^{Credit: We Are Aliens (Nothing New, Miyu), Ottawa International Animation Festival, Praying Mantis (Joe Hsieh)}

Kohei Kadowaki’s We Are Aliens won the Grand Prize for Animated Feature at the 50th Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF). Premiering earlier this year at Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight, We Are Aliens centers on two childhood friends who are sent on different paths due to a misunderstanding. Aside from marking Kadowaki’s feature directorial debut, We Are Aliens is the first film from Japanese studio Nothing New. As of writing, We Are Aliens has yet to find U.S. distribution. It remains to be seen if it will be submitted for Best Animated Feature consideration at the 99th Academy Awards, although this win will hopefully bring We Are Aliens a step closer. The features Persepolis and Flow previously won at OIAF on their way to the Oscars. 

OIAF is an Oscar-qualifying festival for Best Animated Short. Joe Hsieh’s Praying Mantis could be headed for the Oscar shortlist, having won OIAF’s Grand Prize for Short Animation. Hsieh’s short centers on a seductive mutant praying mantis as she prowls the night for prey. Praying Mantis already won another Oscar-qualifying prize: Best Animated Short Film at the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival. If Praying Mantis goes from winning the OIAF Grand Prize to the Oscars, it’ll be the first short to do so since Chris Landreth’s Ryan.

Laurence Thérien’s stop-motion short Ball Face won a record four awards from OIAF this year: The Public Prize, Bento Box Award for Best Student Animation, Canadian Student Award, and Hélène Tanguay Award for Humour. None of these four wins qualify Ball Face for Oscar consideration, however. Although We Are Aliens won the top feature prize, the jury recognized two honorable mentions: Sun Xun’s Magic Atlas and Leah Nelson’s Tangles, the latter of which was recently picked up for U.S. distribution by Independent Film Company. Other winners from this year’s OIAF include Honami Yano’s Eri for Best Animated Short, Dante Zaballa’s Juana Molina "Desinhumano" for Best Commissioned Animation, and Adult Swim’s The Elephant for Platform Animation Competition. 

Check out the full list of OIAF winners below: 

Grand Prize for Animated Feature: We Are Aliens (Kohei Kadowaki)

Honorable Mentions: Magic Atlas (Sun Xun), Tangles (Leah Nelson)

Grand Prize for Short Animation: Praying Mantis (Joe Hsieh) 

Public Prize: Ball Face (Laurence Thérien)

Canadian Animation

Canada Media Fund Award for Best Canadian Animation: La comète/The Comet (Julie Charette)

Honorable Mentions: Bisou Sauvage (Bahji Jaroudi), Knowing Gaze (Dylan Glynn)

Hélène Tanguay Award for Humour: Ball Face (Laurence Thérien)

Best Short Competition 

Best Animated Short: Eri (Honami Yano)

Best Commissioned Animation: Juana Molina “Desinhumano” (Dante Zaballa)

Bento Box Award for Best Student Animation: Ball Face (Laurence Thérien)

Canadian Student Award: Ball Face (Laurence Thérien)

Honorable Mentions: Mortal Lace (Lucas Piperias), Expo Inferno (A. John Yates)

Audience Competitions

Animation for Teen Audiences 13+: Blue Flavored (Jett Ulysses) 

Honorable Mention: La comète/The Comet (Julie Charette)

Animation for Young Audiences 7+: Candy Caries (Tomoki Misato)

Honorable Mention: Bats and Bugs (Lena von Döhren)

Craft Awards 

Best Script: Uka-uka (Henri Veermäe)

Animation Guild Craft Award for Best Design: When the Sea was Calm (Mamuka Tkeshelashvili)

XPPen Craft Award for Best Animation Technique: Daughters of the Late Colonel (Elizabeth Hobbs)

Best Sound Design: Paper Trail (Don Hertzfeldt)

Platform Animation Competition: Adult Swim’s The Elephant

50 In 50 – Our Favourite Canadian Animated Shorts

OIAF Team Choice: The Big Snit (Richard Condie

Public Prize: Meneath: The Hidden Island of Ethics (Terril Calder)

Read Cartoon Contender’s review of We Are Aliens here and our interview with Kohei Kadowaki here. 

Nick Spake is the Author of Bright & Shiny: A History of Animation at Award Shows Volumes 1, 2, and 3. Available Now!