The development of the Fredrikstad Animation Festival has been great in recent years, as can also be said about the rest of the animation industry. In order to reflect both the growing industry and the modernization of the festival, it is time to renew the festival’s award with a new design and layout.
The festival has collaborated with a local artist, Ingeborg Elieson on the new design for the award. She says this about the award’s new concept:
“The award is designed in a stylized and playful expression with a character-like appearance. The design springs from the idea of a figure that is considering itself. I wanted to integrate the engraved text field as part of the concept by having the character turn his gaze inward and study his own performance.
Emphasis has been placed on the price being sustainable, having a certain weight, exclusivity and durability without being too traditional. It has also been important to keep an openness in the expression, so that the award can embrace all the categories of the competition programmes. To make the character come alive, the arm will have a certain movement when holding the prize.”
In accordance with the expansion of the festival’s competition program to include feature films, and the aim of including new formats, a dynamic award has been developed that can accommodate new media and narratives in addition to the traditional short film format.
With the renewal of the award, the festival wants to communicate that it is embracing the exciting technological developments that have taken place and are taking place in animation. At the same time, the foundation is laid for a festival that embraces the entire industry, where everyone who works with animation, both in terms of film, games and new technology such as VR, AI, VFX and Motion Graphics, is included in the festival’s perspective.
The fact that the festival chooses to collaborate with a local artist means that the award has a strong local affinity in Fredrikstad, at the same time that the artist, through the award’s design, highlights the festival’s universal values such as playfulness, breaking boundaries and technological development. Ingeborg Elieson is a trained craftsman and lives/works in Fredrikstad. Elieson’s background stems from goldsmithing followed by the Oslo Academy of Arts, where she graduated in 2012. After her studies, she has participated in a number of exhibitions at home and abroad.
In the meeting between different materials such as wood, marble, metal and concrete, Elieson creates sculptural objects with a focus on form, materiality and its ability to communicate sensory experiences.
The new FAF award will be awarded for the first time in 2022 during Fredrikstad Animation Festival’s Award Ceremony, Saturday 22 October at Quality Hotel in Fredrikstad.