Congratulations to all the winners of the 51st ASIFA-East Animation Awards! This year we had an exciting new virtual festival, and it was quite a flashback to 2019 to see some of these films. Awards were presented for best in independent animation, commissioned work, experimental and student films, as well as the special craft categories of animation, writing, sound, design, and education. There was also a special presentation of honors by Women In Animation. You can find a list of winners below, and watch the awards ceremony and winning films for a limited time here on Vimeo.
Thank you to so many people for their work on this challenging year. To Emily Compton and Tristian Goik, our festival’s co-chairs. Candy Kugel, Masako Kanayama, Christi Bertlesen, John Lustig, William Lorenzo, Liz Van Verth, Emmett Goodman, and more have done great work to bring this festival together. We would also like to thank The School of Visual Arts, and The New School, for working with us, even though our original plans had to be scrapped and moved online. Thank you to Women in Animation for collaborating on awards, all our members for sticking by us, and a hearty thanks to all the filmmakers who submitted this year.
The 51st ASIFA-East Animation Awards
Independent Films
1st Place – The Big Apple by Igor Bastidas
2nd Place – Annihilation Song by Amanda Bonaiuto
3rd Place – The Little Bang by Jihyeon Bae
Student Films Category
1st Place – King of the House by Zige Zhang, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
2nd Place – For We Both Have the Same Eyes, by Mei Yee Tan, School of Visual Arts
3rd Place – Wings, by Casey McDonald, School of Visual Arts
Commercial Work
1st Place – LLS-Grace, by Natalie Labarre, Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Oberland Agency
2nd Place – How Tall Can a Tree Grow? by Doug Alberts, TED-Ed
3rd Place – Once Upon Impeachment, by Tim Luecke, CBS Television Studios
Experimental Films
1st Place – Sum of Its Parts, by Alisa Stern
2nd Place – Beyond Noh, by Patrick Smith
3rd Place – Foreign Exchange, by Corrie Francis Parks
Craft Awards
Animation – Divided by One, by Jacob Kafka
Design – 17 Small Ideas, by Andrew Myers
Writing – Mother’s Song, by Signe Baumane, The Marriage Project LLC
- Sound – Edge, by Steven Subotnick
- Education – Awkward Conversations, by Rachel Gitlevich, Amaze.org
- Women In Animation Honors
- Independent – The Little Bang by Jihyeon Bae
- Student – Unsurpassed Team, Ruxin Liang, Changjiang Wang, Michael Davin, School of Visual Arts
- Commercial – LLS-Grace, by Natalie Labarre, Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Oberland Agency
- Experimental – Foreign Exchange, by Corrie Francis Parks
Congratulations to all the winners!
We apologize for any technical difficulties you might have encountered! ASIFA is working hard to move into the virtual space and learn all the new ins and outs of streaming an entire film festival online. *Due to technical difficulties, a thank-you slide from the 2019 festival was erroneously displayed at the beginning and end of the livestream.