Chris Landreth’s newest animated short, The Spine, has won the best of the festival award at the 2009 Melbourne International Animation Festival.

Landreth was at the Australian festival to screen the National Film Board short and take part in a Q&A.

‘I’m really enjoying talking about this film to anyone who will listen. And then — wow,’ he wrote on the NFB’s Spine blog, referring to the win. ‘What a night. I have a poster for the festival, covered with messages from people who organized this event. This is better than any glass trophy.’

Produced in association with Copperheart Animation and CORE Digital Pictures, The Spine shares the same tone and visual style as Landreth’s Oscar-winning Ryan.

Landreth won the same prize at Melbourne in 2005 for Ryan. Both use his unique ‘psychorealism’ style of animation to reflect the emotional turmoil felt by the characters. In his latest film, a husband is rendered literally spineless by his dysfunctional marriage.

The longtime maker of short films (The End, Bingo) is reportedly working on a feature, Lovecraft, about the horror fiction writer H.P. Lovecraft. It is expected to begin production next year.