To help, there were 4 judges of extreme talents - Philip Groning, a director and writer from Germany, he made the great documentary "Into Great Silence"; Claire Simon of France, who had 2 films there, "Gare du Nord" and "Human Geography"; Alisher Khamidkhodjaev, who is a famous cinematographer from Russia; and Sylvia Hoeks, a beautiful actress from Holland.
The judging panel at Message to Man
The screening process was long, but consistently entertaining - the selection of the winners went pretty smoothly. There was only one conflict, over best short documentary - it was between two excellent films, "La Princess (La Reina)" and "Beach Boy". They were both excellent, so we decided to split the prize.
The grand prize went to a feature-length film about Pygmies in the Congo, "Forest of the Dancing Spirits" by Linda Västrik. It's a wonderful documentary that looks at a remote tribe as a soap opera.
One curious thing was the fact that during all of my interviews, the questions were about politics. What did I think about Putin, or the situation in Ukraine? I told them all the same thing - I was there to show my film "Cheatin'" and talk about animation. I'm not a student of politics, especially Russian politics, so I wasn't going to make a fool of myself talking about that.
Besides, I'm returning to Russia in December, to a festival in Ekatarinburg, and I don't want my visa to get rejected because I made some anti-Putin remarks! In fact, I heard that the documentary "Pussy Versus Putin" was ordered to be withdrawn from the festival by the Minister of Culture - so there you go.
--Bill Plympton
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