Montreal-based animator Christopher Hinton takes away two of the top prizes at this year’s Ottawa International Animation Festival (Oct. 2-6), making him one of the most decorated animators internationally of 2002.

Hinton’s eight-minute National Film Board short Flux received the best narrative short film award in Ottawa, an important distinction considering that OIAF is the largest animation festival in North America. On the international scene it is second in scope only to the International Animated Film Festival in Annecy, France (June 3-8), where Flux was awarded the FIPRESCI international film critics prize and received a special distinction for the boldness of its animation, design and for its humor. Flux, produced by Marcy Page, also won three awards at the World Festival of Animated Films in Zagreb and a special International Jury Prize at the Hiroshima International Animation Festival earlier this year.

Hinton also came out on top in a category new to this year’s festival, best animation for the Internet, for his film Twang, about a high-strung wire that starts out as a tightrope and ends up a piece of dental floss.

Canadian animators received an additional two awards out of 16 categories at this year’s festival.

Frank Falcone of Toronto’s Guru Animation Studio won best station/program identification for his promotional campaign for YTV. And Steve Angel of Toronto’s Head Gear Animation Studio won for best educational, scientific or industrial film or video for his traditional animation Mr. Roboto.

Head Gear animators were well represented at OIAF, with an additional three films among the 100 selected for competition, including Da Boyds and Wabbits, both stop-motion animation from director Drew Lightfoot. Isaac King’s tabletop texture cut-out animation Up and Down was Head Gear’s third selection.

With an additional 11 films from the NFB and 10 more films in competition, Canadian animation represented one-quarter of all competing films selected from among 1,700 entries.

‘Canada led the pack this year with films in competition,’ says the festival’s managing director Kelly Neall. ‘We certainly weren’t being biased or anything, it was just a bumper crop of Canadian independent and commercial films this year.’

This year marked the biannual festival’s most successful year to date, with attendance records broken as more than 1,000 delegates attended screenings and industry events like the NFB Master Class with Hinton, workshops on new animation techniques, retrospectives including Ottawa director John Kricfalusi, as well as the sizable Animarket trade fair.

According to Neall, this year’s festival confirmed Ottawa as an important international centre of animation production and innovation with increased participation by local animation companies.

‘Ottawa is becoming an animation centre, which gives the city a niche,’ says Neall, who adds that the festival’s reputation for high-quality animation is a benefit to local animators.

With files from Leo Rice-Barker

-www.awn.com/ottawa