Belgian short film This Magnificent Cake! directed by Marc James Roels and Emma de Swaef won the Grand Trophy of the 2018 Anim'est International Animation Film Festival - The Experimental Edition. The event was organized in Bucharest between September 28 and October 7.

The jury was made up of Thomas Renoldner from Austria - visual artist, director, producer and curator of some Austrian animation programs at major dedicated festivals, Vessela Dantcheva from Bulgaria - animation director and co-founder of Compote Collective production company, and Joris Clerté from France - visual artist, musician, producer and animation director.

Following this award received in Romania, the Belgian short film will automatically join the long list of Oscar nominations, voted by American Film Academy members. Anim’est is the only film festival in Romania proposing films for the Oscars.

The Anim’est 2018 Best Short Film is Ride, directed by Paul Bush, while the special mentions for a short film went to III, directed by Marta Pajek (Poland) and Wildebeest, directed by Matthias Phlips and Nicolas Keppens (Belgium).

Meanwhile, Ruben Brand – Collector, directed by Milorad Krstic (Hungary), won the Best Feature Film award, Mutuem, directed by Aggie Pak Tee Lee (Estonia) received the Best Student Film prize, and Laura Pop’s The Monster was the winner of the Best Romanian Short award.

The Best Music Video award went to Clandestiny’ Mastodon, director BlinkMyBrain (USA), and the Audience Award was given to Weekends, directed by Trevor Jimenez (USA).

Irina Marica, irina.marica@romania-insider.com

(photo source: Animest.ro)