‘Shift’ Wins Top Prize At Italy’s VIEW Conference

The VIEW Conference, taking place this week in Turin, Italy, announced the winners of its 2015 edition today.

First place was awarded to Shift, a graduation film by Maria Cecilia Pugliesi and Yijun Liu produced in the MFA Computer Art program at New York’s School of Visual Arts. The members of the jury “unanimously agreed that Shift was the strongest film in the competition,” and praised “the directors’ attention to lighting and composition [and its] exciting, unique look for a CG film.” The filmmakers will receive a prize of 2,000 euros:

The second place winner was the “Phantom Power” promo directed by the UK-based Persistent Peril. The film was selected for “its high concept design, character design, strong animation and story, and beautiful pacing.”

Honorable mentions were presented to the following three projects:
Dawit directed by David Jansen (Germany)

The Story of Percival Pilts directed by Janette Goodey and John Lewis (Australia)

Olilo by Ao Li (USA)

VIEW Fest’s international jury was comprised of Mark Osborne (director, The Little Prince), Kim White (director of photographer, Pixar), Jorge Gutierrez (director, The Book of Life), Glenn Entis (co-founder, Pacific Data Images), Shannon Tindle (director, On Ice for Google Spotlight Stories), Andrea Martina (Polytechnic University of Turin), Chiara Sapio (Polytechnic University of Turin), Federica Fabbri (Nemo School of Animation), Barbara Robertson (journalist), and Maria Elena Gutierrez (director, VIEW Conference/VIEW Fest).