It had to be the director of 'Mary & Max'. Adam Elliot (of Mary & Max) won the Cristal for a feature animation at the 2024 Annecy Festival, with the equally morbid and quirky stop-motion 'Memoir of a Snail' (our review). This is the first time since 2017 (and the winner of 'Lu over the Wall' by Masaaki Yuasa) that France lost the Annecy Cristal for a feature film (either as the main production or a co-production country).

This is the second Cristal for a feature for Adam Elliot, who won (in ex aequo with Henry Selick's Coraline) with 'Mary & Max' back in 2009.  On the other hand, the no-dialogue 'Flow' by Latvian filmmaker Gints Zilbalodis managed to grab 4 festival awards (including the Audience Award), proving that silence is golden (the film received an additional music prize award in the Special Awards ceremony of the 14th June).

'Sultana's Dream' by Isabel Herguera won the Grand Prix at the festival's parallel Contrechamp competition.

The Cristal for a Short Film went to the Portuguese duo of Alexandra Ramires & Laura Gonçalves, a multi-awarded duo for their other films as well (The Garbage Man, Drop by Drop). This is what they told Zippy Frames about the film:

This film was made out of the desire to show an Algarve (a region in the south of Portugal) with its own voice that wants to look at another side of the tourist postcard: the side of those who live there all year round. A compliment to the people, the sea and its fauna, who are resisting the violent transformations of tourism - Alexandra Ramires & Laura Gonçalves

Check another Annecy Festival luminary, Boris Labbé (Rhizome, La chute), who won for his experimental, 'sonic-video' work 'Glasshouse' (Off-the-limits competition). And the queer 'Carrotica' by Daniel Sterlin-Altman won the Best Graduation film, just after one week after his Best Student Film win at Animafest Zagreb.
 

The full list of the 2024 Annecy Awards

Feature Films

Cristal for a Feature Film:
"Memoir of a Snail” Adam ELLIOT (Australia)

Grace Pudel is a lonely misfit with an affinity for collecting ornamental snails and an intense love for books. At a young age, when Grace is separated from her fire-breathing twin brother Gilbert, she falls into a spiral of anxiety and angst. Despite a continued series of hardships, inspiration and hope emerge when she strikes up an enduring friendship with an elderly eccentric woman named Pinky, who is full of grit and lust for life. From Academy Award-winning animation writer and director Adam Elliot, Memoir of a Snail is a poignant, heartfelt, hilarious chronicle of the life of an outsider finding her confidence and silver linings amongst the clutter of everyday life.

Jury Award:
"Flow by Gints ZILBALODIS (Latvia/Belgium/France)
A cat wakes up in a world covered in water, where the entire human race seems to have disappeared. He seeks refuge on a boat with a group of other animals. But getting along with them proves to be an even greater challenge than overcoming his fear of water! Everyone will need to learn to overcome their differences and adapt to this new world they find themselves in.


Paul Grimault Award:
Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window by Shinnosuke YAKUWA (Japan)
At little Totto-Chan’s Tomoe School during the Second World War, she learns what racism and intolerance are, and discovers the grim reality of war.

Contrechamp Grand Prix:
Sultana's Dream by Isabel Herguera (Spain/Germany)

Taking its inspiration from a feminist sci-fi short story written in Bengal in 1905, Inés sets out on a voyage of discovery around India in search of Ladyland, the utopian land of women.

Contrechamp Jury Award:
Living Large by Kristina DUFKOVÁ (Czech Republic/Slovakia/France)
12-year-old Ben has just hit puberty and suddenly his weight's a problem – for him and for everyone else. The other kids bully him, his divorced parents don't know what to do. Even the school nurse is worried about him. So, despite his love of food and his emerging talent as a chef, Ben decides to take drastic action. He goes on a diet.

Gan Foundation Award for Distribution:
"Flow" - UFO DISTRIBUTION (dir. Gints ZILBALODIS)

Short Films

Cristal for a Short Film (Portugal/France)
"Percebes" Alexandra RAMIRES, Laura GONÇALVES

With the sea and urban Algarve as the backdrop, we follow a complete life cycle of a special shellfish called percebes, the goose barnacle.

Jury Award:
"The Car that Came Back from the Sea" by Jadwiga KOWALSKA (Switzerland)
Full of exuberance and frivolousness, six friends drive to the Polish Baltic coast and back in a small, beaten-up car. During their trip, their car and their country fall apart. Nevertheless, life goes on.

Alexeïeff – Parker Award:
"Beautiful Men" by Nicolas KEPPENS (Belgium/France/Netherlands)
Three balding brothers travel to Istanbul to get a hair transplant. Stuck with each other in a hotel far from home, their insecurities grow faster than their hair.

Jean-Luc Xiberras Award for a First Film:
"[S] " by Mario RADEV (UK)
[S] is a loop that exposes the lifespan of infinity. The film delves into an immersive loop of organic forms, reflecting on the entangled nature of life and art.

Off-Limits Award
"Glass House" by Boris LABBÉ (France)

A sonic-video work, a disruptive immersive experience. It’s a glass Tower of Babel, a beautiful hypnotic kaleidoscope. It’s a feeling of both attraction and repulsion, inspired by sci-fi books.

TV & Commissioned Films

Cristal for a TV Production:
The Drifting Guitar by Sophie ROZE (France/Switzerland)

A weasel, who’s unusual job is to sell ties, roams around the countryside. Considered a pest and constantly on the move, she decides to try her luck in the forest. Her fate is about to change when a hedgehog intervenes.

Jury Award for a TV Series:
La Vie de château "Le Fantôme de Versailles" by Clémence MADELEINE-PERDRILLAT, Nathaniel H'LIMI (France/Luxembourg)
Malcolm wants Régis and Olga to fall in love, but Violette has a more important mission: to find her missing mouse. In Versailles' secret nooks, she has an unexpected encounter: Louis XIV himself.

Jury Award for a TV Special:
"Lola et le Piano à bruits" by Augusto ZANOVELLO (France/Poland/ Switzerland)

Lola, 11, is sister to 5-year-old Simon, who lives in a world of his own. By observing him, she notices how sensitive he is to small, hidden sounds. With her friend Rolih, they decide to build a noise machine to communicate with him.

Cristal for a Commissioned Film:
Pictoplasma "Opener 2023" by Will ANDERSON (UK)

Jury Award for a Commissioned Film:
TED-Ed "How Did South African Apartheid Happen, and How Did It Finally End?" Aya MARZOUK (US/South Africa/Egypt)
In this TED-Ed video, we visualized a period that ensured South Africa was dominated politically, socially and economically by the nation's elitist white population.

Graduation Films

Cristal for a Graduation Film:
"Carrotica" Daniel STERLIN-ALTMAN (Germany)

A mother and son navigate their lust and loneliness in the queerest of ways.

Jury Award:
"Pubert Jimbob" by Quirijn DEES (Belgium)
Pubert Jimbob, a young man, enters a strange reality after getting lured away from his home by an enigmatic figure who throws him a lighter. Jimbob meets Nadine, a lump with a mouth, and helps her.

Lotte Reiniger Award:
"Maatitel" by Govinda SAO (India)
A rural family of four faces challenges as the parents prepare for dinner after a joyful day. An argument unfolds in front of their children, escalating to unbearable vehemence.

VR Works

Cristal for the Best VR Work:
"Gargoyle Doyle" by Ethan SHAFTEL (US/Austria/Argentina)

An irritable gargoyle spends 800 years stuck on the side of a cathedral with a decorative metal rain gutter as the world changes for better and for worse.

Audience Award for a Short Film:
"Hurikán" by Jan SASKA (Czech Republic/France/Slovakia/Bosnia & Herzegovina)
Hurikán rushes out to save his favourite beer stand from closure by fetching a new keg to impress the bartender he has a crush on. In a wild Prague district, he faces robbers, cops, and his own thirst. Despite getting the keg, he succumbs to temptation.

Audience Award for a TV Film:
The Drifting Guitar by Sophie ROZE (France/Switzerland)

Audience Award for a Feature Film:
"Flow" by Gints ZILBALODIS

The 2024 Annecy Festival took place 9-15 June 2024 in Annecy, France.