The Best of Ottawa 2011

Award-winning films from the
2011 OTTAWA INTERNATIONAL ANIMATION FESTIVAL

Founded in 1975 by the Canadian Film Institute and first held in 1976, the now annual Ottawa International Animation Festival is the largest festival of its kind in North America and one of the most respected animation festivals in the world.

The 2011 festival, held September 21-25, received 2,005 entries from 75 countries. Of these, 100 films (96 shorts and four features) were selected for the festival’s official competition. The festival awards prizes in five main competition categories: feature films, independent short films, commissioned films, student films, and animation for children.

This year’s lively “Best of” program, made up of nine outstanding shorts from around the world, showcases festival award winners, audience favourites, and other innovative and visionary entries in a wide variety of genres and forms. Highlights include Pjotr Sapegin’s heart-warming The Last Norwegian Troll, Stephen Irwin’s riveting grand-prize winner Moxie, and Ben Cady’s hilarious crowd-favourite (and Public Prize winner) The Goat and the Well.

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12 Sketches on the Impossibility of Being Still • Experiments in animation and editing explore the spaces where nothing happens: the liminal zone that exists between you and me, here and there, sound and silence, movement and stillness. Magali Charrier/Great Britain 2010. 8 mins.

The Mechanism of Spring (Haru no shikumi) • A pencil-on-paper depiction of the excitement everybody feels with the arrival of spring. Atsushi Wada/Japan 2011. 4 mins.

The Renter • Grand Prize for Best Student Animation — In this painterly 2D computer animation by CalArts grad Carpenter, a young boy in the day care of an elderly woman is unsettled by the strange man who rents a room in her house. Jason Carpenter/USA 2011. 10 mins.

JOYZ: “Electropia” • Best Music Video — A girl journeys into a chaotic world called Electropia in this mix of cut-out and 2D computer animation, a music video for Japanese band JOYZ. Noriko Okaku/Great Britain-Japan 2011. 5 mins.

Blanche Fraise • Best Narrative Short — A couple tries to survive in a forest that kills in this puppet-animation film from award-winning Quebec animator Tremblay. Frédérick Tremblay/Canada 2011. 17 mins.

I'm Fine Thanks • Best Graduation Animation — Cited at Ottawa for its “strong visuals, brutal honesty, and unique voice,” O’Neill’s short was produced at the Royal College of Art in London. Eamonn O'Neill/Great Britain 2011. 4 mins.

The Last Norwegian Troll (Det siste Norske trollet) • Honourable Mention/Narrative Short — Puppet animation and poignant storytelling relate the tale of Norway’s very last Troll, the sole survivor of his once-common species. Pjotr Sapegin/Norway 2010. 13 mins.

Moxie • Grand Prize for Best Independent Short Animation — Ottawa’s top prize went to Brit animator Irwin, a rising international talent, for this film noir-like tale of a pyromaniac bear who misses his mother. Stephen Irwin/Great Britain 2011. 5 mins.

The Goat and the Well • Best Undergraduate Animation + Public Prize — A minimalist comic gem, rendered in pencil on paper, relating the strained relationship between a determined little goat and a grumpy milkmaid. Ben Cady/Great Britain 2010. 5 mins.

Total running time: approx. 75 mins.

INTENDED FOR MATURE AUDIENCES
18+ age restriction in effect.