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Tonight, ASIFA-East handed out prizes for its 43nd annual Animation Festival. The Rauch Brothers took home the Best in Show for their 9/11-themed short John and Joe. Two children’s films that I particularly enjoyed at the screening were Michael Sporn’s inspiring I Can Be President (which was shown in excerpted form) and an adaptation of Mo Willems’ book Don’t Let The Pigeon Stay Up Late directed by Pete List. The latter showed that preschool animation can engage audience participation without talking down to kids.

The most surprising film of the evening was Leah Shore’s Old Man. The “old man” in question is Charles Manson, and Shore uses a breathless array of techniques and styles to illustrate recordings of his schizophrenic ramblings. Though we’ve posted Shore’s films here before—see BOOBatary and Meatwaffle—I’d suggest that Old Man is a breakout work for the young filmmaker. She is a talent to watch.

A full list of winners follows the jump.

BEST IN SHOW

John and Joe
StoryCorps/Rauch Brothers

BEST EXPERIMENTAL FILM

1st Place
Taxonomy
Karen Aqua – Director

2nd Place
Two
Steven Subotnick – Director

3rd Place
Old Man
Leah Shore – Director

BEST MUSIC VIDEO

1st Place
the light that died in my arms
Alan Foreman – Director

2nd Place
(Baby) It’s You!
David Cowles, Jeremy Galante, Brad Pattullo – Directors

3rd Place
Le Soleil Chante (The Sun Sings)
Delphine Burrus – Director

INDEPENDENT FILMS

1st Place
Turning A Corner
David B. Levy – Director

2nd Place
Dr. Breakfast
Stephen Neary – Director

3rd Place
The First Time Cee-Cee Did Acid
Twins are Weird
Noelle Melody – Director
Joy Vaccese – Producer

Excellence in Animation
More Than Winning
Nick Fox-Gieg – Director
Susan Murray – Animator

Excellence in Design
The Girl and the Fox
Base14/Tyler J. Kupferer – Director

Excellence in Design
Orbis Park
Andrew Kaiko

Excellence in Soundtrack
Car Crash Opera
Skip Battaglia – Director
Jairo Duarte-Lopez, Michaela Eremiasova – Composers

Excellence in Writing
Wolf Dog Tales
Bernadine Santistevan – Director

COMMISSIONED OVER 2 MINUTES

1st Place
Miss Devine
StoryCorps/Rauch Brothers

2nd Place
Don’t Let The Pigeon Stay Up Late
Mo Willems Studio/Weston Woods
Pete List – Director

3rd Place
I Can Be President
Michael Sporn Animation, Inc.
Michael Sporn – Director

Excellence in Education
Journey of a Water Molecule
The Knowledge Project/PS69x
Jose Maldonado, MB Hunnewell – Directors

Excellence in Writing
A History of Animation
Morgan Miller – Direc

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NY animator/director Michael Sporn has recently posted images from a gorgeous book by Emanuele Luzzati titled, The Magic Flute. Luzzati was an Italian stage designer, who, according to his obituary, “was also admired for his achievements as a book illustrator and for the animated cartoons which he co-authored with Giulio Gianini.” Sporn tells us: “…their feature version of The Magic Flute completed in 1978 was also adapted into a book by Luzzati. He’d done the sets and costumes for a version of the opera in 1963.” Some amazing colors and textures featured in this book:

Michael has split up the book into two separate posts:

The Magic Flute 1
The Magic Flute 2