Sep 11, 2023

-A Kind of Testament, Greylands, The Pirate and the Cello - Top Fantoche 2023 Awards

The Fantoche International Animation Film Festival in Baden, Switzerland, wrapped up over the weekend after six days of screenings, industry activities, and awards.

This year's Fantoche theme was non-conformist, with the mantra "punk is not dead." Basque filmmaker Fermin Mugrussa presented three screenings of his sequel to Black is Belza II: Ainor, a protest film set in the 1980s with heavy use of punk, ska, and folk music. Another film about rebellion, Masaaki Yuasa's "The Dog King," was also a perfect fit for punk rock, even though it was set in 14th-century Japan.

This year's attendance was approximately 20,000, slightly down from last year's 20th anniversary event. Festival director Ivana Kvesi said, "It is almost unfitting in the cultural sector not to report an increase in attendance every year."

Steven Vuillemin's "A Kind of Testament" was this year's big winner, winning Best Film in International Competition. This eerie short film tells the story of a young woman who discovers that her selfies are being used by strangers to create animated videos that are shared online. The film was screened in competition at the Berlin International Film Festival and the Zagreb International Film Festival, winning the Zlatko Grgi? award at the latter.

This year's Best Swiss Film Award went to Charlotte Walthert and Alvaro Schork's Greylands. This minimalist film revolves around the first night of winter in the high mountains where animals and humans pass each other. Waltart has a wonderful making-of video and artwork on his website. [Andrei Sokolov's "The Pirate and the Cello" won both the Jury and Audience Awards in this year's Kids Film Competition. This charming short tells the story of a street musician and his canine best friend.

Below is the complete list of Fantoche 2023 winners.

Best Short Award "A Kind of Testament" Stephen Vuillemin (France)

High Risk Award "Our Pain" Shunsaku Hayashi (Japan)

Newcomer Award "Drijf" Levi Stoops (Belgium)

Best Sound Award "Cyclepaths", Anton Cla (Belgium)

International Special Jury Prize "The Tobos", Tobias Rud (Denmark)

Audience Award "Our Uniform", Yegane Moghaddam (Iran)

Best Swiss Film "Gray Lands, Charlotte Vallet, Alvaro Shook

High Swiss Risk, Pipes, Kilian Feuji, Jessica Meyer, Sujanth Ravichandran

Swiss New Talent, Crevettes, Sven Bachmann, Noemi Knobil, Jill Wagner, Elina Huber

Fantastic Swiss "Crevettes", Sven Bachmann, Noemi Knobil, 34] Special Mention Swiss Jury Almat, Elodie Delmange

Audience Award Pebble Hill, Marjolaine Perleten

Swiss Youth Award Pebble Hill, Marjolaine Perleten

Special Mention Youth Jury Think Something Nice, Claudius Gentinetta

Flying Anidoc AwardBeautiful Figures, directed by Soetkin Verstegen

Best Kids AwardThe Pirate and the Cello, Andrei Sokolov, Russia

Special Mention Youth JuryKindsTo Be Sisters" Anne-Sophie Gousset, Clément Céard (France)

Audience Award "The Pirate and the Cello" Andrei Sokolov (Russia)

Swiss Animation Industry Award "Never shake a Baby" Guillaume Megros

Special Mention Art DirectionCrows - Nature is watching us, Patrick Graf

Special Mention Excellent CraftsmanshipIWC - Ingenieur, Roman Kälin

Special Mention StorytellingMegawhat!