hole punches, but works with believable human characters who find love, suffer loss, confront their mortality and leave a deep emotional impression on the audience.”
The winners are:
Ark, Best of Show
Grzegorz Jonkajtys and Marcin Kobylecki
Poland
An unknown virus has wiped out almost all humanity. Without understanding the true nature of the disease, the last survivors flee to sea aboard large ships in search of uninhabited land untouched by the deadly virus. The exodus is led by one man.
Dreammaker, Jury Prize
Leszek Plichta
Institute of Animation, Visual Effects and Digital Postproduction
Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg
Germany
A talented dreammaker once created the most beautiful dreams for people. He now lives in solitude with a single goal: to create one special dream, his own.
En Tus Brazos, Award of Excellence
François-Xavier Goby, Edouard Jouret and Matthieu Landour
Supinfocom Valenciennes
France
The film tells the story of a leading tango dancer of the 1920s who uses a wheelchair after an accident. With the help of his wife, he regains the use of his legs in time for another dance.
