Southeast Asia's largest festival dedicated to independent animation, Cartoons Underground, was relatively muted this year. With most festivities shifted online, the competition was no less fierce. The festival still maintained its competitive edge with 17 films chosen from 1,321 entries and a new section for Asian animation. This year's judges also reflected their exciting entries, with two filmmakers – Sarah Cheok from LASALLE College of the Arts and Tan Si En from Momo Film Co. and Berlinale Talents/Rotterdam Lab alum – and Indie-AniFest‘s very own festival director, Choi Yu-jin.
It seems that Singaporean films this year appealed the most out of this year's slate, as the only award winners are mostly of Singaporean origin — save for Du Yen-Ting's “A Mysterious Hat” (Taiwan). More pertinently though, three out of five awards have been bestowed to student filmmakers – a definite tip of the hat to Singapore's next generation of animators. But without ado, the announcements:
Best Animation – Ju Ren (Harry and Henry Zhuang, Singapore)
From us: “Ju Ren” is a technically notable feat, intriguing for the Zhuang Brothers' keen attention to finer detail. The fish's heavy breathing, the creative interpretation of water (always a struggle in stop-motion animation), and the construction of a debris-based set is awe-worthy. The flexibility with newsprint too speaks to the attention to Tan Swie Hian's own artistic supervision, as well. All in all, “Ju Ren” is a new materialist fantasy come true: it breathes life into a form previously unimagined. It certainly makes giants out of the low.” (Grace Han)
Best Singapore Student Animation – Watermelon Please (Lim Jia-Ying, Singapore)
Special Mention – A Mysterious Hat (Du Yen-ting, Taiwan)
From us: “Undeniably, the short film speaks to the nefarious means people will sink too in order to get even a small slice of the pie…A truly effective use of narrative and style to tell a short concise tale about the perils of greed, “Mysterious Hat” is a well executed animated short worth checking out.” (Adam Symchuk)
Special Mention – Sexy Sushi (Calleen Koh and Amanda Teo, Singapore)
From us: “What separates “Sexy Sushi” from many other shorts, and what it makes it an incredible film, is the fact that it manages to explore many contemporary problems in great depth and all in the span of only two minutes. Who knew that a short story about a bunch of sex between rice and his toppings could be so thought provoking?” (Martin Lukanov)
Audience Choice Award – Strange Occurrences: Bukit Bulabu (Wong Shi Teng, Gloria Yeo, Hanna Lee, Singapore)
