LIAF 2017: Judges – The Inside Scoop
Each year we search for the finest panel of Judges: Educators; Independent Animators; Producers; affiliates of prominent organisations (all with animation at their core); Authors, Curators and more. All are experts in their field and all possess the ‘shining’ when it comes to an informed and exploratory eye for excellence in the animation world.
This year we were honoured to welcome a Judging Panel who perfectly filled our criteria: Suzanne Buchan, Luiz Stockler, William Bishop-Stevens, Emma Calder and Britt Raes. They valiantly viewed, assessed and debated the finer points of our LIAF 2017 International Competition Programmes.
We cannot emphasise enough, just how difficult a task this is. It takes an awful lot of time, an immense level of concentration, diligent note-taking, as well as debating skills to rival any politician. And so we’d like to extend a heart-filled ‘thank you’ to our Panel of Judges. We’d also like to take a moment to thank our Festival Director and Co-Director: Nag Vladermersky and Malcom Turner, for their year-round dedication to whittling down over 2,600 entries and curating them into the final programmes that we were honoured to share with you at this years’ Festival.
Below you’ll find out a little more about our excellent panel of Judges. We’ve also included their elegantly scribed comments as to why each of the animations that triumphed at LIAF 2017, stood out as our winners.
Suzanne Buchan: International Competition Programme Judge
Suzanne Buchan is Professor of Animation Aesthetics in the School of Art and Design, Middlesex University, where she is also Director of the Art and Design Research Institute (ADRI). Before joining Middlesex she was Professor of Animation Aesthetics and Director of the Animation Research Centre, University for the Creative Arts, UK and she also taught at the University of Zurich and the Zurich University of the Arts.
She is Founding Editor of Animation: an interdisciplinary journal, a member of the AHRC Peer Review College and is active as a curator and a consultant for international film festivals, museums and broadcast media.
In the less restrictive pre-Bologna Swiss and Canadian university systems Buchan studied a range of disciplines, including English Literature and Linguistics, Film Studies, Anthropological Psychology, Philosophy, Theatre Studies, Stage Performance and Art History. She has a PhD, from the University of Zurich, Switzerland in Film Studies and Lizentiats (MAs) from the University of Zurich, Switzerland in Film Studies, English Literature and Linguistics, Anthropological Psychology.
Luiz Stockler: International Competition Programme Judge
Luiz Stockler is a Brazilian-born British Director, Animator, Illustrator and Designer working and living in London. He is a graduate of the University of Wales, Newport and the Royal College of Art. His work has been recognised by the Royal Television Society and the Adobe Design Achievement Awards and his films have been screened and awarded in festivals around the world, such as Stuttgart, Slamdance, Pictoplasma and Zagreb.
Since 2013 he has worked on several commercial projects for a number of big and small clients including Red Bull, Google, the Harvard Business Review, CBBC, The School of Life and DMAX, as well as freelancing at some of London’s biggest studios such as Nexus Productions and BlinkInk. He has also given talks, presentations and workshops at a variety of festivals and institutions, including the Arts University of Bucharest, the Royal College of Art, Anibar Animation Festival in Kosovo and the Academy of Fine Arts and Theatre in Chisinau, Moldova as well as being a visiting tutor at the Animation Worksheep in Bucharest, Romania.
William Bishop-Stevens: International Competition Programme Judge
William is a Stop Motion Animator, Writer/ Director, Author of Wrongboy’s History of Earth, (Walker Books, 2003). He is Programme Leader at University of East London. Before joining UEL, he was former Tutor at Royal College of Art, former Tech and Tutor at UCA Farnham. He is also a former Animation Workshops and Community Film Projects Leader.
Emma Calder: Abstract Film Judge
Emma studied Graphic Design at the London College of Printing and The Royal College of Art, which is where she began to experiment with animation. Her talents have been widely recognised and in 1983 she animated 1984 (Music for Modern Americans), produced by Eduardo Paolozzi and the Royal College of Art. She also directed and animated various award winning pop videos in the eighties including Shame by the Eurythmics and Close to the Edit by The Art of Noise (Director of Sequence).
In 1989 she set up Pearly Oyster Productions with fellow animator Ged Haney, the pair co-directing the curious puppet animation children’s film The Drummer.
Emma is currently developing and writing Gum Shoe Story an animated/live action documentary about chewing gum and making Random Person 52 part viral internet animation series.
Her latest film Roger Ballen’s Theatre of Apparitions commissioned by Roger Ballen which she co-directed with Ged Haney had it’s World Premiere at Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) 2016. London Premiere, The BFI London Film Festival 2016.
Britt Raes: Abstract Film Judge
Britt Raes is an illustrator and animator. She grew up in Flanders, Belgium. Her most recent film is Catherine. The life story of a sweet young girl who grows up to be a crazy old cat lady, which screened at LIAF this year, winning the Audience Award for International Competition Programme 1.
Catherine has also won awards at the Dublin Animation Film Festival, Animakom, Womanimation, Star Film Festival, San Sebastian Horror and Fantasy Film Festival, Zabut International Animation Film Festival, Lago Film Festival and the Leeds International Film Festival among others.
Britt describes herself as wanting to make her imaginated world come to life in animated films. When she grows up, she wants to be a crazy cat lady.
Best of the Festival Award: The Burden (Niki Lindroth Von Bahr)
“A brilliant translation of the conventions of the Musical film genre into exquisite and uplifting animated puppetry that challenges contemporary existential bleakness. The hope and humanity of this piece elevated it above the other contenders; The Burden deals with the realities of the working experience that effect us all.”
Suzanne Buchan, Luiz Stockler & William Bishop-Stevens
Best British Film Award: Six God Alphabet Peter (Peter Millard)
“This absurd and anarchic punch in the face takes us on a rollercoaster of emotions. With its simple aesthetic and rhythmical pacing, it breaks every rule of animation, storytelling and audience pleasing content provision.”
Suzanne Buchan, Luiz Stockler & William Bishop-Stevens
Best Abstract Film Award: Strange Fish (Steven Subotnick)
“An intimate world with skillful and sensitive animation. It’s black and white simplicity and almost childlike line-work quivers with organic life which is further enhanced by a breathy and imaginative sound track.”
Emma Calder & Britt Raes
Abstract Film Special Mention: Attraction (Emily Scaife)
“Transported by colour, a buzzy soundtrack and captivating sensuous imagery, this work allowed us to feel dimensionless and join the world of the insect on it’s pursuit of gratification, for a few minutes at least.”
Emma Calder & Britt Raes
Best Sound Design Award: The Absence of Eddy Table (Fredric Vogel)
“Sophisticated squishy, splatty, crunchy, groany, gooey, scary soundscape that brings to life the physicality of every element and perfectly underpins the visual world.”
Suzanne Buchan, Luiz Stockler & William Bishop-Stevens
Jury Special Awards
Jury Special Award: World of Tomorrow Episode 2 ‘The Burden of other people’s thoughts’ (Don Hertzfeld)
“A fully realised animated digital dystopia contrasted with a child’s joyful unmediated world.”
Suzanne Buchan, Luiz Stockler & William Bishop-Stevens
Jury Special Award: The Escape (Jaroslav Konopka)
“Technical virtuosity of movement and materials achieves an empathetic revelation of the visceral, despairing experience of war, opression and misery.”
Suzanne Buchan, Luiz Stockler & William Bishop-Stevens
Jury Special Award: Have Heart (Will Anderson)
“Compelling and inventive visual storytelling of how love softens being stuck in an existential loop.”
Suzanne Buchan, Luiz Stockler & William Bishop-Stevens
Jury Honourable Mention: Lovestreams (Sean Buckelew)
“Early virtual love and its many faces.”
Suzanne Buchan, Luiz Stockler & William Bishop-Stevens
Jury Honourable Mention: Manivald (Chintis Lundgren)
“Warm, quiet, gentle coming of age.”
Suzanne Buchan, Luiz Stockler & William Bishop-Stevens
Jury Honourable Mention: Summer’s Puke is Winter’s Delight (Sawako Kabuki)
“Artistic risk taking on a distressing theme.”
Suzanne Buchan, Luiz Stockler & William Bishop-Stevens
Judges’ Vote International Competition Programme 1 – From Absurd to Zany: Wednesday with Goddard (Nicolas Menard)
“A technically playful journey of self-discovery, its wonderful pacing, use of graphic elements and bright flat colours elegantly contrast with its muted but beautifully rendered backgrounds.”
Suzanne Buchan, Luiz Stockler & William Bishop-Stevens
Judges’ Vote International Competition Programme 2 – Being Human: Negative Space (Ru Kawahata and Max Porter)
“Sensitive, beautifully animated father-son bonding over baggage that excels in its aesthetic values and nuanced design decisions.”
Suzanne Buchan, Luiz Stockler & William Bishop-Stevens
Judges’ Vote International Competition Programme 3 – Looking For Answers: Wicked Girl (Ayce Kartal)
“These well-chosen animated techniques allow visual transformations of a child’s home and culture and imagination, and remind us of why we use animation.”
Suzanne Buchan, Luiz Stockler & William Bishop-Stevens
Judges’ Vote International Competition Programme 4 – Playing with Emotion: 69 Sec (Laura Nicolas)
“A talented exploration of the literal limtations of space and minimal design, this delightful graphic interpretation of erotic interludes and vignettes is underpinned by a suggestive soundscape.”
Suzanne Buchan, Luiz Stockler & William Bishop-Stevens
Judges’ Vote International Competition Programme 5 – Long Shorts: The Burden (Niki Lindroth Von Bahr)
“Exquisite model making, an evocation of atmosphere and a place that doesn’t connect to anything, this Kauriskmaki-esque all-singing all-dancing choreography is a spectacle of hope in an environment of McJobs and the gig economy.”
Suzanne Buchan, Luiz Stockler & William Bishop-Stevens
Judges’ Vote International Competition Programme 6 – Below the Surface: Little Girl (Steven Subotnick)
“Technically diverse and mischevious, a weird and deadpan take on the trials and victories of a tuff little girl.”
Suzanne Buchan, Luiz Stockler & William Bishop-Stevens
Judges’ Vote International Competition Programme 7 – Into the Dark: The Absence of Eddy Table (Rune Spaans)
“Uncanny technical and aural acheivement that drops us into a disturbing, fully realised animated world, and takes us on a bizarre, mindblowing journey that shows the bright sides and the dark sides of human imagination.”
Suzanne Buchan, Luiz Stockler & William Bishop-Stevens
Judges’ Vote International Competition Programme 8 – Animated Documentaries: Surprise (Paulo Patricio)
“A lovingly animated observation of a mother and daughter’s resilience and creativity when dealing with the bittersweet nature of past trauma.”
Suzanne Buchan, Luiz Stockler & William Bishop-Stevens
