Animahenasyon Festival at SMAura Premier

The Animation Council of the Philippines, Inc. (ACPI) together with the Game Development Association of the Philippines (GDAP) recently held Animahenasyon 2016: 10th Philippine Animation Festival at the Samsung Hall in SM Aura Premier.

A joint project of the Animation Council of the Philippines, Inc., and SM, the Animahenasyon festival aims to promote the country's animation industry and to showcase the exceptional talents of professional, as well as young and aspiring Filipino animators both locally and internationally.

Several professionals and upcoming Filipino animators from different universities and colleges around the country that offer animal and digital art courses participated in the competition. These included Ateneo de Naga University, and De La Salle - College of St. Benilde, Asia Pacific College, and De La Salle University. And the best of the best were cited during the festival's awards night.

"Strings" by Rafael Daniel Evangelista won the Grand Prize award and several other awards including Best Production Design and Best in Narrative. Other winners in the ACPI Awards include Avid Liongoren's "Muning" for Best Animation for Children and "Josephine" for Best in Technical. The John Martin Award was given to Christine Silva for her 2-dimentional traditional hand-drawn animation, "Building Too". The Best Animation in professional division was awarded to John Arthur Mercader from Puppeteer Animation Studios in Davao.

Renz Vincemark Cruz and Hannah Gayapa of College of St. Benilde were awarded the Public Choice Award and Best Regional Entry for their short film, "Passage of Life"; while "Hinagunoy sa Goryon" by Karl Derrick Sia from Cebu won the Best Animation in student category as well as the Hero TV Award.

The Game Developers Association of the Philippines (GDAP), on the other hand, also awarded game animators in both students and professional tracks. In the student division. the College of St. Benilde won big that evening: Best Educational Game and Best Narrative to Face the Phase, Best Gameplay to Ragnarok Protocol, Best Game Art to Seizmore Fin and the Game of the Year to Tesselate. Not to be outdone, Students from De La Salle University won the Best in Innovation for The Tempest Core.

In the professional division, The Game of the Year was awarded to Senshi. Labs in Book1: Pisces War, Guardian Chronicles. Likewise, another Senshi. Labs game "Adarna 2: Alamat ni Maria Blanca" swept the awards with Best Music & Sound Design, Best Educational Game, and Best Narrative. "Sky's the Limit" by IAcademy won the Public Choice Award, and "Roarz VR" by KLab Cyscorpsions won the Best in Innovation. "Tamagogo: The Great Egg Escape" by Ingenuity Games from Davao City won the Best Mobile/ Handheld Game, Best Gameplay, and Best Game Art.

The Animahenasyon 2016 Festival and Awards Night is one of the many enriching creative events at the Samsung Hall in SM Aura Premier.