Hamburg Animation Award 2010 Goes to Creative Talent Newcomer from Germany

Short film Lebensader wins among 110 contestants from six countries

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Hamburg, 5 July 2010 – Angela Steffen from the Film Academy Baden-Württemberg won the Hamburg Animation Award 2010 and EUR 5,000 in prize money for her short film Lebensader. Fabian Erlinghäuser, Chief Animation Designer of the Oscar-nominated animated film Brendan and the Secret of Kells, honoured the winner in a speech to an audience of 700 guests at Schmidts Tivoli. Erlinghäuser cited the jury’s reasoning: “Angela Steffen has found a style all her own, she masters formal vocabulary and communicates a serous subject in a light and beautiful way”. “Good creative talent newcomers are not only in demand in the animated film sector. The advertising business and games industry are constantly on the lookout for well-trained animation designers. The Hamburg Animation Award honours young talented newcomers and brings them into contact with the industry”, noted Hamburg Chamber of Commerce President, Frank Horch, in his welcome speech at the award ceremony, whose audience included Hamburg media senator Prof Dr Karin von Welck, Charles Malinas, counsellor of embassy for culture, education and higher education of the French Embassy, Hamburg media coordinator Karl Dietrich Seikel, President of the Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein Filmförderung (film funding) Eva Hubert, and Vice-President of the Hamburg City Parliament Dr Eva Gümbel. The second prize, endowed with EUR 3,000 in prize money, also went to students from the Film Academy Baden-Württemberg (Jacob Frey, Harry Fast) for their film Bob. The third prize and EUR 2,000 in prize money went to Tobias Gundorff Boesen, Katrine Kiilerich Poulsen, Frederik Villumsen and Christoph Peladan from the The Animation Workshop Viborg, the Danish creative hotbed, for their film Out of a Forest. This year’s Country Award for guest country France and EUR 2,000 in prize money was awarded to 9 vies from the Bellecour Écoles d'art et d'infographie 3D in Lyon (Romain Bourzeix, Damien Levaufre, Thibaut Gache, Aude Glondu). At the award ceremony the audience voted for the winner of the Audience Award, which is endowed with EUR 888 in prize money. 2010 marks the seventh year the Hamburg Animation Award, organised and sponsored by the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce, the Bildungswerk Medien e.V. (a society sponsoring young media projects and newcomers) and the animation-school-hamburg (SBB), has been conferred on national and international newcomers in animated cartoon design. Graduates of film academies and colleges entered final projects which were judged by a prominent jury based on the criteria “Style and Story”. This year’s contest featured 111 films entered by candidates from film schools in Germany, Turkey, Denmark, New Zealand, Israel and France. The award ceremony was sponsored mainly by companies from the business community.

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