Animation festival celebrates young talent
The Animation Council of the Philippines Inc. celebrated promising Filipino creators at the recent 16th Animahenasyon Philippine Animation Festival.
The student division of Animahenasyon competition was dominated by the homegrown talents from the Animation Program of the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde School of New Media Arts.
Benildean Mikayla Elise Lariosa won the grand prize and the Best in Storytelling titles for her three-minute short “Dear Friend.” Revolving around the bond between a semicircle toy and a piece of clay, it shed light on the importance of social support system.
“As a person who still struggles with accepting the way I look, I wanted to inspire people to start opening up to each other about the way they feel about themselves,” Lariosa said. “If we share the experience together, we can help each other feel less alone in dealing with our own pressures—creating safe
spaces for people to process the irrational thoughts they may have about themselves.”
Frankie Aldana took home the Best Non-narrative Animation and Best Production Design recognitions for “It’s Just a Cupcake,” a commentary and an awareness film about eating disorders. It starred Bo, whose anxieties around food took shape into a spiky little shadow monster.
“I wanted to focus on sharing the feeling over anything else because I wanted my film to encourage understanding through empathy,” Aldana explained.
“It’s Just a Cupcake” also clinched The John Martin Award, an annual recognition given to a professional or a student participant.
Mitzi Lim earned the Jury’s Special Citation for “Binhi,” which circulates about the journey of a lumberjack, a forest spirit and the implications of excessive logging.
Dionisio Bacudio III of Jose Rizal University won the Best Technical Award for “Guhit.” “The Collector” by his schoolmates Gerry Garcia, Austine Leigh Abedejos, Elvin Matthew Nido, Creshane Zaslove Pausal and Jong Won Teves bagged first place for the Audience Choice Award
“Mitolohiya” by Seth Floreven Evangelista Biagtan, Carlos Dikker Adelantar, Carl Andre del Mundo and Owen Ualat of the FEU Institute of Technology finished in second place.
In the Professional Division, “Klikbot Guardian: Kalamity” by Carlyn Ceniza of Fizzbuzz Inc. secured the grand prize and Best Storytelling Awards while “Grow” by Marvin Paracuelles of Grow Studio bagged the Best Technical Award.
Mark Mendoza of Friendly Foes Creative Studio, an alumnus of the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde Multimedia Arts, nabbed the Best Non-narrative and Best Production Design honors.