Ireland is producing some of the UK’s (if not the world’s) most interesting, entertaining and innovative animation at the moment, and for the 7th year in a row, the Dublin Animation Film Festival has been celebrating and enhancing that success.

With guests including Oscar winner Michael Dudok de Wit and author of Independent Animation Ben Mitchell, plus Masterclasses, Workshops and Films galore, DAFF is one of our most eagerly anticipated events on the animation calendar, and this year we had the huge honour to be asked to judge the ‘Best Irish Student’ Award (which we can now officially announce went to Aoife Moiselle for ‘Consent’).

Spending a couple of days in Dublin is always a treat in itself, but spending that time sat next to Michael Dudok de Wit, while you watch his feature film ‘Red Turtle’ is a very special experience. This devastatingly talented and intelligent film maker has long been a hero of the team here at Slurpy, since the Oscar winning ‘Father and Daughter’ (2000) – they may say don’t meet your heroes, but I’m pleased to report that he was delightfully considered and articulate, as well as being a bloomin’ nice chap.

After the screening of his masterpiece, Michael spent at least 15 minutes giving a detailed answer to the first question; ‘what is the significance of the moon in your latest film’, and one suspects that he had thought as long and as hard about every single element that appeared on screen as he had about the moon. Just a pity that meant there was only time for one question!

We were also lucky enough to be invited to look around Paper Panther Productions – an animation studio in the heart of Dublin – and to see some of their current works in progress, including this stunning looking oil on glass film ‘The Bird and the Whale’ – which will have it’s premiere at the Manchester Animation Festival in a few weeks time.

Oil on glass is an incredibly painstaking animation process (even compared to other animation processes, which are not known for their brevity), whereby the animator paints the original painting, takes the photo, and then repaints as much of the image as is necessary to create the second frame, takes the photo, and so on.

Dublin Animation Festival 2017 Winners

BEST IRISH SHORT FILM
An Island – Directed by Rory Byrne

BEST IRISH SHORT FILM CATEGORY
Second to None – Directed by Vincent Gallagher

BEST IRISH SHORT FILM CATEGORY
Deposits – Directed by Trevor Courtney, Igloo Animations

BEST IRISH STUDENT GRADUATE SHORT FILM
Consent – Directed by Tara Woods and Aoife Moiselle
Honorable Mention – Astrocatastrophe – Directed by Claire McLoughlin and Grace Ryan

BEST COMEDY
Second to None – Directed by Vincent Gallagher, Caboom
Honorable Mention – Temptation – Directed by by Camille Canonne, Laura Bouillet, Michael Hoft, Catherine Le Quang, Pauline Raffin, Martin Villert

BEST INTERNATIONAL SHORT FILM
Negative Space – Directed by Ru Kuwahata and Max Porter, Ikki Films
Honorable Mention – The Best Customer – Directed by Serghei Chiviga

SOCIAL RECOGNITION AWARD
Alike – Written and Directed by Daniel Martinez Lara and Rafa Cano Mendez
Honorable Mention – Playing House – Directed by Cenk Köksal and Ozgül Gürbüz

BEST INTERNATIONAL STUDENT SHORT FILM
Keiro – Directed by Tatiana Juskewycz, Benoit Leloup, Frack Menigoz, Charlotte Poncin, Zo Lé Nérot
Honorable Mention – Homegrown – Directed by Quentin Haberham

BEST SOUNDTRACK/USE OF FOLEY
Negative Space – Directed by Ru Kuwahata and Max Porter, Ikki Films
Honorable Mention – Verge – Directed by Chingtien Chu

BEST 2D FILM
An Island – Directed by Rory Byrne
Honorable Mention – Catherine – Directed by Britt Raes, Creative Conspiracy

AUDIENCE CHOICE AWARD
Catherine – Directed by Britt Raes, Creative Conspiracy

The Dublin Animation Film Festival takes place in October each year and we have everything crossed that it will be back again in 2018, bigger and better! Stay up to date with the festival, submission news and other Irish animation related news by following DAFF on Facebook and DAFF on Twitter. Finally, a massive thank you to Festival Director, Fionnghuala Ni Neill – we don’t know how she does it each year, but we raise our glasses to you, and thank you for inviting us to be part of this year’s edition!