Oct 28, 2018

'La Noria' Wins Top Award at 2018 VIEW Awards

Italy's leading cg event, the VIEW Conference, which was held in Turin, Italy, came to a close on Friday. The VIEW Awards were announced at the event, and the award for best short film (and the accompanying €2,000 prize) went to Carlos Baena's cg horror short "La Noria" (USA/Spain, 2018).

Baena, a Pixar and ILM veteran and co-founder of Animation Mentor, created the short film with a large crew assembled through his virtual studio platform Artella.

La Noria tells the story of a boy who loves to draw and build Ferris wheels, and when he begins to encounter strange creatures, the VIEW jury praised the film's "cohesive story, flawless production, brilliant character and production design, and music.

The VIEW Award for Best Student Film went to Best Friend, a 2018 French graduation short from Gobelins, directed by David Feliu, Varun Nair, Juliana de Lucca, Nicolas Olivieri, and Shen Yi. The jury panel praised the hybrid short for "exploring a timely issue with an underlying story and beautiful design beauty."

A special jury award was also presented to Wild Love, the 2018 French graduation film by ENSI students Paul Autrick, Quentin Camus, Marieka Rohde, Léa Georges, Zoë Sottiaux, and Colantin Yverniaux. The jury noted that "this well-directed 3D short film made all the jury members laugh out loud throughout its seven minutes."

The jury for the 2018 VIEW Awards was VIEW Conference Director Maria Elena Gutierrez, Jury President Barbara Robertson, Celia Bruinkel, Glenn McIntosh, Daniel Feinberg, and Max Giovagnoli, Carolyn Giardina, and Bill Watrall made up the panel.

In addition, the VIEW Conference introduced a new award this year, the Visionary Award, presented to Nora Toomey, co-founder of Cartoon Saloon and director of The Breadwinner.

"I think it is important to bring multiple stories to the screen to show that there are many realities, many voices - that there are differences in the world," said conference director Maria Elena Gutierrez in presenting the award to Toomey. Through her work, she clearly engages us, inspires us and teaches us to be better people."