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"My Life As a Courgette" won both the Cristal and audience award for feature film at Annecy 2016.

The post ‘My Life As a Courgette,’ ‘The Head Vanishes,’ ‘Stick Man’ Take Top Honors At Annecy 2016 appeared first on Cartoon Brew.

The César Award, France's national film award, announced its nominees today, including three animated features and four animated shorts.

The Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film announced their winners last Sunday. The grand prize, which included a 15,000 Euro award (approx. $19,500), was awarded to Oh Willy… by Emma de Swaef and Marc James Roels. The film’s continuing success on the international festival circuit means little for its Oscar hopes since it was already entered for consideration last year and was completely overlooked by the Academy.

Other winners at Stuttgart include Ryo Okawara’s short Kara No Tamago which won the prize for animated short, and Hisko Hulsing’s Junkyard which won the audience award. The animated feature prize was awarded to the French film Ernest and Celestine, which will open in the United States this fall.

International Competition Grand Prize (15,000 euros)
Oh Willy… directed by Emma de Swaef and Marc James Roels

Lotte Reiniger Promotion Award for Animated Film (10,000 euros)
Kara No Tamago (A Wind Egg) directed by Ryo Okawara (Japan)

SWR Audience Award (6,000 euros)
Junkyard directed by Hisko Hulsing (The Netherlands)

Young Animation Award/Best Student Film (2,500 euros)
Eine Murul (Breakfast on the Grass) directed by Erik Alunurm, Mari Pakkas, Mari Liis Rebane, Mihkel Reha (Estonia)

AniMovie Award for Best Animated Feature
Ernest & Celestine directed by Benjamin Renner, Stephane Aubier and Vincent Patar (France, Belgium, Luxembourg)

Tricks for Kids Award for Best Children’s Feature (4,000 euros)
Schrecken ohne Ende (Nearest and Dearest) directed by Michael Sieber and Max Stöhhr

Tricks for Kids Award for Best Animated Series for Children
Roy: “Foot Fat Fit” directed by Alan Shannon (Ireland)

Cartoons for Teens award for Best Animated Series (2,500 euros)
Der Notfall (Déjà-moo) directed by Stefan Muller

German Screenplay Award (2,500 euros)
Molly Monster: The Movie written by John Chambers

Animated Fashion Award (2,000 euros)
Freitag X-Mas Movies directed by Claudia Rothlin and Yves Gutjar (Switzerland)

German Voice Award (2,500 euros)
Rick Kavanian for Knight Rusty, Yesterday’s Hero Recycled (Universum, Germany)

Animated Com Awards (Awards for the best applied animation in the fields of advertising, technology and spatial communication 
sponsored by Mackevision Medien Design GmbH, Animation Media Cluster Region Stuttgart, Daimler AG, U.I. Lapp GmbH)

Main prize
The Real Bears directed by Lucas Zanotto

Advertising (2,500 euros)
MTV EMA 2012 Opener directed by Mate Steinforth (Germany)

Technology (2,500 euros)
Mass Effect 3 – Take Earth Back directed by Istvan Zorkoczy (Hungary)

Spatial Communication
Swiss Pavilion Expo Yeosu: “The Source–It’s In Your Hands” directed by Marc Tamschick (Switzerland)

Special Prize Mercedes-Benz Classic: Silver Arrows (2,500 euros)
A Racers Sketchbook directed by Falk Schuster (Germany)

Special Prize Lapp Connected Award (2,500 euros)
Pinball directed by Darko Vidackovic (Croatia)

The Cesars, the French equivalent of the Oscars, were handed out on Friday evening. The sole prize for animated film (shorts and features are combined into a single category) was presented to the feature film Ernest and Celestine, directed by Benjamin Renner, Vincent Patar, and Stéphane Aubier.

Good news for Americans: distributor GKIDS has picked up the film for U.S. distribution and is prepping a fall 2013 release. Every clip I’ve seen from the film makes it appear sweet and charming in the best way possible.

A funny thing has happened: as hand-drawn studio-produced animated features have all but disappeared from the American animation scene, European and Asian studios are enjoying a mini-renaissance of drawn feature films. The latest example is Ernest et Célestine, adapted from a French children’s book series about the unlikely friendship between a gruff bear with artistic ambitions and an intelligent mouse who doesn’t want to become a dentist. The clip above gives a taste of the film’s breezy visual style that mixes broken-line characters with watercolor-style backgrounds.

Directors are Benjamin Renner, Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar, the latter two of whom directed the recent stop-motion feature A Town Called Panic. The 80-minute feature is a co-production between France (Les Armateurs, Maybe Movies, Studiocanal France), Belgium (La Parti) and Luxembourg (Mélusine Productions). Ernest et Célestine will have its world premiere this week at the Directors’ Fortnight, which takes place alongside the Cannes Film Festival.

Another extended film clip as well as a video showing the paperless production pipeline can be viewed after the jump. It’s all in French, but don’t let that stop you from taking a peek.

Cartoon Brew | Permalink | No comment | Post tags: Belgium, Benjamin Renner, Ernest et Célestine, France, Luxembourg, Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar