France’s Annecy International Animation Film Festival has unveiled the prize winners of its biggest edition to date, running from June 11 to 17.
Italian-French directorial duo’s Chiara Malta and Sébastien Laudenbach’s Chicken For Linda! has won the top Cristal award for best film.
The heartwarming tale revolves around a mother and daughter struggling to come to terms with a personal tragedy in their lives.
Following a misunderstanding, the mother embarks on a mission to cook her daughter her favorite dish of chicken with peppers against the backdrop of a national strike.
The features is coproduced by Dolce Vita Films, Miyu Productions, and Dorje Film.
Hungarian director Áron Gauder’s Four Souls Of Coyote won the Jury Award.
The adventure tale tackles environmental issues through the prism of a Native American creation myth, revisited by four teenagers trying to save ancestorial land from an oil pipeline project.
Gauder previously won Annecy’s Cristal award for best film for The District (Nyócker!).
The film is produced by Budapest-based Cinemon Entertainment, while Gebeka International acquired world rights on the eve of Annecy.
The jury for the main competition this year was made up of Mexican showrunner and executive producer Sofia E. Alexander, Canadian producer Kid Koala, and French director Jan Kounen.
In peripheral prizes for the main competition, Japanese director Tomohisa Taguchi’s The Tunnel To Summer, The Exit Of Goodbyes won the Paul Grimault Award.
Chicken for Linda! won the Gan Foundation Award for Distribution.
In the newer Contrechamp section, Spanish director Pablo Berger’s Robot Dreams won the Grand Prize, while the Jury Prize went to Tony, Shelly And The Magic Light by Hungarian Filip Pošivač.
The Audience Award, open to films in both the main and Contrechamp sector, went to Bénoît Chieux’s Sirocco And The Kingdom Of Air Streams.
The film, which opened the festival, was lead produced by Paris-based Sacrebleu Productions with Belgium’s Take Five and France’s Ciel de Paris.
The Cristal for best short went to Hungarian Flóra Anna Buda’s 27.