AWARDS AND STATEMENTS StopTrik International film festiva (Łódź)
2024 marks the last edition of StopTrik in Poland. The awards in the Stop Motion Competition and Stop Motion for Children Competition were granted by the audiences' themselves, white the Student Jury (composed of the students from the Film Studies at the University of Lodz) came up with their own verdict after long deliberations. The winning choice of the Łódź audience in Stop Motion Competition is made during the ongoing Russia's war in Ukraine; we interpret it as a sign of support for Russian animators who, in a clear and firm manner, protest against totalitarian power.
The verdicts of the Polish editions have sometimes sustained the choices of the audiences in Maribor, sometimes they have counterpointed them, highlighting different directions and trends as valuable and fascinating. Find the list of StopTrik Poland winners and laureates in 2012-2024 here.
STOPTRIK 2024 ŁÓDŹ AUDIENCE GRAND PRIX STOP MOTION ANIMATION
Father's Letters / "Папины письма", Papiny pis'ma
dir. Alexey Evstigneev, prod. Moderato, Mimesis
2024, France, Russia, 12’10’’
In 1934, Professor Vangengheim was sentenced to the Gulag on the Solovki. As he pretends to be on a grand voyage of exploration, he crafts imaginative tales in letters to his daughter Eleonora, shielding her from the truth of his sentence as a "traitor to the motherland''.
STOPTRIK 2024 ŁÓDŹ AUDIENCE GRAND PRIX BORDERLANDS
Toto
dir. Klaudia Bochniak, prod. Film School Lodz
2023, Poland, 6’10’’
Toto the tiger escapes from the local circus, causing a commotion in the area. Despite being aware of his presence, a girl living in a nearby city, driven by impulse, decides to leave her home..
STOPTRIK 2024 ŁÓDŹ STUDENTS JURY
Łódź Student Jury: Patryk Buchta, Dominik Piekarski, Magdalena Raczyńska
Award Stop motion animation
Playing God
dir. Matteo Burani (Studio Croma)
2024, Italy, France, 9'
A clay sculpture comes to life in the darkness of a workshop, surrounded by strange creatures…
We were captivated by the complete, parable nature of the story about playing with the essence of humanity. The message was fully focused on the microscale, appearing as something removed from the boundaries of heaven, purgatory and hell. Formally, it reminded us of the treatment of specific objects in front of the camera from the work of Jan Švankmajer or even more the tone of the film Mad God (dir. Phil Tippett, 2021). Let this be the highest form of appreciation from us for this plastic nature of the whole, equating the divine touch with the touch of the film God, reminiscent of an animator.
The study jury gives the award to the film PLAYING GOD by Matteo Burani.
Stop Motion Animation Special Mention
Carrotica
dir. Daniel Sterlin-Altman (Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF)
2024, Germany, 13'08''
A teenage boy is writing an explicit gay erotica in secrecy in his bedroom and his mother is falling in love with a carrot. They're doing okay…
“As he emerged from the pool, the droplets cascading down his body accentuated both his impressive physique and his considerable endowment”; Surprisingly, this is not an excerpt from an erotic novel perched on the top shelf of a nearby kiosk, but the opening narration of one of the warmest, funniest, and most absurd films of this year’s StopTrik festival. This incredibly charming story about self-acceptance never falls into clichés or excessive moralizing. At the same time, in its exploration of adolescent sexuality, it doesn’t forget the parent’s perspective. Coming out has never been so full of humor... and carrots.
The student jury gives the special mention to the film CARROTICA by Daniel Sterlin-Altman.
Award Borderlands
Toto
dir. Klaudia Bochniak, prod. Film School Lodz
2023, Poland, 6’10’’
Toto the tiger escapes from the local circus, causing a commotion in the area. Despite being aware of his presence, a girl living in a nearby city, driven by impulse, decides to leave her home..
A break with the image of gray Polish blocks of flats, which in the film acquire eye-pleasing colors. Despite these beautiful colors and geometric shapes, it does not feed the viewer with a vision of an idyllic hood. It shows that the danger is not hidden in scenes reminding a movie about a tiger escaping from a circus, but in our own species. An oneiric story about the urban jungle that presents a non-obvious vision of a sense of security in today’s world.
The student jury gives the award to the film TOTO by Klaudia Bochniak.
Borderlands Special Mention
Families’ Albums / Albums de familles
dir. Moïa Jobin-Paré
2023, Canada, 8'22''
Photographic images, scenes of everyday life. When connected, a new landscape emerges.
The transience of human memory, or the memory of people in general, has been conjured into a mesmerizing, extremely experimental film. In our opinion, it enters into a kind of dialogue with the film Entropic Memory (Mémoire entropique, dir. Nicolas Brault, 2024) from the main competition. It complements this work with the unique context of decay, which is actually present here, but has been captured in a different, equally innovative way. It has become an image not of actual, physical decay, but a labyrinth of human memory transferred to the screen.
The student jury gives the special mention to the film FAMILIES’ ALBUMS by Moïa Jobin-Paré.
STOPTRIK 2024 ŁÓDŹ YOUNG AUDIENCE GRAND PRIX (group age 6-8 years old)
Hoofs on Skates / Kanopos ir pačiūžos
Ignas Meilūnas (Kadrų Skyrius)
Lithuania, 2024, 12'24''
In a winter wonderland two friends are having a blast ice-skating on a frozen lake when suddenly a strange and unfamiliar world cracks open underneath them. Now they must learn how to deal with this other kind without letting fear and preconceptions take over.
STOPTRIK 2024 ŁÓDŹ YOUNG AUDIENCE GRAND PRIX (group age 9-11 years old)
Lola and the Piano Sound / Lola et le Piano à bruits
dir. Augusto Zanovello, prod. Komadoli Studio, Folimage, Momakin, Nadasdy Film
2024, France, Poland, Switzerland, 27’52’’
Lola, 11, is the sister of 5-year-old Simon, who lives in a world of his own. Observing him, she notices how sensitive he is to small, hidden sounds. With her friend Rolih, they decide to build a noise machine to communicate with him.
STOPTRIK 2024 ŁÓDŹ YOUNG AUDIENCE GRAND PRIX (group age 12-14 years old)
Eyes / Nunnunnun, 눈눈눈
dir. Nam Hyokyoung, Choi Yoojae
2024, South Korea, 13'48''
A child named Wilson was born with only one eye. Bright and positive, Wilson likes to draw, but repeated bullying by kids at school has made her afraid of drawing. One day she discovers a strange creature in the school backyard and is led into a forest where unexpected events take place.