The French film "9, chemin des Gauchoirs" by director Lyonel Charmette won the grand prize of the 15th edition of the Meknès International Animation Film Festival (FICAM), organised from 25 to 30 March.
It is a 13-minute poetic animated film about the dilemma of a shepherd who enters a refined luxury bathroom cabin while ensuring there is no one around to tie his goat on the dock.
Oscillating between this unexpected comfort and dry land, he will appropriate the premises, until he meets their true occupants.
The Jury's Special Mention went to the Russian short film "We can't live without Cosmos" by Konstantin Bronzit, while the best student film prize was won by the Frenchman Loïc Espuche for his film "Tombés du nid".
The Junior Jury prizes for the short and feature animation films were won, respectively, by the Franco-Swiss co-productions "D'Ombres et d'ailes" by Elice Meng and Eleonora Marinoni and the Franco-Belgian "Phantom Boy" by Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli.
The audience award was given to "Peripheria" by the Frenchman David Coquard-Dassault.
Dozens of films representing about twenty countries were in the running as part of the official competition of this cultural event, which aims to raise awareness among the Moroccan public about animation cinema and the evolution of its forms, to accompany the emergence of young talent in this industry, and to establish the city of Meknès as a platform in Morocco, in Africa, and in the Arab world for animation cinema.
The first festival of its kind on a national, African, and Arab scale, this event, which has seen the participation of various global experiences in this field, constitutes an opportunity for animation cinema enthusiasts to open up to leading global experiences in the matter.
Initiated by the French Institute of Meknès in cooperation with the Aïcha Foundation, with a special tribute to the American Eric Goldberg, a legendary figure of Disney Studios, this edition was devoted to animated documentary with, in particular, a retrospective dedicated to the Romanian director Anca Damian, an exhibition "Portraits de voyages" by Bastien Dubois, a French director nominated for the 2011 Oscars for his short film "Madagascar", as well as an unprecedented selection of Chinese animation jewels.
