Animations bringing home the ECFA Awards in SCHLINGEL & LUCAS

In two of Germany’s most renowned young audience festivals – SCHLINGEL (Chemnitz) and LUCAS (Frankfurt) – the ECFA Awards went to animated films. THELMA’S PERFECT BIRTHDAY and SAVAGES are among the most unique titles that you’ll find in this year’s festival catalogues.

 

In SCHLINGEL the ECFA Award went to THELMA’S PERFECT BIRTHDAY, by Reinis Kalnaellis (Latvia, Luxembourg 2024). Little penguin girl Thelma lives in a cold land of ice. Dreaming of a great party with friends and family on her fifth birthday, she takes fate into her own hands and starts writing letters. But when the post office is letting her down, she has no other choice than embarking on a trip to deliver the letters herself. On her journey, she will meet some of the weirdest creatures and specimens, in a tale of unlimited fantasy.

In their justification, the ECFA Jury wrote about “a country seemingly out of time: with drones that deliver mail and presents; with airships that look like Georges Mélièsʼ moon rocket; with a computer-addicted father who barely takes care of his little girl. But also with the land of ice, where she lives, and the land of the forest, where she was born. Thelma grows on her adventurous journey and experiences love, friendship and help from many animals and people of different cultures. This wonderful film, with its strong, sensitive colours and shapes, with its musical, anachronistic, never intrusive variety, captures the imagination of children. The film ideally fulfils what youth psychologist Bruno Bettelheim said in 1976 in THE USES OF ENCHANTMENT: “Children need fairy tales”!”

The ECFA Jury were Katja Morand (Switzerland), Rüdiger Steinmetz (Germany) and Monica Wahi (India).

 

At the LUCAS Int’l Film Festival for Young Film Lovers, the ECFA Award went to SAVAGES, by Claude Barras (Switzerland, France, Belgium 2024). Keria lives with her father on Borneo. Her life takes a dramatic turn when a mother orangutan is killed and Keria has to look after the orphaned baby orangutan Oshi. Shortly afterwards, her cousin Selai comes to visit…

The ECFA Jury were Margret Albers (Germany), Stefan Huber (Austria) and Noy Levin (Israel).

The Audience Award at LUCAS went to LARS IS LOL (Eirik Sæter Stordahl, Norway) and notable award winners in the Kids Competition were PUFFIN ROCK AND THE NEW FRIENDS (Best Feature, by Jeremy Purcell, UK) and GAME RULES (Best Short, by Christian Zetterberg, Sweden).