‘Flow,’ ‘Memoir of a Snail’ Win Big at 7th Annual Animation Is Film Festival

The 7th Annual Animation Is Film Festival wrapped up with the announcement that Gints Zilbalodis’ “Flow” took the Grand Prize, while “Memoir of a Snail” won the Special Jury Prize and tied with “The Colors Within” for the Audience Award. In the Shorts section, the Grand Prize went to “Wander to Wonder,” and the Special Jury Prize went to “A Crab in the Pool.” (The AIF centerpiece movie, “The Day The Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie,” was not eligible for juried or audience prizes.)

The feature competition titles also included “Boys Go to Jupiter,” “Ghost Cat Anzu,” and “Sultana’s Dream.”

“Flow” is a wordess fantasy adventure about a world inhabited by animals, in which a black cat is forced to survive the aftermath of a flood on a boat with a capybara, lemur, stork, and golden retriever. Animated in the open-source Blender with its real-time engine, the CG animals have a soft quality while the environments are sharper. “Without a word of dialogue, Gints Zilbalodis weaves sound, music and immersive animation to show how powerful the medium can be when coupled with the right story. ‘Flow’ seriously considers how human actions are impacting the environment, and what effect that has on animals, centering their perspective in a way that only animation can,” the Jury wrote in a statement.

Adam Elliot’s “Memoir of a Snail,” which took this year’s Annecy Cristal Award, is the director’s second stop-motion feature. The claymation feature follows the lonely, snail-hoarding Gracie (Sarah Snook), who narrates her life story in a letter to her favorite snail, Sylvia. “The distinctive personality of Adam Elliot’s stop-motion feat flows directly from its well-crafted screenplay. Wobbly lines and endearingly odd character designs work in concert with the film’s dark (but never despondent) sensibility, which embraces human imperfection and finds beauty in unlikely forms,” the Jury said.

“Wander to Wonder,” directed by Nina Gantz, takes place in the 1980s when Mary, Billybud, and Fumbleton starred in a children’s television program before they’re left in the studio after the show’s creator died. “Bonkers in the best way possible, Nina Gantz’s profound meditation on grief won this jury over with its unique visual style and sense of hope,” the Shorts Jury said. 

In an “incredibly difficult decision,” the Special Jury Prize for Shorts went to “A Crab in the Pool,” directed by Jean-Sebastien Hamel and Alexandra Myotte and described as “a poignant short about family and loss” in which teenager Zoe and Theo retreat from reality into a fantastical world. 

The festival also hosted a sneak peek at “Moana 2,” a work-in-progress look at Zack Fox and Chibu Okere’s “Yoppaman,” a panel with director David Lowery and producer Alfonso Cuarón of upcoming short “An Almost Christmas Story,” and a conversation with director Pete Browngardt about “The Day the Earth Blew Up.”

“With virtually *every* screening and event sold out, this year’s Animation Is Film Festival eclipsed each previous edition in terms of attendance and energy,” Matt Kaszanek, executive director of AIF, said in a statement. “How enormously gratifying it was to see so many new faces alongside our regulars. Congratulations – and thank you! – to all of the filmmakers for an extraordinary year in animation. Animation is film. Scream it from every rooftop!”

The 2024 juries consisted of the following animation experts: 

Features Jury:
Kambole Campbell (Journalist, Film/TV/Culture Critic), Peter Debruge (Head Film Critic, Variety), Carolyn Giardina (Senior Entertainment Technology & Crafts Editor, Variety), Karen Ryan (Producer, “Nimona”), and Drew Taylor (Senior Writer, The Wrap).

Shorts Jury:
Tom Caulfield (Filmmaker), Nic West (Chair of the John C. Hench Division of Animation + Digital Arts), and Ramin Zahed (Editor-in-Chief for Animation Magazine).