09/12/2019 - Tomek Popakul's film has won both the Grand Prix and the Audience Award, while the Croatian project The Family Portrait has emerged victorious in AnimatekaPRO Pitch

l-r: Jonas Odell, Edmunds Jansons, Ana Nedeljković, Tomek Popakul, Waltraud Grausgruber and Marie Paccou

The 16th International Animated Film Festival Animateka in Ljubljana, which took place from 2-8 December, has wrapped with Polish filmmaker Tomek Popakul's festival hit Acid Rain winning both the €1,000 Grand Prix and the Audience Award, worth the same amount and provided by the Slovenian Animated Film Association.

The jury consisted of Waltraud Grausgruber, director of the Vienna-based Tricky Women/Tricky Realities Festival, and filmmakers Edmunds Jansons (Latvia), Ana Nedeljković (Serbia), Jonas Odell (Sweden) and Marie Paccou (France). Each of them gave a Special Mention to a film in the competition, which consisted of short films from Central and Eastern Europe. For the full list, please scroll down.

Nelly Michenaud's Almost There, made at the UK's National Film and Television School, won the Young Talent Award, also worth €1,000 and provided by the School of Arts (University of Nova Gorica) and the Academy of Fine Arts and Design (University of Ljubljana). Blieschow by Christoph Sarow, from the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, received a Special Mention.

The Children’s Jury Award, for the best film in the “Elephant in Competition” programme, again worth €1,000, went to Sergei Kibus' Teofrastus (Estonia).

The festival's AnimatekaPRO industry platform featured the third edition of Pitch, for new animated short films from the countries of the former Yugoslavia. The Croatian project The Family Portrait by Lea Vidaković and Draško Ivezić, of Adriatic Animation, won the Best Pitch Award, which consists of an invitation to the CEE Animation Forum 2020 with all expenses covered.

You can download the AnimatekaPRO booklet here.

Here is the full list of Animateka award winners:

Grand Prix
Acid Rain - Tomek Popakul (Poland)

Special Mention by Waltraud Grausgruber
Letting Go - Cécile Brun (Switzerland)

Special Mention by Edmunds Jansons
Don't Know What - Thomas Renoldner (Austria)

Special Mention by Ana Nedeljković
Kids - Michael Frei (Switzerland)

Special Mention by Jonas Odell
A Cat Is Always Female - Martina Meštrović, Tanja Vujasinović (Croatia)

Special Mention by Marie Paccou
Cosmonaut - Kaspar Jancis (Estonia)

Young Talent Award
Almost There - Nelly Michenaud (UK)

Student Jury's Special Mention
Blieschow - Christoph Sarow (Germany)

Children’s Jury Award
Teofrastus - Sergei Kibus (Estonia)

;DSAF Audience Award
Acid Rain - Tomek Popakul

AnimatekaPRO Pitch Award
The Family Portrait - Lea Vidaković, Draško Ivezić (Adriatic Animation, Croatia)