Canadian Film Digest (Dec 1976)

chairman and the international jury consisted of critic, writer and filmmaker Andre Martin, who was one of the founders of ASIFA; Peter Brouwer, Dutch animation producer; Borivoj Dovnikovic, awardwinning animator with Zagreb-Film; Grant Munro, one of the founding members of the National Film Board’s animation department; and Lillian Schwartz, computer animation filmmaker. A well-received innovation at the Ottawa Festival was the Animation Workshop. It was directed by Co Hoedeman of the NFB and offered personal contact with internationally known animators as well as access to a great deal of equipment: Super 8 cameras, an instant-playback video setup, light boxes, a miniature AlexeieffParker pinscreen, a Reiniger silhouette stand, and a variety of materials — paper, cels, magazines, paints, sand and clay. Unusual for the host country, Canada walked away with most of the awards including the Grand Prize to Caroline Leaf for her ten-minute film The Street. Leaf also won first prize in the films for children category with Le Mariage du Hibou (The Owl That Married The Goose), a sand animation of the Eskimo legend. First prize in the instructional films Scenes from The Street: category went to Jeacher, Lester Bit Me by Lynn Smith of the NFB. In the firstfilms category Paul Demeyer of the U.S. won with The Muse. An independent Canadian filmmaker David Cox won first prize for a film shorter than three minutes with Simb/osis. |n the over-three-minute category Italian filmmaker Manfredo Manfredi took first prize for Deda/o (Labyrinth). Bob Kurtz’s U.S. ad Dinosaur took top honours in the commercial category. Special jury prizes went to the NFB’s Le Paysagiste (Mindscape) and Lotte Reiniger Lotte Reiniger’s Aucassin And Nicolette. Such a festival is an expensive undertaking. The budget ran close to $220,000 and covered the costs of bringing in international animators and special guests as well as 21 foreign film journalists. The bilingual information packages alone cost $15,000. Part of the budget came from the CFI’s annual allotment for a film festival. But that amount (last year’s Film Expo ‘75 cost $75,000) was a long way from the total needed for a festival of this magnitude. Most of the balance came through grants for specific items from a number of government and private organizations. Among them: The Festivals Bureau of the Secretary of State, the Department of External Affairs, Wintario, the Canadian Film Development Corporation, Kodak Canada, Olivetti Canada and the Royal Bank. Other sources of revenue were private donations, ticket sales and volunteered services. The CFI faces a hefty deficit of $75,000 and is working busily to pay that off now. But with the experience of this year under its belt and more lead time for the next event, the CFI should have little trouble maintaining the high standards which Ottawa 76 established. * The Trophy, designed and cast by Montreal sculptor Jean Letarte. Eight trophies, each slightly different and with varying pairs of hand-made eyes, were moulded in solid silver reclaimed from motion picture film. canadian film digest 27