Brazil’s The Boy and the World (O Menino e O Mundo) by musician-turned-filmmaker Alê Abreu won both the Cristal Award for best feature film and the Audience Award at France’s Annecy International Animation Film Festival (Annecy), one of the oldest and most prestigious animation film festivals in the world. 

According to the film’s synopsis from Annecy’s website,

“Suffering from the absence of a father, a boy leaves his village and discovers a fantastic world dominated by animal-machines and strange beings. [The film is a] portrait of the problems of the modern world seen through the eyes of a child.”

The Boy and the World has no dialogue and utilizes a striking combination of 2D computer animation, hand-drawn techniques, and live-action footage (see the trailer below).

EMBED VIDEO – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rHgiSMiHhs

GKids recently acquired the U.S. distribution rights for the film.  Though a release date has not been set, The Boy and the World should be an interesting addition to the lineup of theatrically-released animated films of 2014. In an industry mostly dominated by the latest advances in CGI (see our review of How to Train Your Dragon 2), The Boy and the World seems to offer a refreshing taste of both Brazilian cinema and alternative forms of animation.

Bill Plympton’s hand-drawn Cheatin’, which was partially funded through Kickstarter, earned the runner-up Jury Prize while Mizuho Nishikubo’s Giovanni’s Island (Giovanni no Shima) received the Jury Distinction for third place.  Cheatin’ is about a wife who becomes her cheating husband’s multiple mistresses;  Giovanni’s Island tells the story of the enduring friendship between two boys, one Japanese and the other Russian, on the island of Shikotan during the aftermath of World War II.

Isao Takahata, the revered animation director (Grave of the Fireflies, Pompoko) and co-founder with Hayao Miyazaki of Japan’s Studio Ghibli, was awarded an honorary award for his contribution to animation.  The festival screened the director’s latest film, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya.

A full list of winners can be found here.