Award Winners
2022 Sweaty Eyeballs Animation Festival
Golden Eyeball (Grand Prize) Award
Love, Dad
directed by Diana Cam Van Nguyen (Czech Republic / Slovakia)
Jury Comments:
A deeply personal narrative told through beautifully experimental processes that together form an elegant entirety.
Creative use of restaged personal memories, filmed in live action and brought to life through cut-out animation, reflect on a deeply personal story and breaks new ground in this animated memoir.
A deeply personal portrait of a relationship that explores nostalgic ephemera through a contemporary animation lens.
As a relatively young medium, I am so interested in the exploration of developing new languages of communication in animation. I found the use of animation and mix techniques and materials very powerful as a medium to tell such a personal story.​
Eyepopper (Best Experimental / Boundary Pushing Film) Award
Menagerie
directed by Jack Gray (USA)
Jury Comments:
Cycles are one of the keystones of animation and are pushed to an extreme that serves the film’s concept perfectly.
Pushing woven and intersecting loops to a new level, Menagerie boggles the eye as a gaggle of absurdly blobby characters go about doing their thing, while the camera moves past and through urban apartments and streetscapes.
A joyous romp that coaxes us to the edge of existence through a maze of seemingly-juvenile, weaving loops.
I loved the mosaic of loops and their delivery through the traveling camera work. The drawing style, sound palette (the treatment really) was ‘cool’ too.
Best Student Film Award
A Letter with my Sword, Word by Word
directed by Emma Barany (USA)
Jury Comments:
A fresh and unexpected film in which the auteur’s hand is so humanly present.
Experimental play with figure and ground, text and image, are skillfully and compellingly mixed in this mature yet fresh animation.
Replete with textures galore and a lush soundscape, this animated poem is a beautiful expression of gratitude and place.
I found myself very interested in the intersection of motion graphics with rotoscoped video performance. The use of letters and self video recordings made it personal and nearer for me. The idea of exploring the language of sword fighting visually through animation was very interesting too.
Best Baltimore Film Award
Bug Box
directed by Kat Navarro (USA)
Jury Comments:
The artist’s voice comes through both strongly and subtly in this motion-poem that gets under your skin as much as it delightfully crawls all over it.
Delicate textures and playful colors call to mind childhood memories of gathering insects. The thoughtful layering, mixed media approach to experimentation, and varieties of expressive movement made this film stand out.
A sweet homage to nature and childlike wonder that washes over us through layers of quiet, joyful animation.
I loved the filter of perception, or seeing through these set of eyes into the natural world. The arrangement or composition of animated clips was nicely done too, which cherishes independent processes and filmmaking in my opinion.
Jury Citations
2022 Sweaty Eyeballs Animation Festival
HOSPES
directed by Stephanie Williams (USA)
Jury Comments:
Visceral and bold, full of quivering bodily elements and self-closing doors, this ambitious animation questions ideas of animacy, figuration, escape, and autonomy. Through fluent movement, striking editing, and eerie sound design, the director has sculpted and brought to life a metaphoric realm of inquiry into un-whole bodies. The jury commends the film for its innovation and excellence.
Zoon
directed by Jonatan Schwenk (Germany)
Jury Comments:
A cheerful feast of theatrical storytelling.
Slower Animals
directed by John C. Kelley (USA)
Jury Comments:
A dark journey through memories, some unearthed and some missing - this film feels honest and brave in both its personal narrative and artistic approach.
Sierra
directed by Sander Joon (Estonia)
Jury Comments:
An unstoppable feat of ecstatic 3D animation and free association that breaks the fabric of reality and leads us to question our parental motivations.