Oscar-winning Australian director Adam Elliot ‘s stop-motion picture Memoir of a Snail has won the top Cristal prize for best feature at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival.
The movie gathers a starry cast led by Succession star Sarah Snook, who lends her voice to protagonist Grace Puddle, a young woman with a difficult life story who finds comfort in the hoarding of snail memorabilia.
Memoir of a Snail is Elliot’s second feature after 2009 animation Mary and Max, and Oscar-winning 2004 short Harvey Krumpet.
In other prizes in the main Competition, Japanese director Shinnosuke Yakuwa’s Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window won the Paul Grimault Award and Latvian filmmaker Gints Zilbalodis’ Flow was feted with the Jury Award.
In the Contrechamp competition, aimed at features pushing the boundaries of animation story-telliing, the Contrechamp Grand Prix went to Spanish filmmaker Isabel Herguera’s feminist drama Sultana’s Dream, and Czech director Kristina Dufková won the Contrechamp Jury Award for Living Large, about young boy bullied over his weight who decides to turn his life around.
