It’s a Wrap – LA Animation Festival Winners Announced

It’s a Wrap – LA Animation Festival Winners Announced

December 3rd, 2018

Jerry Beck

The LA Animation Festival had its awards evening on Sunday at The Mayflower Club and gave awards in many filmmaking and craft categories including a Best of the Fest Award for an experimental film by Louis Morton called Floreana, a Best Feature Award to renowned independent experimental filmmaker Joanna Priestley for North of Blue and a Best Comedy prize to Canadian duo Alison Snowden and David Fine for Animal Behaviour. The couple won a 1992 animated short Oscar for their film Bob’s Birthday.

Several of the main categories were sponsored by Toon Boom, the popular animation software. The festival also Honored Evette Vargas, for her “Pioneering Work in VR”, a Sangaria Ramune-sponsored Award for Excellence to animator-composer Ed Skudder for his music video Tectonic, and a Humanitarian Award in animated documentary for Land of the Free?, a group project from Sheila Sofian’s USC Documentary Animation class.

Festival Honoree and Titmouse co-founder Chris Prynoski received his Award for “Pioneering Work in Animation” during the festival’s opening night.

Chris and Shannon Prynoski. Photo by Sean Eric Pavon – XP Photography

The Awards night also raised money and awareness for WOMEN IN ANIMATION.

Here is a list of top prizes. The entire list is at http://blog.laafest.com/winners/

Pioneering Work in Animation – Chris Prynoski (Honoree)
Pioneering Work in VR – Evette Vargas (Honoree)

Best of the Fest – Floreana (USA) Louis Morton
Best Feature – North of Blue (USA) Joanna Priestly

Best Comedy – Animal Behaviour (Canada) Alison Snowden & David Fine

Best Motion Graphics – Equipoise (USA) Simo Liu

Best Short from a Series – Lullaby Theories: A Secret (USA) Jonathan Lacocque
Best Short from a Series 2nd Place – & Black & White (Croatia) Darko Bakliza

Best Documentary – New York City Sketchbook (USA) Willy Hartland

Best Character-Based – Little Bandits (USA) Alex Avagimian

Best Experimental – Floreana (USA) Louis Morton

Best Music Video – Emulate-Okay Kaya (USA) Daniel Zvereff

Award of Excellence (Presented by Sangaria Ramune) – Tectonic (USA) Ed Skudder

Innovator Award – Evette Vargas

Humanitarian Award – Land of the Free (USA) USC Documentary Animation Production class: Alissa Michelle Brasington, Liam Campbell, Brian Cawley, Lakota DodgingHorse, Ken Egu, C. Leigh Goldsmith, Haley Hudkins, Hannah Kreiswirth, Kaitlyn Leewing, Sequoyah Madison, Molly Murphy, Patrice Pinardo, Chenglin Xie

Best Direction – Animal Behaviour (Canada) Alison Snowden & David Fine
Best Story – The Magical Mystery of Musigny (USA) Emmett Goodman
Best Character Design – Happy Foot vs. Sad Foot (USA) Mike Hollingsworth
Best Art Direction – Unexpected Discoveries (USA) James Mabery
Best Design – Diving In A Sea Of Light (USA) Micah Buzan
Best Children’s Animation 1st Place – Mi Abuelita (Guatemala) Giselle Pérez

Festival Sponsors:
Sangaria Ramune, P4STV, Octopie, Toon Boom, Bang Zoom!

Event Sponsors:
Tito’s Handmade Vodka, Yolo Rum, Leese Fitch Wines, Asombrosa Tequila, Gehricke Wines
Represented by P4STV

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Jerry Beck

Writer, cartoon producer and author of more than 15 books on animation history. A former studio exec with Nickelodeon and Disney; currently on the faculty at both CalArts in Valencia and Woodbury University in Burbank, California.