9 animated short films recognized for their excellence by an international jury include Grand Prize winner ‘Inkwo for When the Starving Return’ and Jury Award winners ‘Have I Swallowed Your Dreams’ and ‘Jour de Vent;’ View Conference 2025 runs October 12-17.
The VIEW Conference has just announced its VIEW 2024 Award-winning animated short films. An 11-member international jury selected the outstanding works based on story, direction, technical proficiency, sound, and uniqueness. Techniques used by the nine winning entries include 3DCG, stop-motion, and 2D animation. “We had so many wonderful entries, we couldn’t help but give more awards than usual this year,” said Dr. Maria Elena Gutierrez, VIEW conference director. “Adobe and Pixar Animation Studios, who kindly provided prizes for the award winners, agreed.”
The award winners are as follows:
GRAND PRIZE – 2,000 Euros
Inkwo for When the Starving Return (18 minutes)
- Director: Amanda Strong
- Production: Spotted Fawn Productions, National Film Board of Canada
JURY AWARDS (Ex Aequo) – RenderMan licenses
Have I Swallowed Your Dreams (6 minutes)
- Director: Clara Chan
- Production: Flying Dumpling Films
Jour de Vent (7 minutes)
- Directors: Martin Chailloux, Ai Kim Crespin, Elise Golfouse, Chloé Lab, Hugo Taillez, Camille Truding
- École des Nouvelles Images (ENSI)
BEST STUDENT FILM AWARDS (Ex Aequo) – Adobe Creative Cloud licenses
Sortie de Route (6 minutes)
- Directors: Alice Beneux, Victoria Demonin, Laura LeBaillif, Zohra Lecointre, Camille Maniffatore, Nathan Mathieu, Noemie Thiallier
- École des Nouvelles Images (ENSI)
Le Charade (3 minutes)
- Director: Erika Totoro
- Savannah College of Art and Design
Le Cantique Des Moutons (The Song of the Sheep) (8 minutes)
- Directors: Jules Marcel, Anaïs Castro de Angel, Juliette Bigo, Evan Lambert, Alex Le Ruyet, Jeanne Bigo, Anaïs Ledoux
- Supinfocom RUBIKA
SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS (Ex Aequo) – RenderMan licenses
Amen (7 Minutes)
- Directors: Orphee Coutier, Bettina Demarty, Kimié Maingonnat, Laurène Perego, Louise Poulain, Avril Zundel
- École des Nouvelles Images (ENSI)
Freak of Nature (8 minutes)
- Director: Alexandra Lermer
- Nuremberg Institute of Technology (Technische Hochschule Nürnberg Georg Simon Ohm)
ITALIANMIX AWARD – Adobe Creative Cloud license
Impossible Maladies
- Director: Alice Tambellini
- SenZa TesTa Productions
“Director Amanda Strong’s Grand Prize-winning film Įk’ǫǫ̀: Inkwo for When the Starving Return immersed us in a mesmerizing tale of courage, identity, and the enduring power of truth,” Dr. Gutierrez says. “Our Jury Award winners brought us a personal relationship between an immigrant mother and daughter (Have I Swallowed Your Dream) and the poetic juxtaposition of many lives (Jour de Vent). The three award-winning student films showed the range of stories animation can tell.
She adds, “For Sortie de Route, students used 3D tools to tell a painterly story of a woman, her dog, and a frog. Le Charade’s director crafted a lonely mime with stop-motion tools, and 3D tools also helped students tell a darkly humorous story of a drunk and his sheep.”
About the Films
Inkwo for When the Starving Return
Director Amanda Strong uses multiple animation techniques to adapt a short story by First Nation descendant Richard Van Camp. In the saga, a young, enigmatic, genderfluid warrior faced with internal struggles and external threats must forge their identity while taking a stand to defend the remaining humans and animals on Earth. Jury members called the film beautiful from all points of view, technical, story, art, and animation. They noted how difficult it was to blend different colors and backgrounds as it moved from one type of animation to a different version of the story to a backstory, and that it was done so masterfully. Jurors commented: “I love this film. The story flows. It was so immersive. Of all the films we saw, this one stayed with me. I still see scenes in my head.”
Have I Swallowed Your Dreams
Director Clara Chan tells a story of daughter looking back at the many sacrifices her immigrant mother made to give her the best life she could. The beautiful realization of the story, notably that of the daughter, translates to any mother and child. “I was touched by this story,” said one juror. “It really moved me. Like many of the films we saw it is well executed, but what tilted me toward this one was the story.”
Jour de Vent
Six students at ENSI – Martin Chailloux, Ai Kim Crespin, Elise Golfouse, Chloé Lab, Hugo Taillez, and Camille Truding – wanted to tell a universal and personal story, and did so by representing each student’s own tale through characters in a park, where wind appears and people fly away. Jurors called the film “pure poetry.” “It works at a different level,” said one juror. “It’s so quiet, so beautifully observed as natural forces shuffle the deck. It’s an absolute gem, a perfect combination of style, execution, good animation, and a simple clean line.”
Le Cantique des Moutons (The Song of the Sheep)
Students Jules Marcel, Anaïs Castro de Angel, Juliette Bigo, Evan Lambert, Alex le Ruyet, Jeanne Bigo and Anaïs Ledoux recently graduated from the Supinfocom RUBIKA school (Valenciennes, France) each with a Masters in Digital Director. They set their film in the Alps, where Frank, a drunk, wakes up to find an empty cellar. Who knows why? Possibly Hervé, a talking sheep. “I loved the use of humor in this film,” said one juror.
Le Charade
Student Erika Totoro from the Savannah College of Art and Design created her animated film using stop-motion. Set in a 1950’s diner, the psychological comedy follows the performance of a lonely mime whose imaginary friend breaks up with him. The jury called result impressive. “It was so smooth,” said one juror. “And I loved how she played with aspect ratio.”
Sortie de Route
A flat tire sends a young pregnant woman and her dog into a forest and a possible new life. The film was created by ENSI students Alice Beneux, Victoria Demonin, Laura LeBaillif, Zohra LeCointre, Camille Maniffatore, Nathan Mathieu and Noemie Thiallier. Jurors praised the film’s image quality, design, and rhythm.
The jury also gave Special Achievement Awards to two film: Amen and Freak of Nature. They singled out Amen for its humor, sound design, character design, and environments. “You could read the intention and emotion in the pigs’ eyes,” said one juror. “It was beautifully crafted. I really enjoyed it.” Six students at ENSI created Amen: Orphee Coutier, Bettina Demarty, Kimié Maingonnat,Laurène Perego, Louise Poulain and Avril Zundel. The second Special Achievement Award went to Freak of Nature, a stop-motion animated film by Alexandra Lermer from the Nuremberg Institute of Technology. In this emotional film, a shy and lonely creature is too scared to leave a cage until it begins caring for a little seedling. “I really loved this tender story exploring environmental themes,” said Jury President Maria Elena Gutierrez.
International Jury Members
- Peter Ramsey, Oscar-winning Director
- Setareh Samandari, CEO Interdimensional VFX
- Mike Lasker, Oscar-nominated VFX Supervisor, Sony Pictures Imageworks
- Laura Conçalves, Director
- Eloi Champagne, Head, Technical Direction & Production Technology National Film Board of Canada
- Glenn Entis, Google DeepMind
- Terry Flores, Variety
- Kendra Ruczak, Managing Editor
- Davide de Rosa, Screenwriter
- Barbara Robertson, Jury Chair, Tech Journalist
- Maria Elena Gutierrez, Jury President, CEO VIEW Conference
Special thanks to Pixar’s RenderMan and Adobe Substance 3D for their support.
Save the Date – VIEW Conference 2025
VIEW Conference is delighted to announce October 12-17, 2025, as the official dates for this year’s VIEW Conference. Registration opens soon. Visit the website for further details.
Source: VIEW Conference
Dan Sarto is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network.
