Archive notice: This article was originally published on July 9, 2008. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
The winners of the 2008 Bitfilm Festival, which offered total prize money of EUR 10,000, have been announced: Tomer Eshed, an Israeli student at HFF Potsdam, and Elie Dagher, a graduate of Université de Balamand in Lebanon, are this year’s main prize winners. The other prize winners include entrants from France, Spain, the United Kingdom, Taiwan and Germany.
#OurWonderfulNature
#000_Beirut
The awards ceremony took place at the Hamburg Planetarium with around 200 guests. Bitfilm director Aaron Koenig emphasized the festival’s international focus and its democratic online voting process. Accompanied by live classical music and German pop, the winners in each category received not only prize money but also a robot—the festival’s traditional mascot.
For two months, the organizers had made 91 films from 25 countries available online for voting in six competition categories. The shortlist was selected by an international programme committee made up of digital-film professionals from the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Hungary, Israel and Germany. The prizes were decided worldwide with the click of a mouse: according to the organizers, more than 130,000 people from 146 countries visited the Bitfilm Festival online.
Categories and Prize Winners
Category “3D Space – Computer-Generated 3D Animation”
1st place (EUR 2,000): “Our Wonderful Nature” by Tomer Eshed (Israel/Germany)
2nd place: “Do Penguins Fly” by Alban Lelièvre (France)
3rd place: “Fast Cars” by François-Xavier Bologna, Théophile Bondoux, Lyonel Charmette and Vincent Le Ster (France)
Category “FX Mix – Films Using Digital Mixed Media”
1st place (EUR 2,000): “Beirut” by Elie Dagher (Lebanon)
2nd place: “MTV Bahamut Program Packaging” by Johnason Lo (Taiwan)
3rd place: “Flickermood” by Sebastian Lange (Germany)
Category “Flash – Vector Animation Made with Flash”
1st place (EUR 1,500): “Antivirus” by Santiago Riscos and Rafael Cano (Spain)
2nd place: “Plushood – Meet your New Neighbours” by Tamar Moshkowitz (Israel)
3rd place: “Heavenly Sword” by Ben Hibbon (United Kingdom)
Category “Machinima – Films Shot Live in Computer Games”
1st place (EUR 1,500): “Rusty Whispers: Dennis” by Robert Stoneman (United Kingdom)
2nd place: “I’m so Sick” by Baron Soosdon (Finland)
3rd place: “The Ballad of the Sex Junkie” by Olibith (France)
Category “Mobile – Films and Series for Mobile Devices”
1st place (EUR 1,500): “A Perfect Likeness” by Darin McGovern (USA)
2nd place: “Mousetrap” by Eckhard Kruse (Germany)
3rd place: “Graham” by Paul Scott-Jones (New Zealand)
Category “Realtime – Animation Created in Real Time”
1st place (EUR 1,500): “Lifeforce” by Andromedia Software Development (United Kingdom)
2nd place: “Fairytale” by Traction (Finland)
3rd place: “fr-041 – debris” by Farbrausch (Germany)
The award-winning films remain available on the Bitfilm website until further notice.
Further Links:
- Bitfilm Festival 2008
