Animahenasyon 2015 awards night at SM MOA

MANILA, Philippines – The Animation Council of the Philippines, Inc. (ACPI) together with the Game Development Association of the Philippines recently awarded the winners of the Animahenasyon 2015: Ninth Philippine Animation Festival at the SM Mall of Asia Cinema. This was the culmination of the group’s annual animation festival and competition held earlier at the SMX at SM Aura Premier.

A joint project of the Embassy of France in the Philippines, 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 novice 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, De La Salle College of St. Benilde and Asia Pacific College.

Johanna Kaye Boncodin’s short animation film 8 won the Best Regional Entry award in the Student Division, as well as a special citation for unique storytelling.
The Ateneo de Naga student’s film 8 is about a little girl who is separated from her mother in a cold, faceless crowd and finds herself on a trip to outer space in a balloon.

Other winning animation films from the Student Division include The Seed by Joven Maniaol and Larreina Libuton from University of Makati; Huling Sayaw by Edward Corpuz from Ateneo de Naga University, which was named the Best Animated Music Video; and Stop Killing Journalists by Francis Balete from Ateneo de Naga University, which bagged the Best Animated Television Commercial, Infomercial, Teaser and Demo Reel Award.

In the Professional Division, Geo by John Arthur Mercader from Puppeteer Animation Studios in Davao won the Best 6 minutes to 20 minutes Animation Film and Best in Technical Animation awards. As the winner of Hero TV’s Choice Award, it will be aired on Hero TV.

Other winners in the Professional Division include Isaac Narvacan’s Unfocused; Dennis Sebastian’s 3 Aeta, which won the Best Animated Television Commercial, Infomercial, Teaser and Demo Reel award; and Matt Barretto’s Next Quest for the Best Animated Television/Web Series.

A Special Citation for Animation Skills was given to Vaughnbryner Tan for his film People; while Tito Romero’s The Little One was named the Best Animation for Children. Both animators are from De La Salle College of St. Benilde.

One of the evening’s highlights was the presentation of Lifetime Achievement Awards to the families of Norman de La Cruz and Richard Manginsay for their contributions to the animation industry of the Philippines. De La Cruz was a full-pledged animator and established the Philippine Animation Studio, Inc. (PASI) in 1990, the company that did subcontracting works for different famous cartoon shows like X-Men, Fantastic 4, James Bond Jr., Beauty & the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Pinocchio, Dragon Ball Z, Sailormoon, Tom & Jerry, The Flintstones and many more. Manginsay, on the other hand, worked as the animation assistant director and layout artist for the longest-running American sitcom, The Simpsons, which received an Emmy nomination in 2012.