Following two successful editions in Lille in 2017 and 2018, the Emile Awards were suspended due to the pandemic. However, the awards are now returning under the guidance of a committee comprising animation professionals from across Europe. The upcoming ceremony, organised in Greece by the ANIMASYROS International Animation Festival, will take place on Monday 23 September 2024 at the historic Apollo Municipal Theatre in Hermoupolis on the Greek island of Syros.
The animated puppet short film The Family Portrait is a co-production between Vivement Lundi! (France), Adriatic Animation (Croatia) and Biberche Productions (Serbia), supported by the Croatian Audiovisual Fund, the CNC, the Brittany Region, the Centre-Val de Loire Region, ARTE France, TVR, Tébéo and TébéSud, Procirep and Angoa.
In May 2019, Rennes-based producer Jean-François Le Corre discovered The Family Portrait project. Croatian artist Lea Vidaković, who had already directed The Vast Landscape, imagined this family chronicle set in 1914 in an Austro-Hungarian Empire on the brink of collapse. A father and daughter receive an unexpected visitor and a beautiful Sunday afternoon turns to chaos…
The film had its world premiere at the Animafest Zagreb 2023 festival. To date, it has won 18 international awards, has been broadcast on ARTE and is currently being distributed in cinemas in Germany and Central Europe. Last June, The Family Portrait won the Rigo Mora Award for best animated short at the Guadalajara International Film Festival in Mexico. The Rigo Mora Award, created by Guillermo del Toro, means that the film is now eligible for a nomination for the Oscar for Animated Short Film 2025.
