23rd ifva Animation Category Jury Meeting Transcript
Jury Members ：Lo Che Ying (Lo), Yu Ka Ho (Yu) , Tamas Waliczky (Waliczky).
Absent: Elphonsol Lam (Lam), Wong Ying (Ying)
Organiser representative： Kattie Fan (Fan), Samantha Szeto (Szeto)
Fan:

Thank you for being our jurors this year. There had been a lot of hiccups forthis category this year, with jury members changing including Liu Jian’s
absence due to health issues. Also Wong Ying is on a sudden trip to Beijing
and could not make it back to Hong Kong, and he left us comments on each
title. Elphonsol Lam is missing today, and he didn’t manage to see all films
at the theatre. Due to fairness, maybe it’s good to just keep it to three jury
members for this category this year.
Today, our mission is to select the prizes. Altogether we have 4 prizes thisyear: the Gold Award, $50,000 in cash, Silver Award, $30,000, Special
Mention, a certificate. We also have another award, the Excellence Award,
with a trophy, which only the six Hong Kong entries are entitled to receive.
This is the first year we receive submissions from Asia. If you have noquestions we can discuss the works one by one and get some comments. We
will begin with Passing Rain.

Lo:

I love this work, because technically, it looks like a normal 3D CG animationthat we are used to seeing from Japan, but the directing is quite nice. Thereis not much of a story, just a moment between these two students, happening
within a very short time. The whole film is without dialogue. The storytellingis based on the facial expressions and movements of the two characters. The
treatment of this relationship is well done. I love the subtle way the director
places the camera and treats the movements, even though it is a CG animation,
which is between animated movement and realistic movement - not very
realistic, but also not exaggerated like some Japanese animations. This fits
the story-telling well. The tempo and timing are quite nice, too.

Yu:

It’s the most technically advanced piece among the 3D animations. I also
agree that the subtlety of the facial expressions is done really well, and thespecial effects like water dripping and clothes show that the person involved
is very knowledgeable about computer graphics. I like the pacing, but I think
what can be improved is the choice of the camera movements. I find there isa lot of over-dramatic use of camera movements, and the emotions don’t
really support that. It’s very awkward when you see very dramatic camera
tracking but there is nothing going on. It feels a little bit cheesy and over-dramatic. The characters are well-designed, but don’t have originality. Theylook kind of similar to a lot of Japanese-style animations.
Waliczky: I agree with both comments. When I saw this animation the first time, I
thought it was very well made, the special effects were really professional.
But when I saw it again on the large screen, it surprised me that the animation
was sometimes not good. For example, as the girl walks, her feet are notreally on the floor and the movements are awkward and puppet-like. It’s
really a charming piece, I like the way he tells this more or less trivial story
between a young girl and a young boy. Technically it’s very well made, butwatching it the second time, I was surprised that the animation is not as goodas I thought earlier, and not on the same level as the lighting and special
effects.
Fan:

Let’s move on to the second one, The Giant with a House.

Lo:

This is quite an ambitious work. The story should be longer. Now it leaves a
lot of questions, like what is the relationship between the giant and the little
girl, why are they looking like this, etc. The design of the giant’s world is notconsistent, sometimes it is realistic, but other times it’s symbolic. It can bebetter, at the moment, it looks like a segment of a story.

Yu:

I agree that the work is ambitious. The end credits show a lot of still pictures
which suggest that there could be something else, that maybe this is just asmall part of the story. I think the pacing is a bit unnecessarily slow, and there
are a lot of problems with the acting as well. Personally, this is not myfavorite. There is a lot of flaws with the rendering, and the environment looks
like it’s completely white. At the beginning, I thought it was an artistic
decision to make everything white, perhaps to emphasize a more emotional
moment, but then I realized maybe not, because some scenes are white
without any specific reason, so maybe it’s just a lack of time.

Waliczky: What I like in this piece is there are some really strong visions. I like the citywith a lot of apartments and the people in the windows. These are very strong
visions. But the story raises a lot of questions, like why are they walking,who is this old guy, what is the relationship between the young and old ones,
and what kind of world it is. With the white backgrounds, I sometimes havethe feeling that the work is unfinished. It’s a very ambitious work, but it’s
not finished yet.
Fan:

Let’s move on to the third work, Losing Sight of a Longed Place.

Lo:This is a very nice piece of work. It is a work of responsibility, the topic isgood to be raised out in the form of an animated documentary. The wholething just fits. The use of different styles of animation techniques like collage,
different kinds of drawings, color use and the changing size of the frame everything is just fine. The sound design and narration are good, it is well
written in Chinese, although the translation is not so well in English. The
narrator’s voice and emotion are very good. I love this, it is a very nice work.

Yu:

I also like this very much. I agree that the sound design is good, and thewhole piece feels like a very well-made music video - I am saying this in apositive way. It is a good use of the visual material and sonic elements, theway the texture and rhythms are mixed up, and they go so well with thesound. There is a sonic element even in the visual parts. I also like how headdressed this issue without being in your face, it’s very subtle and gives
audience room to think.

Waliczky: I also like it. For me, this is my favorite. Maybe this is the only piece thatwithin its own style, everything is perfect. Everything fits in with the style.
He tells this story or situation in a nice personal and original way, and there
are no clichés. Very beautiful. The color, animation, composition, how hemixed different techniques…
Lo:

The use of color is beautiful.

Waliczky: I really like it. You cannot say it is professionally made, but it is very personaland sensitive.
Fan:

The fourth work is Flotsam.

Lo:

The drawing is nice, as well as the lines. It seems to be some kind of
metaphor, but the message is not well-delivered. It’s without impact. It didn’t
really move me. It’s about loneliness and people being left behind, waitingfor others to come, but I don’t know.

Yu:

I don’t know what he is trying to express. It’s a very nicely made piece,
technically it’s good and I like the style. He seems to be suggestingsomething with this recursive story structure, but in the end, I still don’tknow what it’s about. I also don’t feel a very strong emotional engagementwith this piece.

Waliczky: I also thought this is some kind of metaphor for loneliness, perhaps, but as a
metaphor, it seems too complicated for me. It doesn’t really tell why thereare so many leading characters, and why one is larger than the others. If thisisland is a metaphor for loneliness, then it’s not so original. The graphic andanimation is nice, it’s well-made visually, but maybe it’s a too complicatedmetaphor, and not so clear.
Fan:

The next one is Cross Blade Kill.

Lo:The animation is very good, it’s well produced. It’s a homage to gangster
movies, with gun shooting and killers. The story is very simple and didn’t
have a big impact on me. It’s just a simple story about people killing eachother. The production and color scheme are good, that’s it.

Yu:

It’s very stylized. It seems like an episode of a longer series. I like it, but at
the end of it, I’m not quite sure about the ending. I don’t understand what
motivates him to kill…

Lo:

It’s a little bit tricky.

Waliczky: He recognizes the word “kill” is written by the same hand.
Yu:

I understand that part, but what motivates him to kill her, I don’t see a reason
for that. In terms of the style and movement, it’s really beautiful.

Waliczky: I’ve seen his previous works at least two times, and he is a very goodcharacter animator. But this time, the work is not really my cup of tea. The
previous work about the hunter and the bear was more poetic and brilliantly
made. It had more layers, but this one is a simpler story about killing. For
me it’s not so interesting, although I enjoy the animation. He is a goodanimator, and the colors are nice, the editing is professional, but there are not
too many layers. It’s a professional but simple movie.
Fan:

The next one is Wind Fire Lam Chung.

Lo:

It’s an adaptation of a very famous work of Chinese literature, Story of theWater Margin, but I don’t think it’s a nice adaptation. It relies too much on
the monologue of the main characters. The story is told in the way of a radio
drama. The visuals don’t match with the audio, and the visuals are not strong
enough to tell the story. The animation is quite weak and the characters areinconsistent. The high contract style…

Yu:

Sometimes it’s hard to recognize who’s who.

Lo:

One can say that this work aims high, but accomplished little. It can be better.

Yu:

The first time I saw it I was confused. Not all the characters are confusing,but the wealthy guy, his face looks different in some scenes, so I wasn’t sure
if it’s the same character. The scene where he is in the market where someone
is selling the sword, I wasn’t sure if he is trying to be good by offering money
without taking the sword, but then he changes his mind? Also in the fighting
scene, sometimes the person would come in from screen left, and then inanother shot he would appear on screen right, which left me disoriented. The
visuals just seem to be there to illustrate the narration, and don’t add anotherlayer of storytelling, which is led by the narration with the visuals being justa supporting act.

Waliczky: I like the visuals, and I agree with Wong Ying’s opinion that it has a nice
Chinese wood cut style, but I think this aesthetic has limitations because it
is difficult to move from one composition to another. That’s why the wholething seems like moving illustration and not really animation. Sometimes
when he makes a movement it doesn’t look so good. I agree that thecharacters appearances are changing, for example, the wife looks very
different at the beginning and at the end. The other faces also have bigchanges. The whole thing seems like illustration rather than animation, andwithout the narration, it would not be understandable.
Fan:

Next one is Muteum.

Lo:

I love this one. It’s humorous and deals with art and how we look at art. It’sa very different point of view, not just because of the innocent way it looks
at art, but also its multi-angle perspective. People may have this kind of
thinking, but it’s good to see it gathered into one work. Using samples offamous masterpieces, the whole thing is executed in a simple and interesting
way. Everyone can understand it and think about the topic.

Yu:

It is very playful. He’s trying to comment on different levels of things.

Lo:

Usually we are quiet when we look at drawings in the museum, but that’s not
the right way to do so. We can discuss and play with art.

Yu:

It’s also a comment on museums and the art world, and the institutionalized
contemporary art. It’s also a metaphor for bigger things - the society, politicalsituation. I really like this piece.

Waliczky: I also like it. This work is funny and humorous, and easy to understand. It

speaks about something very important. Some people think when we speak
about art, it has to be very serious, but it should be fun and playful. I like thatshe doesn’t use reproductions of the paintings, but redraws everything in areally nice and funny way. It’s about the whole education system where theteacher gives an explanation and the kids are supposed to be silent and justlisten. In fact, it’d be much better if kids could play with these things. I also
told the first-round jurors that the person who did this animation was mystudent, but I didn’t help in this work.
Yu:

Why is it called Muteum?

Waliczky: I think she wants to make a play with the word “mute”, it’s a museum where
you have to be silent. You are right that it’s not just about art and museum,
but about society that expects you to shut up. You should play, speak up andmake your own stuff instead.
Fan:

Next one is Watching.

Lo:

The use of animation line is nice. The work talks about communication, but
for me, it lacks impact.

Waliczky: It’s a nice music video and aesthetically well made. It is a good work thatfits the music.
Yu:

The music and movement are well-made, I think it’s a very interesting
animation style. At the end when she is watching TV, I understand that it’smeant to express how she feels being detached from the situation, also theway she sits like the Buddha, this all seems to suggest she is going throughsome sort of Zen Buddhist therapy of something that helps her deal with thesituation. But it does not seem like the character is dealing with the problem,but escape from it. At the very end, she is at the waterfront, looking at a very
calm scenery, I don’t know what to take from it. Maybe it’s just a very
personal expression of how she feels.

Waliczky: Because the title is “Watching”, this moment when she is watching television
is somehow very important. I did not think of the religious background, but
made a fine art connection with this Nam June Paik piece, TV Buddha, witha Buddha who is watching television, which is an endless flow of movements,
and Buddha is just watching it with complete placidity. So the work is about
this sort of distance of watching things, which contrasts with what we saw
before, full of high emotions, like people arguing and shouting at each other.
Now she is watching from a distance. It’s not absolutely clear to me the true

intentions of the filmmaker, but I thought it is well-made.
Fan:

The second last one is Neon.

Lo:

It talks about modern human relationship between a boy and a girl. The
structure is not well constructed, consisting of fragments of their daily lives.
Sometimes they are together, sometimes they are split up. You may say it issome kind of MV, because there is no dialogue or sound effect, just music.
They have different boyfriends and girlfriends at the end, and it seems likethe relationship is over. It could be told in a better way to let the audience
focus on the bonding of the relationship, which is not well interpreted.

Yu:

The first time I saw it, I though it was just a mood piece about fragments ofdaily life, about the romantic moments of couples. Then I watched it again
and I saw some story structure. They break up and try to reunite with eachother, and the twist at the end is that they do not reunite and go separate paths.
If the intention is to tell a story, it doesn’t do well because it’s too fragmented
and loose at the beginning. It doesn’t really develop the bonding of the two
characters, so we don’t have the emotional reaction when we see the resultat the end.

Waliczky: I understand the story in a completely different way. My interpretation is thatthey are in love and they have sex, after that they argue with each other andthe girl goes home on a motorbike and the boy goes home on MTR. As they
travel they think back on the happy moments they’ve had, and call each otheron mobile phones, they turn back and finally meet in an MTR station.
Yu:

That’s my first interpretation, too, but at the end there is the split screen…

Waliczky: Maybe you’re right, they don’t meet.
Yu:

It’s ambiguous, because after the split, they are together again. Are they on
separate paths?

Waliczky: In this animation, the problem for me is the visuals. The characters are drawn
in a children’s book illustration aesthetic, and this doesn’t fit sometimes withthe story. For example, when they have sex, this type of visuals is not goodfor showing naked bodies and sex. With Losing Sight of a Longed Place,that type of visuals is very strong and can speak about serious emotional
things. My feeling is with Neon, the type of visuals is not strong enough to
speak about such serious things.

Yu:

It feels too light to convey such strong emotions.

Lo:

The use of animation is not enough. There are few movements and they arevery simple.

Fan:

The last one is Stories About Him.

Lo:

This is a well-made animation. It uses family history to refer to the historyof the Taiwanese people. It uses different types of animation techniques likestop motion, collage etc. It’s well-made, but without surprise. Taiwaneseaudiences will have a stronger reaction watching this but not Hong Kong
people like me. Is this some kind of commission film? It’s entertaining, but
nothing new to me since I have seen this kind of animation before, like a film
from Hong Kong about the filmmaker’s grandma. That’s more or less donein the same way, although they are technically different.

Yu:

It is similar to Losing Sight of a Longed Place in a way. I feel there is acultural specificity to this work that made me, as a Hong Kong person,
difficult to connect with. I don’t know why, but I don’t feel a very strong
connection to this piece.

Lo:

It uses a lot of narration to make it more interesting and more dramatic towatch, in contrast with Losing Sight of a Longed Place, which uses minimal
narration but strong words with big meaning behind each line. Stories About
Him has many playful words. They are totally different in their ways ofstorytelling.

Waliczky: Perhaps the artist didn’t decide clearly what she wants because from one side
there is this documentary animation, which I like very much. I like it whensomeone has a personal connection with the topic, and this kind of historical
topic is very interesting. From the other side, she is interested in the factthat different people tell different truths about this or that person. This could
have been something unique and strong but she didn’t really develop it fully.
Someone could have made a whole film about this, about who is telling thetruth, and it is interesting about how people remember the same person.
This animation can’t decide whether it want to speak about this or thehistory of Taiwan and her family. That’s why this piece is not so strong,
because the intention of the artist is not clear.
Lo：

I think her intention is to tell the truth, because history is truth, and shegathered some truthful information about her family and the Taiwanesepeople. One way she wants to present the truth is through storytelling. The

different telling people is an interesting part, but it’s just an entertaining partof the whole thing. If there is something essential that she wants to put inthe film, it would be more interesting.
Fan:

If you have nothing further to add, we can move on to the fun part. Do you
have any nominations for the 4 prizes? Maybe you have a shortlist of works
that you would like to award prizes, so we can narrow down the discussion.

Waliczky: My 4 favorites in order: the first place for me is Losing Sight of a Longed
Place, the second is Muteum, the third is Stories About Him, the fourth isWatching.
Yu:

Do we have to come up with the order now?

Fan:

Not necessarily, your choice.

Yu:

I don’t have the order yet, I picked Losing Sight of a Longed Place,
Muteum, Watching and Cross Blade Kill. I think I can give you the order,
one is Losing Sight, second is Muteum, third is Watching, fourth is Cross
Blade Kill.

Lo:For me, Gold Award goes to Losing Sight, Silver goes to Muteum, Special
Mention goes to Stories About Him, Excellence Award from Hong Kong
goes to Passing Rain.

Fan:

For Wong Ying’s choice, he picked Stories About Him for Gold Award,
Silver goes to Wind Fire Lam Chung, third and fourth places are Flotsam
and Cross Blade Kill. From your votes, it is quite clear that for Gold Award,
all of you picked Losing Sight of a Longed Place and Muteum for SilverAward. Agreed? Now we will discuss the Special Mention and ExcellenceAward.

Waliczky: Do these prizes have similar weight, or which is higher and which is lower?
Lo：

It’s my understanding that for Special Mention, we pick from all ten works,
and Excellence Award only goes to Hong Kong Works. That’s the maindifference.

Fan:

From the organiser’s point of view, Special Mention, is given to works
whose overall quality may not be perfect, especially in comparison to theGold and Silver Awards, but there is something special to mention. We
don’t have Bronze Award, and instead we have Special Mention. For

Excellence Award, it is more about overall excellence, but only incompetition with other Hong Kong works, so the 6 Hong Kong works
compete for this award.
Yu:

So the Excellence Award can overlap with others.

Fan:Yes, for example, if the Gold and Silver Awards are from the Hong Kong
division, and you find that the Gold Award winner is also entitled to get the
Excellence Award, that’s alright.

Lo:

For me, why I choose Stories About Him for Special Mention is that it’s
the first time we have works from Taiwan and China, and so if all four
awards go to Hong Kong works, it’s a bit odd. Stories About Him has goodoverall effort in many ways. In terms of creativity it’s not on Gold or Silver
level, so I give it Special Mention. I like it better than Watching.

Waliczky: I also choose this for Special Mention.
Fan:

Including Wong Ying, that will be 3 votes for this work. Wong Ying picked
it as Gold Award.

Yu:

I am okay. I was debating between Stories About Him and Watching. They
are both on the same rank for me.

Lo:

For Excellence Award, my choices are Passing Rain and Cross Blade Kill.
You talk about the technical problems of Passing Rain. Technically, it may
not be a very high-level 3D CG animation, but I like the subtle directing,which attracts me to watch the whole thing. Even though I have seen it
several times, I am still amazed by the eye movements. This kind ofJapanese style 3D CG is seldom seen. Cross Blade Kill is good too.

Yu:

For the Excellence Award I picked Cross Blade Kill. Among the Hong
Kong works, Passing Rain and Cross Blade Kill are highly competitive.
From an audience’s perspective, I enjoyed watching Cross Blade Kill morethan Passing Rain, but in terms of production, Passing Rain is really
excellent. Although there are flaws in the animation, the treatment of allthese details - a lot of work went behind it, like the rigging of the characters,
treatment of the facial expressions, drops of water, the wet cloth and wet
piece of paper, the thin layer of water on the floor, these details involve a
lot of work. From a production perspective this is an excellent work. Froman audience’s perspective it is not engaging.

Waliczky: If I have to choose between the two, I prefer love to killing, so I go for
Passing Rain. Also, I like 3D animation very much, and this is the only
high level example out of the ten.

Animation Category Award Winners
Gold Award
Losing Sight of a Longed Place
Wong Tsz-ying, Shek Ka-chun, Wong Chun-long / Hong Kong
Silver Award
MuteumLee Pak-yee Aggie / Hong Kong
Special Mention
Stories About Him
Yang Yung-shiuan / Taiwan
Excellence Award
Passing Rain
Yeung Hey-chiu / Hong Kong