Annecy Prizes: ‘Chicken for Linda!,’ ‘Robot Dreams,’ ‘Pebble Hill’ Take Top Honors

Chiara Malta and Sbastien Laudenbachs hand-painted marvel Chicken for Linda! took home dual honors at the Annecy Animation Festival on Saturday, scooping up the festivals top prize, the Cristal Award for best feature, as well as the Gan Foundation award for distribution.

A bittersweet childhood tale that finds screwball humor in mourning and melancholy, the French-language film premiered to some acclaim out of Cannes ACID sidebar last month, and was picked up for North American distribution by Gkids while competing in Annecy.

We wanted something both funny and affecting, said co-director Chiara Malta. The two elements were never in conflict, because we made the film for children, putting ourselves in their perspectives while adopting their language.

We wanted a [joyful mess], added co-director Sbastien Laudenbach. The film is sad and funny. Its full of energy and emotion, and as a result, the graphic style is dynamic as well.

Hungarys ron Gauder won the Jury Award for Four Souls of Coyote, which makes use of 2D and 3D animation to reframe a Native America creation myth as an epic adventure with an ecological conscience. The Hungarian filmmaker had previously won an Annecy Cristal for his 2005 comedy The District!.

Rounding out the main competition, director Tomohisa Taguchi claimed the Paul Grimault Award for The Tunnel to Summer, the Exit of Goodbyes, a magical realistic manga adaptation about a pair of teens who discover a fantastical tunnel that grants any wish, but at tremendous personal cost.

Top honors for Annecys parallel Contrechamp competition went to Robot Dreams, from Spains Pablo Berger. Here was another Cannes breakout and another bittersweet 2D tale of friendship, only this time between a robot and a dog in 1980s New York.

Adapted from a graphic novel by Sara Varon, the Spanish film swaps any-and-all spoken dialogue for some toe-tapping needle drops and silent comedy gags. Neon will release the film stateside later this year.

Filip Poivas Tony, Shelly and the Magic Light won the Contrechamp Jury Award, and Benot Chieuxs festival opener Sirocco and the Kingdom of Air Streams snagged the Audience Award.

Marjolaine Perreten won Annecys Cristal for a TV production for Pebble Hill, a 29-minute short that follows a family of shrews as they move to higher ground in the wake of a flood, tracking them with quiet comedic style inspired by Jacques Tati.

FEATURE FILMS

Cristal for a Feature Film

Chicken for Linda! (Chiara Malta, Sebastien Laudenbach, France, Italy)

Jury Award

Four Souls of Coyote (Aron Gauder, Hungary)

Paul Grimault Award

The Tunnel to Summer, the Exit of Goodbyes (Tomohisa Taguchi, Japan)

Gan Foundation Award for Distribution

Chicken for Linda! (Chiara Malta, Sebastien Laudenbach, France, Italy)

Contrechamp Grand Prix

Robot Dreams (Pablo Berger, Spain, France)

Contrechamp Jury Award

Tony, Shelly and the Magic Light (Filip Poiva, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia)

Audience Award

Sirocco and the Kingdom of Air Streams (Benoit Chieux, Belgium, France)

SHORT FILMS

Cristal for a Short Film

27 (Flra Anna Buda, France, Hungary)

Jury Award

Drijf (Levi Stoops, Belgium)

Alexeeff Parker Award [ex mention du jury]

Eeva (Morten Tinakov, Lucija Mrzljak Estonia, Croatia)

Jean-Luc Xiberras Award for a First Film

Our Uniform (Yegane Moghaddam, Iran)

Off-Limits Award

Is Heaven Blue? #2 (Menno De Nooijer Paul De Nooijer Norway, Netherlands)

Audience Award

Nun or Never! (Heta Jlinoja, Finland)

TV FILMS

Cristal for a TV Production

Pebble Hill (Marjolaine Perreten, Belgium, France, Switzerland)

First Jury Award for a TV Series

Shape Island Squares Big Prank

(Drew Hodges, USA)

Second Jury Award for a TV Series

Scavengers Reign The Wall

(Vincent Tsui, USA)

COMMISSIONED FILMS

Cristal for a Commissioned Film

November Ultra Come Into My Arms (Tamerlan Bekmurzayev, France)

Jury Award for a Commissioned Film

The Beatles Im Only Sleeping (Em Cooper, UK)

GRADUATION FILMS

Cristal for a Graduation Film

La notte (Martina Generali, Simone Pratola, Francesca Rosso, Italy)

Jury Award

Harbourmaster (Mia L. Henriksen, Konrad Hjemli, Norway)

Lotte Reiniger Award

Mano (Toke Madsen, Denmark)

VR WORKS

Cristal for the Best VR Work

Red Tail (Fish Wang, Taiwan)

Fish WANG