Jun 21, 2019

European Animation Award announces changes in the third edition

The European Animation Awards (EAA), nicknamed the Emiles, are returning for a third edition in Lille, France. The prospective date for the ceremony is Friday, December 6. Moreover, a few significant changes are in the pipeline, as the EAA board announced during last week's Annecy Festival.

The awards were launched in 2017 to celebrate the European animation industry's “doers”: not just its auteurs, but also its commissioners, composers, character animators, and so on. Unusually, the winners are decided not by a jury but by the organization's members. Anybody living in Europe with a connection to the industry can become a member for €20 - but as of this year, students can join for free.

As it strives to strike a balance between forms of animation, and between regions of Europe, the board has announced a few more tweaks to the set-up. Short films accounted for only four of the 18 categories last year, but a new one will join them this year: Best Character Animation in a Short Film. Peter Lord, EAA president and Aardman co-founder, also confirmed that the 2020 edition will be elsewhere in Europe. It has been noted that Eastern Europe is somewhat underrepresented at the Emiles; whether the ceremony will move there remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, the EAA is looking to sustain momentum by hosting events throughout the year. On Wednesday, it ran a live online Q&A with Nora Twomey, director of The Breadwinner. The Facebook event has notched up 4,500 views (and can be viewed here). Emboldened by this, the organizers are planning more live-streamed events, which they view as a crucial tool for reaching across the continent and fostering a sense of pan-European community. Last year, an array of masterclasses and screenings were held around the award ceremony itself. It has yet to be confirmed whether these will return.

The call for entries for the EAA's 19 categories will open on July 15 and close on September 30. The nominees (picked by pre-selection juries) will be announced during a press conference on October 18 in Tbilisi, Georgia, which will be live-streamed - as will the ceremony in December. Members will be able to vote until November 30. For the first time, voters will get to abstain from categories of their choosing. As a bonus, they will be able to watch the nominees online until December 31.

To find out more about the awards, including conditions for entry, head to their website: https://animationawards.eu.

(Photo at top: EAA press conference on June 10, 2019, in Annecy, France. Left to right: Jean-Paul Commin, EAA Association general secretary; Didier Brunner, EAA vice-president; Peter Lord, EAA president; Olivier Catherin, EAA board member; Kristine Knudsen, EAA vice-president. Photo © Emile Awards).