ATHENS ANIMFEST: COSMICO WINS ITS FIRST AWARD
In March, 2015, animated short film Cosmico won a Special Mention award at the 10th Athens Animfest. It is the first award the film has received, as well as its Greek premiere.
Describing the film as "a smart reference to religion," the festival screened Cosmico on March 28th as part of the event's Animation Marathon showcase. Spread across seven days, the competitive program featured 243 short films, screened in four-hour blocks. At the end of the week-long marathon, a panel of three judges gave awards to six films, including three Special Mentions.
"The Athens Animfest embraces all varieties of animation technique and subject matter," says editor-turned-director C.J. Lazaretti. "Cosmico is quite experimental in both regards, which often makes it hard to pigeonhole for more mainstream events. Given the rich diversity of the Animfest's program, I consider this award a highly distinctive honor."
The award-winning turn at the 10th Athens Animfest wrapped up a busy month for Duke Cosmico, following screenings at two German festivals: the inaugural International Noncommercial Animation Festival BEAR, in Dresden, and the 23rd Contravision Film Festival, in Berlin. After three international screenings in ten days, does the jaded nobleman need a rest?
"Quite the contrary," says Lazaretti. "The appetite of that overindulgent stratospheric buffoon knows no limits. Meanwhile, my co-producer Hamish Graham and I are the schmucks chasing him around the festival circuit on an independent filmmaker's budget, with a mounting pile of film editing work waiting for me back in the UK. We couldn't follow Duke Cosmico to Athens this time. But it's very hard for me to turn him down."