PRESS RELEASE Paris, 17 April, 2021
ANNIE AWARDS 2021 LA BESTIA WINS « BEST STUDENT FILM » AWARD GOBELINS is proud to announce that 2020 graduation film LA BESTIA has won the "Best student Film" award at the 48th Annie Awards - the equivalent of the OSCARS for animation - on April 16 in Los Angeles. This film - supported by MEDIAWAN - was selected alongside COFFIN, another GOBELINS animation short: an unprecedented and historic double for a school!
LA BESTIA WINS "BEST STUDENT FILM" AWARD After “BEST FRIEND”, which won the award in 2019, and the nomination of “UN DIABLE DANS LA POCHE” in 2020, LA BESTIA has been awarded the prize for the originality of its scenario inspired by a sensitive topic: the freight train nicknamed "La Bestia", which transports 400,000 candidates for exile each year, and which crosses Mexico illegally in an attempt to reach the north of the country, to reach illegally the American border.
A MULTICULTURAL ADVENTURE - The strength of LA BESTIA lies in the success of a multicultural team - a pure GOBELINS product whose teaching relies on its renowned character animation training, team directing/production, and diversity. The 3 directors, Marlijn VAN NUENEN (The Netherlands), Ram TAMEZ (Mexico) and Alfredo Gerard KUTTIKATT (India) are proud of the fact that their 3 cultures, and the 10 nationalities involved in the casting, have made a universal story. "I am grateful to GOBELINS for giving us this opportunity, to Guillermo del Toro for supporting me with a scholarship, and to Asifa Hollywood… and of course to the whole team for its richness of heart and spirit" says Ram Tamez, one of the 3 directors. Nathalie Berriat, Director of GOBELINS, confirms: "This award is a real consecration! This is our 2nd ANNIE AWARDS, after the short movie BEST FRIEND. It rewards all our efforts in favor of equal opportunity over the past few years! This shows that when several nationalities join forces to combine their talents, something great comes out of it. It is also a beautiful proof that when imagination meets creation, magic happens. Congratulations to our students for their perseverance, which helped them carry out their project in the confined conditions that we know. "We are happy to have supported you for the past two years. It's a fantastic reward for the entire film team and the entire school," tweeted Pierre Antoine Capton, President of MEDIAWAN, one of Europe's leading independent studio producing audiovisual content. "Invested in the training of French animation talents, we chose a prestigious school in this field, in order to make their know-how known worldwide".
PRESS RELEASE
THE ADVENTURE CONTINUES LA BESTIA has won the "Best International Animated Film" award at the CINELEBU festival, making it eligible for the 2022 OSCARS!
About the film: LA BESTIA: A young Mexican smuggler and a little girl travel illegally atop a freight train, called La Bestia, to get to the United States. Directors: Marlijn VAN NUENEN, Ram TAMEZ, Alfredo Gerard KUTTIKATT
Watch LA BESTIA : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMfUdb9QUpM
Watch the making of : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ql70pKC_lOo
About GOBELINS, l’école de l’image – www.gobelins.fr For more than 50 years, GOBELINS has been the reference school for "image creation" from conception to production. It trains 1,015 students, including 508 apprentices and more than 2,000 interns in continuing education, in the fields of photography/video, print and multimedia communication, animation, graphic design, web and mobile design and video games. In 2020, GOBELINS was ranked 2nd best school in the world for animation and 1st in Europe. GOBELINS is a consular higher education institution of the CCI Paris Ile-de-France Education.
Contact presse Elise MATHIEU, Responsable Communication - Tél. 01 40 79 93 05, [email protected] www.gobelins.fr