Awards for Terzo Mundo and l'Evasion at Anima 2008

Tom Van Gestel at the prize ceremony - Anima 2008 'I was really overwhelmed', says Tom Van Gestel, winner of the Sabam award (€2.000). 'I had not expected to win at all, because I saw a couple of really outstanding films, especially in the second section of the competition. But I spoke with the members of the jury after the ceremony and they told me that the decision was unanimous. They only had a discussion whether or not there were pigs involved in it. No, seriously, they were really enthusiastic about the story itself'. Terzo Mundo has already won an award at the international short film festival in Leuven. 'It has been shown at 12 or 14 festivals', says Tom, 'and it has not been selected in 10 others. I went to Madrid, to a festival that claims to be one of the leading festivals in its field, and that was a quite disappointing experience. Only about 20 people showed up to the screening I attended. But recently I sent a copy to the Annecy film festival, so let's hope it will be selected there.' Both awards and the attention at the festivals have given Tom a lot of energy and eagerness to start on something new. 'I am already working on it. But I don't want to make a film as a goal in itself, I want to take the time for a good story to be unfolded and materialized. Anyway, when I get home from my day job, it is just not like me to turn on the telly and stay on the couch all night. So I won't let this project linger.' Frits Standaert at the prize ceremony - Anima 2008 Another winner at Anima was L'Evasion by Arnaud Demuynck. This 10 minute black and white animation about an escaping convict received the ACE Digital Group award, which consists in a post-production package worth €7.500. L'Evasion was co-produced by the Walloon production company La Boîte,…Productions and Frits Standaert from Flanders who also worked as co-director and co-animator on the film. 'I have been working closely together with Arnaud for 10 years', says Frits. 'He co-produced my most recent animated short The Writer and he assembled a team of animators to get this project done. Afterwards, we turned things around and I co-produced his film because I thought it was a very strong project. The black and white approach of L'Evasion matches perfectly with the subject matter. On top of that, I had a great deal of confidence in the team of animators. So I submitted a grant request with the Flanders Audiovisual Fund (VAF). Their contribution provided us with the means of getting the sound mixing and the image processing done. And I also ended up animating about one third of the movie.' Just before winning the award at Anima, L'Evasion received a prize at the Clermont-Ferrand festival in France. 'L'Evasion is building up quite a reputation at festivals', says Frits. 'But I must say Arnaud puts a lot of effort into it and has a very professional approach in contacting the festivals etcetera. At Clermont-Ferrand he was also chosen as animation producer of the year, which really means something in a country like France.' © pictures Mich Leemans