Headlines
Subscribe to the RSS feedAward bonanza for Oh Willy
Emma de Swaef and Marc James Roels’s Oh Willy… recently won two awards in as many days. The animated short won the Jury Award at the Brussels Short Film Festival (27 April-6 May) and Best Animated Short Film at the International Festival of Animated Films (Anifilm, 3-8 May) in Trebon, Czech Republic.
After the selections at Clermont-Ferrand and Annecy earlier this year, Oh Willy... is definitely on a roll. The short already has two more festivals lined up in Italy and Germany and even more impressive, the film is currently on tour in Japan. Oh Willy… was invited by director Atsushi Wada, who won a Golden Bear at the Berlinale with The Great Rabbit, to join the Japanese tour. The screenings are organised by CALF, a newly established indie label promoting animated shorts by independent filmmakers.
Oh Willy grabs Grand Prize at HAFF
Emma de Swaef and Marc James Roels’s Oh Willy… has won the Grand Prix HAFF Shorts at the Holland Animation Film Festival (28 March-1 April). The Belgian-French-Dutch co-production was in the limelight earlier this year at the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival and this summer the film will screen at the International Animation Film Festival of Annecy (4-9 June). Besides Oh Willy, Arjan Wilschut's Farmer Jack also grabbed the fest's Audience Award.
The jury of the Dutch festival praised Oh Willy… for its cinematographic quality and ‘strong direction with a complete atmosphere and a strong sense of design’. In the short-stop motion animation film, fifty-something Willy returns to the naturist community where he spent his youth to visit his dying mother. When she dies shortly after he arrives, Willy is confronted with the choices he made in his life.
Shorts Willy and Junkyard to compete at Annecy
Hisko Hulsing’s Junkyard and Oh Willy… by artisan animators Emma De Swaef and Marc Roels have been added to the Short Films section at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival (4-9 June). In addition, a commercial clip for public transport company De Lijn by digital effects artist Gerrit Bekers was selected for the Commercials competition of the French festival.
Oh Willy… is directed by Emma De Swaef and Marc Roels who developed their distinctive style with Zachte Planten, De Swaef's graduation film from the Sint-Lukas academy in Brussels. The 17-minute film is produced by Ben Tesseur for Flemish stop- motion studio Beast Animation (A Town Called Panic), in collaboration with France and the Netherlands. Before making the Annecy bill, Oh Willy… premiered internationally at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival in January.
Clermont-Ferrand selects shorts from Flanders
The Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival (27 January-4 February) has selected Nicolas Provost’s Moving Stories, Michael Palmaers’s Nuru and Marc Roels and Emma de Swaef’s Oh Willy for its 34th edition. The minority co-production The Monster of Nix by Dutch artist Rosto also received a spot in the fest’s programme. According to the fest, ‘a selection for Clermont-Ferrand is participating in the biggest adventure a film can experience.’ The selections at the prestigious French short fest once again put shorts from Flanders in the international limelight.
Provost is now something of an old hand at Clermont-Ferrand after picking up a Special Jury Award for his short Plot Point in 2008. Last year, the festival even presented an overview of Provost’s major works and invited two of his shorts, Stardust and Storyteller, for competition.