At the presentation of the animation award, Evgeny Tsyganov and Alexander Adabashyan did not agree on the issue of the fall of Icarus

The Icarus National Animation Award ceremony took place for the ninth time, bringing together “a small animation community,” as one of the laureates, producer Alexander Gerasimov, said. The prizes were made from unused stained glass windows of the St. Petersburg metro. Among the experts were even the children of Yevgeny Tsyganov.

The winner in the short film was “Music of a Summer Night” by Alexander Vasiliev, who also received an award for the screenplay. His heroes are rushing somewhere along a night highway, and a random fellow traveler turns out to be Death – the classic one, with a scythe. The film brought an award in the “Actor” category to Alexander Bashirov, in whose voice one of the characters speaks. It was a miracle that he showed up at the ceremony at all, having arrived from St. Petersburg. The presentation took place at the School of Modern Play, and therefore one of the awards was presented by the actress of this theater Tatyana Vedeneeva.

“When I first voiced a cartoon, Disney’s Brave, the only thing I could see on the screen was the lips of the queen I voiced, sometimes her face without hair. They didn’t show me what my heroine looked like, so that on the eve of the world premiere I couldn’t give away any secrets. Then for the first time I realized what a difficult task it is to dub films, and especially cartoons,” said Vedeneeva.

The acting nomination was strong. In addition to Alexander Bashirov, it featured: Viktor Sukhorukov, whose hero eradicated “all lion meat” in himself; Konstantin Khabensky, first-time actor of “Smeshariki”, celebrating its 20th anniversary; Mikhail Chernyak and Galina Stakhanova, who made her feature film debut in “Girls” in 1961. At Icarus she presented two cartoons – “The Cabbage Miracle” and “Granny”. Icarus artistic director Sergei Kapkov presented her with flowers right in the hall. And she said excitedly in response: “I’m happy that I was nominated.”

Happy laureate Alexander Bashirov turned to Stakhanova: “Galina, such is life. I’m not an actor. I become a director simply out of despair. The best thing I saw in my life was Leonov, who voiced Winnie the Pooh.” For me, the most important thing is that animators create senselessly… In this animated film (“Music of a Summer Night”) I just helped a guy and wasted my time pointlessly. And you enjoyed it. The only thing we have in this life is the opportunity to realize ourselves.”

In the entire history of the award, only Evgeny Tsyganov, who was invited to present the award, asked to send him all the cartoons and watched them together with the children who cast their votes for “Smeshariki.” Evgeniy came to the ceremony with his 15-year-old daughter Sofia. He thanked the animators for their work “as a father with many children and as a grown child” and presented awards in the “Animator” categories to Anastasia Lisovets for “Tick” and “Character,” and to Yulia Evdokimova for “The Thinking Wolf.”

“As a child, falling asleep, I told my parents: “I’m afraid I’ll have nightmares,” recalled Tsyganov. “And they advised: “Imagine something good.” I tried to imagine cartoon characters. Then questions began to arise: “What should happen to people who remain in this world of dreams and magic?” Now the question that bothers me is: did Icarus end up badly? Or usually, like everyone else? The difference probably lies in the fact that he had flight. My master Pyotr Naumovich Fomenko, when something didn’t work out, told us: “Guys, there is a flight program – there is no flight.” With Icarus it was probably exactly the opposite.”

Actually, this was a response to Alexander Adabashyan, who a little earlier presented the “Master” award to the artist Igor Makarov (“Robbery by…”, “Dog in Boots,” “Very Bluebeard”). On stage, he shared his doubts: “I don’t know why the award was called “Icarus”? As far as I remember, Icarus came to a bad end.”

The best feature film was “Three Cats and a Sea of ​​Adventures” by Dmitry Vysotsky. He himself could not come from St. Petersburg because he is working on the continuation of the film. Maxim Kulikov was named the best director, who received a lot of kicks from the masters for his “Dear Passengers.” The heroes of the film, and this is the whole country in miniature, are rushing somewhere on the 72nd train. In crowded reserved seat cars there are paratroopers drinking vodka with an old woman who looks like Death; children who started the fire; flirtatious ladies and a gluttonous man who turned the compartment into a butcher shop…

In the “Business” (applied animation) category, the leaders were “Little Stories of a Big Plant” by Ivan Khanzhin, a social project about children whose parents work at one of the Ural factories.

Artem Fadeev became the record holder for the number of nominations in the ten-year history of Icarus. There were 12 of them in the “Composer” and “Sound Design” categories. Now Artem has become the best sound engineer for Omichka and Kharms. And the youngest winner of “Icarus” of previous years, Mark Skvortsov, was named the best composer. He received his first award at the age of 18, writing music for the film “The Duck and the Kangaroo” by his mother Lisa Skvortsova. Now he has a second Icarus – for “Don’t Turn on the Lights.” “Inspiration rarely comes to me,” admitted the still youngest laureate (he is 22 years old). – This usually happens when I have a good meal. My mom made potato gratin and my aunt made a salad and everything happened.” Adult colleagues awarded it the category “Menu of Inspiration.”