'Iizuna Fair,' 'Pig', 'He Ran Towards His Comrade' Win Top Prizes at 14th Weird Market

The 14th edition of Spain’s animation, video games and new media confab Weird Market (weirdmarket.es), held this year in Valencia for the first time, wrapped up this weekend with the unveiling of the winning films of the WFest shorts competition. A variety of techniques and narrative themes were represented in the winners, who were awarded trophies designed by local artist SAM. 2022 WFestival winners (photo courtesy of Weird Market) The WFest short film jury — Jamie Lang (U.S.), Charlotte Sanchez (France), Maria Manero Muro (Spain) and João Apolinário (Portugal) — distinguished Iizuna Fair by BAFTA-nominated Japanese director Sumito Sakakibara as the Best International Short. Created as a 360-degree video installation commissioned by the Nagano Art Museum, the piece is a highly detailed ‘moving painting’ which plays with the boundaries between film, animation and the painted image. (Available for digital purchase on Vimeo.) In the European Short Film competition, the top award wen to Pig by Dutch animator Jorn Leeuwerink. Produced at by Amsterdam’s Studio Pupil, the 2D short playfully comments on the climate crisis with a tragicomic, picture-book style fable about a group of animals become increasingly dependent on the power they get plugging into one sleeping pig’s socket-like snout. The National Short Film award went to Genís…
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