On Saturday evening, the 22nd Sommets du cinéma d'animation came to a close with an eagerly awaited awards ceremony. This year's highly competitive competition demonstrated the vitality and high quality of Canadian animation. Just prior to the unveiling of the winners, filmmaker Pierre Hébert received the René-Jodoin Award before long-time friends and collaborators. This year's edition was a resounding success, with an enthusiastic and passionate audience in attendance!

OFFICIAL COMPETITION
The Official Competition jury, responsible for selecting the winners awards, was made up of Lillian Chan, Toronto-based director and animator, Francis Desharnais, Quebec-based director and cartoonist, Matt Kaszanek, director of the Animation is Film Festival in Los Angeles, Emily Paige, producer and co-founder of the E.D. Films studio in Montreal, and Julie Charette, Montreal-based director and animator.

GUY-L.-COTÉ GRAND AWARD FOR BEST ANIMATED FILM
The award is accompanied by a $2,000 bursary donated by Nancy Coté and the Cinémathèque québécoise.

For the originality and effectiveness of its direction, for its rich, astonishing and deeply moving script, for the brilliant tenderness of the work.

UN TROU DANS LA POITRINE by Alexandra Myotte and Jean-Sébastien Hamel

JURY'S SPECIAL AWARD - ÉCOLE NAD-UQAC
The prize is accompanied by a $1,000 scholarship awarded by the École NAD-UQAC amongst the professional films in the official competition.

For its effective use of stereoscopy and sound to evoke the degeneration and disappearance that inevitably occur to all things (and people), for its surprising and thoughtful reflection on the ephemeral nature of life and memory.

MÉMOIRE ENTROPIQUE by Nicolas Brault

SPECIAL MENTION OF THE CANADIAN COMPETITION
For its unusual story rich in subtle meanings that can be easy to miss at first glance, for its beautiful surreal imagery and stunning direction - for its message about the nostalgia of innocence in a world of restrictions.

LES GENS DANS L'ARMOIRE by Dahee Jeong

RAOUL-BARRÉ GRAND AWARD FOR BEST CANADIAN STUDENT FILM
The prize is accompanied by a $2,000 bursary offered by the Raoul-Barré Foundation.

For its ambitious storytelling, high-quality editing and attention to detail in puppetry and set design.

LE CLAN DE L'OURS by Laurie Filion, Arielle Moreau and Tommy Leblanc
Université Laval

SPECIAL MENTION FOR THE STUDENT AWARD
For the successful marriage of different animation techniques and the quality of the telling of a story as amusing as it is touching.

ZHIVACHKA by Liz Adler
OCAD University

BEST CHARACTER AWARD
What more can we say about the BEST characters than that they captivated us from the moment we saw them appear on screen! Their personality, their essence, their finely executed animation! For the subtlety and sexy ass of its main character.

The flower in LES FLEURS SAUVAGES by Rodolphe Saint-Gelais and Thierry Sirois

BEST MUSIC VIDEO AWARD
For its absolute charm, its quirky, lo-fi aesthetic and its obvious love of the animator's craft.

With no helmet - FLAMMES DE FEU by Joël Vaudreuil

AWARD FOR BEST EDUCATIONAL OR COMMISSIONED FILM
For the irreverence that perfectly suits its function, for its dry, complex and revealing humor, and for its most unexpected, refreshing and perfectly complementary sound design and music.

FEDERAL OWL COMMISSION by Matthew Rankin

AUDIENCE AWARD

ELON VS MARK by Hubert Lapointe

PITCHES 2024 COMPETITION PRIZE
Presented in collaboration with Telefilm Canada, La Caisse Desjardins de la Culture ($1,000 cash bursary) and H264 ($1,500 in services for distribution and promotional advice).

For the quality and depth of her cinematographic proposal, for a pitch and a project in which form and content intertwine with power and coherence, and for skilfully tackling a sensitive subject while elevating it to an exceptional artistic level, the Pitches Competition Prize is awarded to Jenna Marks for her project Salted, which already has all the makings of a great film.

Jenna Marks for SALTED

MENTION
Laurence Thérien for HORS-PISTE

RENÉ-JODOIN AWARD 2024
In 2015, the Sommets du cinéma d'animation and the Cinémathèque québécoise created the René-Jodoin Award. This annual award recognizes the exemplary work of a leading figure in Canadian animation. Director of over forty films, including three features, Pierre Hébert worked at the National Film Board of Canada from 1965 to 2000. Since then, he has worked as an independent artist, and his work has taken on a multidisciplinary scope (performances with musicians, video installations, collaborations with choreographers, drawings and web actions). In 2005, he was awarded the Prix du Québec for his body of work. In 2012, he received a career grant from the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec and, in 2018, an honorary doctorate from Vancouver's Emily Carr University of Art and Design.

To honor the artist's work and career, the festival closed with the world premiere of the feature film GRAVER L'HOMME : ARRÊT SUR PIERRE HÉBERT by Loïc Darses. In this documentary, the director explores Pierre Hébert's passion for the act of etching film. Loïc Darses digs deep to uncover the artist's early motivations, goes back in time, finds the locations and, in the end, delivers a vast and moving fresco at the center of which shines an exceptional filmmaker.