OTTAWA: Election politics dominated opening night at the Ottawa International Animation Festival (Sept. 17-21) when, speaking before a packed house at Ottawa’s legendary ByTowne Cinema, the fest’s artistic director Chris Robinson metaphorically criticized federal cultural funding cuts in a lengthy diatribe about ‘monkeys damaging the banana crop.’

Canadian Film Institute executive director Tom McSorley distained metaphor entirely. ‘Without being partisan, vote for culture, you Canadians out there,’ he urged the audience on Wednesday night. Then, dropping into a Jean Chrétien impersonation, McSorley added, ‘The only good Tory is a supposi-tory!’

Focusing on worldly themes such as politics, rather than escapist cartoon fantasy, was in line with this year’s OAIF lineup of features and shorts.

‘A lot of the films deal with mature themes,’ said Robinson, citing as examples the subjects of personal identity, troubled relationships and insanity.

He was clearly happy to see the OIAF’s lineup hit this mark: ‘Most people assume animation is going to contain bunny rabbits and kids stuff,’ Robinson said. ‘So it is really nice to see in-depth themes about human existence.’

As for attendance? ‘I think we’ve got a record-breaking year again,’ said managing director Kelly Neall. ‘[We] definitely got well over 1,500 industry pass holders. As well, we increased the number of tickets for TAC [the Television Animation Conference] to 350, and we still sold out.’

A CG sci-fi feature and a 2D toon from Australia ended OIAF on a high note, taking two of the fest’s top prizes at ceremonies held Sept. 21 at the Museum of Civilization in Gatineau, QC.

Terra, a U.S. feature from director Aristomenis Tsirbas and Snoot Entertainment, won the fest’s grand prize for best animation, while Aussie Dennis Tupicoff walked off with the Nelvana prize for best indie short for his 25-minute Chainsaw.

OIAF marked the first wins for Terra, which has been making the festival rounds since last year, playing TIFF and Tribeca, and is due at a sci-fi fete next month in London. It features the voices of Brian Cox, Luke Wilson and Dennis Quaid.

Honorable mention in that category went to Sita Sings the Blues, directed by Nina Paley. Chainsaw also won best narrative short under 35 minutes.

Top Canadian honors, meanwhile, and the Canadian Film Institute’s prize, went to Drux Flux – a four-minute experimental piece by the National Film Board’s Theodore Ushev, which made its debut at OIAF.

Other winners include: I Slept With Cookie Monster by Kara Nasdor-Jones, which took the grand prize for best student animation; and the Sony Bravia spot ‘Play-Doh’, directed by Brits Frank Budgen and Darren Walsh, which won the grand prize for best commissioned animation.

For the complete list of winners go to www.playbackonline.ca/articles/magazine/20080929/oiaf08.html.

With files from Sean Davidson