To mark the conclusion of the 2022 festival and to celebrate the great Nordic Baltic animation the FAF Award Ceremony was held at Quality Hotel. The redesigned FAF award has been bestowed upon the deserving winners of Best Nordic-Baltic Feature Film, Best Nordic Baltic Short Film, Best Nordic-Baltic Student Film, Best Nordic-Baltic Commissioned Film, Best Nordic-Baltic Children’s Film – the new Best Nordic-Baltic Young Audience Film – and the festival would of course not be complete without the Audience Award and, last but certainly not least, the Grand Prix Award.
Three juries, composed of an international team of industry professionals, had the challenging task of selecting the 2022 award winners:
The short film jury selecting the award winners for Grand Prix, Best Short Film and Best Student Film is Ida Melum, Gísli Darri Halldórsson and Aneta Ozorek.
The award winner for Best Feature Film has been selected by Johan Edström, Maria Anestopoulou and Maria Mac Dalland.
For Best Commissioned Film the jury selecting the award winner is Tobias Rud, Katz Plunkett and Jens Jonathan Gulliksen.
In addition to the professional jury, we also have a children’s jury for Best Children’s Film. This jury consists of Aron Luvi Forsetlund, Johan Gudesen, and Sofie Holme Hardeng.
New this year is the Young Audience programme, which has its own jury of children aged 12 to 15. This year’s jury is Oscar Riley Williams, Sverre Qvale Friis, and Håvard Solum Larsen. They have selected the winner of the first Best Young Audience Award.
And we also have the award where the whole audience is in the jury by voting – the Audience Award.
Here are the winners!
Grand Prix Award
Sierra
Director: Sander Joon
Jury´s motivation: It’s not often that we experience such a supersonic and bombastic film about family dynamics. This short is told with clarity, visual nerve, and energy. Thank you for the ride Sander. The Fredrikstad Animation Festival Grand prix goes to Sierra by Sander Joon.
Audience Award
The Harbourmaster
Director: Mia Ludvigsen Henriksen & Konrad Hjemli
Best Feature Film
My Love affair with marriage
Director: Signe Baumane
Jury´s motivation: This very unique animated film, where myths & symbols confront neurology and hormones, succeeds in a very bold way to transform a personal to a universal story.
Best Short Film
I’ll be your kettle
Director: Tobias Rud
Jury´s Motivation: You will appreciate this film if you are compulsively trying to fix your relationships by becoming an electrical appliance. The jury enjoyed this lighthearted and surreal short about the serious struggles of codependency. The whimsical design fits the tone of the film perfectly. The award for best Nordic Baltic short goes to I’ll be your kettle by Tobias Rud
Best Student Film
Cowboy Kevin
Director: Anna Lund Konnerup
Jury´s Motivation: It’s not easy to talk about love, and it’s even harder to not become sentimental and cheesy when doing so. The director of the winning film succeeded in telling a playful, sincere and perfectly paced love story, elevated by a remarkable voice acting performance. The award for best student film goes to Cowboy Kevin by Anna Lund Konnerup.
Best Children´s Film
Tales of Zale – Flickering lights
Director: Sif Savery
Jury´s motivation: This year’s best children’s film is awesome, amazing. The plot and drawings were very nice. This year’s winner is Tales of Zale – Flickering lights.
Special mention Children´s Film
Hjemme Hos Sinna
Director: Tommy Vad Funderud & Markus Vad Flaaten
Jury´s motivation: Another film we really liked was Hjemme Hos Sinna. It was good, funny and a little weird.
Best Young Audience Film
Troublemaker Tommy
Director: Rao Heidmets & Pauline Heidmets
Jury´s motivation: This year’s best youth film is charming with great music. Childish, but fun. This year’s winner is Troublemaker Tommy.
Special mention Young Audience Film
Bear Hug
Director: Margrethe Danielsen
Jury´s motivation: Another good film on the program is Bear Hug. Very good animation with an unexpectedly good plot twist.
Best Commissioned Film
Toleransevinduet
Director: Julia Torjak
Jury´s Motivation: After a lot of deliberation, we have landed on Toleransevinduet. This is a film that approaches its subject with clarity and is at eye level with its target audience. It is a Stylisticly confident film with a very appealing design.
Special mention Commissioned Film
Welcome to Hell – Black Midi
Director: Gustaf Holtenäs & Sevi Iko Dømochevsky
Jury´s motivation: Special mention goes to Welcome to Hell-Black Midi. It was cool and beautifully chaotic and it was so nice to see music videos entered in the selection.
Lifetime Achievement Award
Heikki Prepula
Heikki Prepula, born in 1939 in Finland, started his career in animation already in 1965. In Finland animation has historically been small-scale and individual, as in Norway and the other Nordic countries. But in the 1960’s and 1970’s, cut-out animation had its heyday in public television and Heikki Prepula together with others produced imaginative works for children’s programs.
In the beginning Prepula worked for television making long animated serial films for children. Later he started to produce his own short films and has made a total of 29 animated films through his career! His productions are non-commercial low-budget short films, mainly for children and Prepula has produced, directed, written, designed and animated himself. Heikki Prepula has also drawn numerous illustrations and cartoons for books and magazines. Besides animation films published illustrations amount to 4700 pieces and 360 cartoons. He has been an extremely productive Artist.
The kangaroo Kössi is the most popular character brought to the screen by him and it is considered a classic of Finnish animation. Prepulas linear, two-dimensional drawings have been screened at festivals around the world. Some of his most known shorts, like The Locomotive (La Locomotive)(1978), Le Navet (1982), The Magic Hat (Le Chapeau magique)(1987) and The Flying Pig (Le Cochont volant)(1994) has won great popularity in France and his films has even been screened at Centre Charles Pompidou.
Prepula also influences younger generations in Finland. When the finnish company Haruworks presents their animationwork they talk about being inspired by the legendary Finnish animator Prepula.
Prepula is awarded this price for his lifelong dedication to the finnish animation scene.
FAF congratulates all the winners!