Tuesday 19 April 2011

P.C.V. was THERE!!! [en]

PRESS RELEASE
BE THERE! CORFU ANIMATION FESTIVAL

THE DAY AFTER
The Awards
Be there! Corfu Animation Festival drew its curtain on Sunday, 10 April 2011, with the Award Ceremony at the Ionian Academy with many Greek and international artists and audience present.

The 4-day festival at the Cine Orpheus and the Ionian Academy had a smooth run, and brought together people that love cinema and its new techniques to watch and discuss animation. Workshops and presentations in the always sunny Corfu enlightened audience, whereas they were really supporting, not only during film screenings, but also during the painting exhibition of the Corfu Painters Society, as well as the drawing/comics exhibition by the students of the Department of Audio and Visual Arts of the Ionian University.

The 2 competitive sections of Be there! involved artists from all over the world, topics of social importance and varied genres, and allowed audience and journalists alike to talk and discuss issues drawn upon those very same films, as well as the importance of the competitive section and the festival for the island of Corfu itself.
The Jury Committee
The Jury Committee for the short competitive section involved the animator and director Stelios Polychronakis, as president of the jury. Marianna Strapatsaki (Associate Professor, Ionian University) and Peggy Carajopoulou-Vavali (chief executive officer of distribution company PCV S.A) were the other two members. They all agreed that the award selection was not an easy task, however they decided unanimously to award those films that “used the expressive means of animation in the best possible way”. The three awarded films “handle universal topics, treated in a sensitive, always contemporary and poetic manner”.

The winners, Ines Sedan (France), who won the festival's Grand Prize for the film "The Man Who Slept," and Ben Cady (UK), who was awarded the best student film for "The goat and the well," were enthusiastic, and shared their warm regards with the participants. 

The Awards Ceremony
France was the big winner in the ceremony, since "Madagascar, carnet de voyage" by Bastien Dubois, won the jury prize, and Michel Korb won the award for the best music in animated film for "The Silence beneath the bark."  In graduation films (president of the jury: Magdalena Šebestová, Christian Papas, Leonidas Koufalis), "Echo," by the Belgian Dennis Van Den Bergh, received special mention, whereas the Audience Award went to the film, “O”, by E.-F. Ioannidis. 

The official festival guest, and magician of HD animation, the Polish director, Zbigniew Rybczynski, was in Corfu and impressed with his extended workshop, on "The Art of Making Modern Image Creation,' that ranged from psychology to Cameron's 3D.

Peggy Carajopoulou-Vavali
An innovative workshop by A. Maragianni & M. Kanellos (University of Greenwich, UK), a personal video interview of  Jirí Barta by Magdalena Šebestová were among the other festival highlights. Peggy Carajopoulou-Vavali brought an important talk to the audience concerning the distribution of animated films. The Kids, Be there! part involved the participation of the incomparable Tomek, responsible for the festival and poster logo, and totally enchanted those kids. 

The Greek premiere of Chico & Rita (Fernando Trueba) provided an energetic spectacle, whereas the screening of the Oscar-nominated The Illusionist (Sylvain Chomet) proved an audience favorite in the festival premiere.

Collaborations with the Ottawa International Animation Festival, TISFF (Thessaloniki International Short Film Festival), but also Animasyros 3.0, and the tributes to Canadians, Richard Condie and Cordell Barker, gave a glimpse of what worldwide animation can be. The tributes to Jirí Barta and  Zbigniew Rybczynski gave a special prestige to the Be there! Corfu Animation Festival. 
Peggy Carajopoulou-Vavali and Vassilis Kroustallis
The organizers emphasized the important help by the Municipality of Corfu and the Ionian University, the support of the Embassy of the Czech Republic, the Embassy of the Republic of Poland, and the Embassy of Canada, local and media sponsor support in maing this an international event of major importance to Corfu.  But the warm comments of animators, the audience, Mr. Z. Rybczynski, M  Šebestová concerning festival quality and organization were an award in itself for the organizers.
Great Events was responsible for the festival organization. 

Media sponsors: Mega Channel, Kathimerini, Culturenow.gr, Cosmo.gr, Dailymotion, Pluscorfu.gr, Cineman.gr, Corfuland.gr, Life Radio 102.9, Star Fm 88.8, ??µa FM 90.3, New Radio 97.9, Era Network, Trito Programma 90,9, Deutero Programma 103,7, Kosmos 93,6, My Kerkyra 

Grand Sponsor: Papadatos School of Learning (Humane Sciences)

Under the auspices of the Municipality of Corfu and Ionian University. 

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