The big recent news for my film is the surprise news of winning a prize at Anima Mundi 2013. Anima Mundi is a major animation festival in the world. It is considered in the top 5 mentioned in the same breath as the other juggernaut animation festivals such as Annecy, Ottawa, Zagreb and Hiroshima. I tried to gain a selection from Anima Mund since the production of my Sheridan student film Sherry, like the Drink in 2003. Basically, I've tried to get in for the last 10 years but to no avail.

But this year, Requiem for Romance became my first official selection by Anima Mundi. I couldn't believe it when I found out about the selection. But I was already planning to attend MIFF in Melbourne, and it was a tough choice to have to pick between the two destinations. I weighed the options of traveling to each festival in the months leading up, but ultimately I picked Melbourne because my aunt and cousin live there, and I had never visited them in Australia.

But while I was down under, I kept tabs on how my film was doing in Brazil at Anima Mundi. I saw traffic on my LinkedIn page of people in Brazil viewing my profile, so I thought maybe that maybe my film was being well received there. Finally, when I got home from my trip, I got an email from a fellow animation director James Stewart saying congratulations on the prize in Anima Mundi. Huh? I checked on their website and they had posted the results. My film had won the Best Art Direction Award. It was first posted on their English website as Best Design award (so that's what I posted on my Facebook), but it is in fact the Best Art Direction award. It came as a total shock, given the fact that I saw so many of the amazing animated films at the animation festival in Stuttgart back in April.

The win is a very significant prize for me. It comes with one of these awesome, stylish trophies (pictured above) and a bit of prize money. Woohoo! Thanks Anima Mundi!!!

Check out Limited Edition Prints and DVDs from the film on my site: http://jonjonphenomenon.com/2013/requiem-for-romance-dvds-prints/

Here is a link to the other winners in Anima Mundi.