The 19th edition of the Holland Animation Film Festival wrapped up yesterday in Utrecht, Netherlands.
Veteran director Igor Kovalyov, who has directed many well known shorts (Bird in a Window, Milch) alongside mainstream industry projects, like The Rugrats Movie, took home the narrative short film grand prize for his latest film, Before Love, which had its world premiere at Holland. The short jury, comprised of Dave Cooper, Bernard Granger, and Tatsutoshi Nomura, called the film a “masterwork,” describing it as “a lush feast of undulating light and textures that tells a mouthwatering ambiguous story. It offers as many questions as it does answers.”
Holland is unique in that the festival also gives a grand prize for non-narrative shorts, which are often overlooked when it comes to awards at other festivals. The festival’s non-narrative prize was awarded to Track by Tochka and Kazue Monno.
