Animation award “Icarus” was presented: cartoons about mummies and sunflowers became laureates

For the ninth time, the National Animation Prize “Icarus” was awarded. It happened on the Day of Russian Animation, established in 2022, when domestic animation celebrated its 110th anniversary. She, of course, is far from the age of Egyptian mummies, but it turned out that even they need a cartoon.

The chamber ceremony was led by the poet and playwright Vadim Zhuk. He was assisted a la Buranovskiye grandmothers Yulia and Lyudmila – the mother-in-law of one of the ideologists of the award and the actress, who painfully parted with diplomas for the laureates. It turned out funny. The winner in short films, and almost all animation belongs to this category, was “Sunflower” by Natalia Chernysheva, a young director with great talent and a diploma from a French film school. Whole fields of sunflowers march under “Fly the Bonfires”, do gymnastics, live like zombified people, turned into a faceless mass, but hope for the best dies last.

We produce few full-length films, and there were only three of them among the nominees. Habitually won “Finnik” Denis Chernov. Now his team in St. Petersburg is working on a sequel. But we have a lot of series, they are of different quality. The best in the nomination “Episode” was “Icicles” by Veronika Fedorova from the project “Little Forest Stories”. In “Startup”, where the first episodes of the series appear, the leader was “Hotel with Sheep” from the Grand Hotel project, the author of the idea of ​​which and the producing director was Dmitry Vysotsky. He, together with Vladimir Dolgov, won the Concept Artist nomination, which is awarded only for the second time.

Another unusual nomination is “Deed”. Far from animation, a person would not guess what that would mean. And this is applied animation. Feature film director Vladimir Alenikov, who presented the award (“The Adventures of Petrov and Vasechkin”, “The Binduzhnik and the King”), despite the fact that he worked not only in Russia, but also in the USA, delivered a speech on this occasion: “What does“ Delo ”mean? Where is the animation applied? I don’t like it.” Meanwhile, the most unexpected works participated in this category. Dmitry Geller is represented by the documentary Andrei Sakharov. On the Other Side of the Window” by Dmitry Zavigelsky, for which he shot animated screensavers with the participation of cartoon characters – Academician Sakharov and his wife Elena Bonner. Here is a video from the game inclusive course “Autism Spectrum Disorders” by Natalia Vorotnikova and Anna-Maria Chernigovskaya, and the screensaver-title of two-time Oscar nominee Konstantin Bronzit for a documentary about the Melnitsa studio. A very young artist and director Dusya Geller bypassed the masters with the insert “Sleep, my good” for the documentary film “The Mummies Return” again by Dmitry Zavigelsky. Dusya received an order from the organizers of the exhibition “From the banks of the Nile to the banks of the Kama”, which presents restored ancient Egyptian mummies from the Perm Art Gallery. It takes place in the Museum of the East. Majestic mummies rest in one room, in the next room they show a film about the stages of their revival, including a funny cartoon journey of the sarcophagus on a ship, turning it into a bed for a guard. The mummy, like a naive child, looks at the modern world, claps her eyes in surprise, and she is so touching, cute. Dusya, who has been known in the animation community since early childhood, was unable to receive the award in person. Her mother, the director of animated films Ekaterina Sokolova, came on stage and said: “I don’t have a single Icarus, and Dusya got it for the first film. I’m happy”.

The most important profession in animation is the animator, who inspires life in the hero. And then Alla Solovieva and Yegor Tabachnikov with “Socks for a Star” became the best. The awards were given to composer Alexei Prosvirnin for “Ant March”, sound engineer Alexei Zelensky for “Good Old Vinyl”, St. Petersburg duet of screenwriters Andrei Bakhurin and Vadim Mikhailov for “Alien Bread”. The best artist was Galina Golubeva, who also directed “Millions of Scarlet Roses” based on Alla Pugacheva’s hit with a similar name. Visually, the prima donna is not present. And the picture is rather inspired by the music of Verdi and Rossini. The award was presented to Galina by the artist Sergei Tsigal and his daughter-actress Marietta Tsigal-Polishchuk, well known for her role as Ranevskaya in the TV series of the same name. The father admitted that, being a graphic artist, he did not achieve such freedom as in animation. And Marietta, presenting also the award for the best “Character”, where Bodo Borodo from the series of the same name won, partly repeated his words: “I envy cartoon characters. They have more freedom than we do. I didn’t get to voice cartoons, but if anything, I’m here. ” She was immediately caught at the word by Mikhail Aldashin. We are waiting for the continuation.

Among the directors it was difficult to choose the best, because they presented a lot of strong works. Varvara Yakovleva won with a fantastic “Vanlove”, where a lot of things are said about the essence of a modern woman. Varya herself also works in Paris, as does Natalya Chernysheva.

Pavel Lyubimtsev was named the best actor. He is also a writer, TV presenter, teacher, puts “Charley’s Aunt” at the “School of the Modern Play”, where “Icarus” was awarded. And he won thanks to his unique voiceover in the cartoon “The Tale of Friendship”, thanked the authors for the opportunity to improvise. The award was presented by actress and widow of Rolan Bykov Elena Sanaeva. “Animation has not bypassed me,” she said. – I played a cow, a crow (we will add from ourselves – a she-wolf, a duck, a pig and a chicken). With Bykov, we starred in “The Adventures of Lolo the Penguin” according to Merezhko’s script. Roland was a penguin, and I was a penguin.” “You are doing such a bright business that I bow to you from the waist,” the actress turned to the animators.

Sometimes unknown people came on the stage, and shouted from the audience: “Girls, and who are you?” “We are also producers,” they said in response. In the non-alternative nomination “Producer” the award was given to Yuliana Slashcheva, who needed no introduction. You say – the new “Cheburashka”, and this is enough for understanding.

In another non-alternative nomination, “Master”, the goddess was Nina Vinogradova, a student of the legendary Ivanov-Vano, a puppet animation star. She created the films “Poor Liza”, “About the Mammoth”, “The Barber of Seville”, “The Night Before Christmas”, “The Captain’s Daughter”. And what her “golden hands” are capable of can be understood by looking at jewelry and clothes. She rolls beads and collars, makes brooches. Colleagues line up for her. The award was presented by a friend and artist Marina Kurchevskaya. “Nina Nikolaevna and I are a comic couple,” she said. This is true. Nina is tiny, you still have to reach the shoulder of a tall friend. But their friendship is 30 years old. Marina admitted how much she owes Nina, including marriage (her lucky chosen one is Vadim Zhuk). The ceremony has come to an end. Its participants crowded around the theater for a long time, could not talk enough. You don’t see that at feature films.