THE ANIMATED WINNERS OF RIVERRUN!

Okay, so I'm back from my judgeship at the  Riverrun Film Festival in beautiful Winston Salem, North Carolina! I'm used to going to  animation-only festivals where I know, (or at least know of) most of the filmmakers  and attendees.

But Riverrun is primarily a

live-action festival so I didn't  know many people.   Fortunately I had my fellow  animated shorts jurors: That's  New York animator/director Celia Bullwinkel  in the middle. And that's  animator illustrator designer  and Nickelodeon  development coordinator Joanna Leitch on the right.
They kick butt and we had a great time wandering around Winston Salem, eating Southern food and drinkin' root beers, But the real reason we were there was to watch lots of films, pass mad judgement and declare some winners!
So I present to you our pick for the  Best Student Animated Short:
The Present by Jacob Frey from Filmakademie Baden-Wurttenberg, Germany

And the winner of Best Animated Short:
Bear Story by Gabrielle Osorio Vargas
Here's what we had to say about it:
“With its mechanical tin toy aesthetic and clever  take on narrative vs. reality, we and the audience enjoyed  the film’s tale of a bears tragic and ultimately heroic life story.”

Both are wonderful films. Definitely check them out if you get a chance!
I'll tell you a little more about  the festival in my next post. So stay right where you are, okay?