Director, Sam O'Hare's short film, The Sandpit, continues to be the little film that could. We at Aero are excited, honored and humbled by our latest news: The Sandpit, was awarded a Prix Ars Electronica Award of Distinction!
The Prix Ars Electronica is an award for creativity and pioneering spirit in the field of digital media. Internationally renowned artists from over 70 countries participate in the Prix Ars Electronica, establishing itself as a barometer for trends in contemporary media art. Past winners include Pixar, Digital Domain, Industrial Light and Magic, and Blue Sky.
494 projects from all over the world were submitted for the Computer Animation/Film/VFX category. The entries were reviewed by 34 jurors to select this year’s prize winners based on Aesthetics, Originality, Excellence of execution, Compelling conception, and Innovation in technique of the presentation.
Sam’s film is in good company. The grand poobah award, the Golden Nica, was awarded to Arev Manoukian for his short film, Nuit Blanche. (Make sure to watch the making of this film as well - amazing!) The other Award of Distinction went to Jean Christophe Lie for the film, The Man in the Blue Gordini.
There were 12 Honorable mentions in the same category. To name a few, Weta for Avatar; Pixar for Up; and the animated Academy Award winning short, Logorama. Human Music
Sam commented, “It’s incredibly flattering the that jury valued the work of independent film makers like myself and Arev. To have my work stand beside Pixar and Weta’s is truly humbling. Those films were technically and creatively stunning. I never thought The Sandpit-- created on the computer in my home office-- would stand beside these huge productions.”
This years festival will be in Linz, from September 2-11th. The official awards ceremony will be part of the Ars Electronica Gala set for September 3, 2010 in Linz, Austria, and Sam will be presenting his film to the delegation on Sept 5th.
