The Grand Jury Prize, the festival's highest accolade, was awarded to the feature film Little Nicolas (Le Petit Nicolas), which was directed by Amandine Fredon and Benjamin Massoubre. Little Nicolas (Le Petit Nicolas) is the 2022 winner of the renowned Annecy's Cristal award in addition to receiving the AIF Grand Jury Prize. This fantastical movie chronicles the exploits of a cheeky youngster, his classmates, teacher, and parents in 1960s in Paris. Co-directors Amandine Fredon and Benjamin Massoubre have created a magnificent hand-drawn homage to French cartoonists René Goscinny and Jean-Jacques Sempé, according to jury chair and Variety's Chief Film Critic Peter Debruge. In addition to bringing these well-loved figures to life through the adaptation of the duo's distinct aesthetic to animation, they have also shed light on the lesser-known lives of the creators of those characters.
The Special Jury Prize went to My Father's Dragon, which Nora Twomey, an Oscar candidate, directed. My Father's Dragon is the second movie directed by Twomey. It received its North American Premiere at AIF this year. The Breadwinner, the first film under Twomey's direction, had its U.S. premiere at AIF in 2017 and won both Jury and Audience Awards before being nominated for an Academy Award® for Best Animated Feature. This Netflix film is based on a young boy who runs away to an island to save and befriend a juvenile dragon and is based on the Newbery Medal-winning children's book. DeBruge continued, "Director Nora Twomey and the gifted crew at Cartoon Saloon honor the look of Ruth Stiles Gannett's famous children's book while putting their own touch to this well-crafted and visually captivating kids' movie, which seems well suited for the medium of animation.
Inna Sahakyan's film Aurora's Sunrise won this year's Audience Award. In addition to winning the AIF Audience Award, Armenia's entry for Best International Feature at the 2019 Oscars is Aurora's Sunrise. The animated documentary chronicles the life of real-life silent film star Aurora Mardiganian, who managed to flee the Armenian genocide as a young girl. At the prestigious Annecy International Animation Film Festival earlier this year, Aurora's Sunrise had its world premiere before making its North American debut at AIF.
Ice Merchants, which was directed by Joo Gonzalez, received the Shorts Jury Prize this year at AIF. Ice Merchants tells the story of a father and his son that use a parachute each day and leap from their icy, precarious home set high on a cliff to travel to a little village on the ground where they sell the ice they produce.
"Animation Is Film is an idea and one that energizes cinephiles from around the world. For our fifth edition in Hollywood, it was thrilling to embrace that idea with the largest audience in the festival's history!” stated AIF Managing Director, Matt Kaszanek. “Congratulations and thank you to all of our filmmakers and partners, and to everyone who came out to celebrate with us.”
The 2022 Animation Is Film began on Friday, October 21st, with an Opening Night celebration honoring Henry Selick's Wendell & Wild, which had its U.S. premiere to a crowded house at the TCL Chinese 6 Theatres, and featured a number of sold-out events throughout the course of the weekend. The festival also held a number of unique events, such as a behind-the-scenes look at Puss In Boots: The Last Wish, in which director Joel Crawford gave an eager audience a sneak preview of his new Dreamworks Animation feature, as well as a look at the next Disney movie, Strange World. In addition, AIF presented screenings of the movies Luck (Apple Original Films/Skydance Animation), Turning Red (Pixar), and Summer Ghost (GKIDS). Additionally, it offered a unique theatrical presentation of all four episodes of the acclaimed Netflix/Tonko House series Oni: Thunder God's Tale. The well-known Best of Annecy: Spotlight on Women Directors, presented in collaboration with Annecy and Women In Animation, was one of the special sections.
This weekend, AIF will wrap up its fifth year with a preview peek at Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio and an in-depth interview with Oscar-winning filmmakers Phil Tippett and Guillermo del Toro. The event will be held at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater on Saturday, October 29.
In order to put on this year's festival, the 2022 iteration of ANIMATION IS FILM collaborated with a number of organizations in the industry: Apple Original Films, ASIFA-Hollywood, Cartoon Network, Crunchyroll, Dreamworks Animation, ELMA, Fathom Events, Gotham Group, Illumination, LAIKA, Locksmith Animation, Netflix, Nickelodeon, Paramount Animation, Pixar Animation Studios, Shout! Factory, Skydance Animation, Sony Consulates General of France and Ireland in Los Angeles, Culture Ireland, LatinX in Animation, Unifrance, and Women In Animation are some other community partners. The festival, which was established by GKIDS and the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, showcases a number of fresh animated features from Asia, Europe, South America, and North America. Jury and audience awards are given out as part of the event.