Hungarian films won a prize at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival on Saturday evening: Áron Gauder’s animated feature The Four Souls of a Coyote won the jury prize in the feature film competition, and the Hungarian-French co-production 27, directed by Anna Flóra Buda, won the main prize, the Annecy Kristály in the short film competition at one of the world’s most important animation film festivals in Annecy, France.
The animation film festival held between June 11 and 17 received 3,370 entries from 112 countries. Of these, a record number of 11 full-length works were able to compete in the main competition this year, where the work The Four Souls of a Coyote was awarded the second most important prize by the three-member international jury.
The director won the main prize at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in 2005 with his previous film, Nyócker together with Erik Novák! for the comedy.
I made a film again after eighteen years, and the fact that both of my films have reached this point is a great joy. Tonight I calmed down a bit, at the age of 12 I decided to become a cartoonist
– said the director to MTI after the award ceremony.
Áron Gauder has been inspired by Indian culture since childhood, and his acquaintance with Tamas Cseh brought him even closer to this world. The legendary songwriter was the father of the Hungarian Indian-American cultural circle, and he translated a volume of Indian folk tales. The director undertook to process these stories with his latest animated film The Four Souls of the Coyote. The script written together with Géza Bereményi draws attention to the challenges facing all of humanity through the creation myth of the Indians and asks whether we will all manage to find our place in the great circle of life before it is too late.
Áron Gauder’s work was produced by Cinemon Entertainment with the support of the National Film Institute, produced by Réka Temple. At the end of April, the international audience could see the four souls of the Coyote for the first time at the Sunscreen Festival in Florida, then at the Arizona Film Festival, where the special animation won the special prize from the jury. The work won the audience award at the International Anifilm Festival in the Czech Republic.
During the Annecy festival, the Hungarian film was screened eight times with great success, all screenings were sold out.
You could feel that the audience liked the film, but there was a very strong field with 11 works, so I didn’t even expect an award
– said the director.
The Four Souls of Coyote won the best-animated film award at Asia’s largest and only A-category international festival in Shanghai a few hours earlier on Saturday.
It’s amazing that the film received these two awards at the same time, I have to sit down and understand what happened in the last few hours
– added the director.
The film places the Indian tale with special visuals, which raises the issues of the climate crisis, into a frame story in which a large company and the indigenous people come face to face because of the oil pipelines. Through the adventures of Coyote, the animation brings Native American wisdom to the viewers and highlights that it is worth fighting for a better future based on the experiences of the past.
In the feature film competition of the official program, Linda veut du poulet! won the Annecy Crystal Grand Prize. (Linda wants chicken!) French comedy earned it.
In the competition of short films, the Hungarian-French co-production animated short film 27, directed by Anna Flóra Buda, which also received the award for best short film music the previous day, proved to be the best.
In May, the short film 27 won the Golden Palm in the short film competition at the 76th Cannes International Film Festival, and ten days ago it received the award for best Hungarian animated film at the 11th Fresh Meat Festival in Budapest.
It’s an amazing feeling, I can’t find words that one of the most important animation festivals gave this film and the whole team such a great response
– Anna Flóra Buda said to MTI after the award ceremony. When asked what, in his opinion, it was that affected the jury of the Cannes, Annecy and Budapest festivals at the same time, the director said: probably the honest and vulnerable content of the autobiographically inspired risky story.
The animated short film was produced by the French company Miyu and the Hungarian company Boddah, and its producers are Emmanuel-Alain Raynal and Pierre Baussaron, as well as Gábor Osváth and Benjámin Péter Lukács. The film’s sound engineer is Péter Benjámin Lukács.
In the Contrechamp selection, the Czech-Slovak-Hungarian co-production Tomi, Polli and the Spirit of the House, the first full-length feature film by Czech director Filip Posivac, won the jury prize. The family fairy tale film, made with the support of the National Film Institute, was lead animator by Kása Károly Papp, sound engineer by Benjámin Péter Lukács, and composed by Ádám Balázs.
The 47th Annecy International Animation Film Festival was a record-breaking event: this year, more than 15,000 accredited guests from 103 countries came to the French Alpine city, which represents a 19 percent increase compared to last year, which also set a record.
(Debreceni Nap)
Photo: Facebook/dotandlineanimacio
