Several animated shorts were honored at this year's Giffoni International Film Festival, the largest children's film festival in Europe.
Young jurors gave the Amnesty International Award to Heimatland, by Andrea Schneider, Marius Portmann and Fabio Friedli of Switzerland.
In the film, Hausi, a Swiss patriot, leads an ordered and happy life in his humble home. Everything seems to be peaceful until the day a foreigner moves in next door and turns his world upside down.
Jurors honored Heimatland "for the great universal message against xenophobia it carries, told in only six minutes, for the great care for detail, and the extreme simplicity and creative genius."
Spycat and the Paper Chase, by Darren Lim of Singapore, won the Gryphon Award for best short film in the Elements +3 section. Spycat hunts down Captain Chico, whose latest scheme involves robbing the world of every paper product there is.
Lim is a Singaporean artist and writer who enjoys designing characters and visualizing the worlds that they live in. Spycat and the Paper Chase is his latest animated short film and his second directorial effort. He is currently a project officer at Nanyang Technological University and a freelance illustrator.
The Giotto Super Be'Be' Award, a special award in the Elements +3 section, went to The Boy and the Moon, by Rino Alaimo of Italy. It's the tale of a boy who fell in love with the moon and his adventures to conquer her heart.
The Boy and the Moon was recognized "for the originality of the treatment and technical tools used capable of expressing Italian creativity at its best. For its ability to take the audience on a passionate journey to happiness."
Second place for best short film in the Generator +18 section went to Edmond Was a Donkey, by Franck Dion of France. The film was also given the ANEC Award (National Association of Cinema Owners).
In Edmond Was a Donkey, when his co-workers tease him by crowning him with a pair of donkey ears, Edmond suddenly discovers his true nature. In 2006, together with a few friends, Dion founded Papy 3D. This, his third short film, is the first film that Papy 3D has co-produced with the National Film Board of Canada.
The Giffoni International Film Festival takes place in the southern Italian town of Giffoni Valle Piana, close to Salerno. The age of jurors ranges from 6 to 18, and they are placed into four official competitive sections according to their age group.
