TORONTO — No fluffy bunnies or cuddly ogres in this fest-winning film.
The Ottawa International Animation Festival on Sunday gave its grand prize trophy to British animator Phil Mulloy for his provocatively animated sexual melodrama Goodbye Mister Christie.
The British animated feature portrays a troubled man embroiled in a sex scandal after being caught on tape in the throes of passion with a French sailor.
Goodbye Mister Christie, a follow-up to The Christies, which earned Mulloy the 2006 Grand Prize at the Canadian animation festival, capped off a host of wins for British animators in Ottawa.
The top juried award for a cartoon short went to the British film The External World, by David O’Reilly, while the best promotional animation went to the WWF Heroes of the UAE by Josiah Newbolt and Ben Falk.
American animators to win in Ottawa included the best student and best graduate student cartoon awards going to Dustin Grella for Prayers for Peace, while Kelsey Stark won for best undergraduate animation for LGFUAD.
And the best animation school showreel went to the Tokyo Arts University in Japan.
The Ottawa International Animation Festival is the largest North American animation festival, and a talent hunting ground for cartoon studios.
