The Secret of Kells wins Audience Award at the Annecy Festival of Animation
Tomm Moore director of Cartoon Saloon's The Secret of Kells accepted the prestigious Audience Award for Best Feature Film at the 33rd Annecy Animation festival in France last weekend. The Irish animation beat off stiff competition from films such as Henry Selick's Coraline and Adam Elliot's Mary and Max to win the prize.The festival, one of the most respected events for animation film in the world, screened 525 films including 27 feature films over a week. With over 120,000 tickets sold it is one of the largest film festivals in Europe.
There was another Irish win at the festival when Irish-born David O'Reilly, who trained in Cartoon Saloon while a student received the Special Distinction Award for his film Please Say Something, a film which picked up a Golden Bear at the Berlin festival earlier this year.
The Secret of Kells was produced by Cartoon Saloon (Ireland), Les Armateurs (France) and Vivi film (Belgium) and received funding from the IFB, BCI, France 2 Cinema, Eurimages, Media programme, Canal+ Cine cinema, Conseil General de la Charente, Piste rouge, Flanders Audiovisual Fund, Centre du Cinéma et de l'Audiovisuel de la Communauté Française de Belgique et des Télédistributeurs Wallons, Promimage and Wallimage.