festival

Please receives Animation Is Film's 2026 Special Jury Prize for shorts

Published on SMDB 2026-10-22 Source date 2026-10-22

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Animation Is Film's ninth edition, held in Los Angeles from 16 to 19 October 2026, awarded its Special Jury Prize for shorts to Anna Mantzaris's Please. The festival's own awards display identifies the film as the winner; Cartoon Brew reported the full results on 22 October after the event closed.

The independent report says the shorts jury singled out the film's felt-puppet stop-motion craft, whimsy and characterization, describing a tender comedy about the desire for connection. The jury comprised filmmaker Elizabeth Ito, animation historian Jerry Beck and actor-director Rachel House.

Mantzaris's official project page and Miyu Distribution identify Please as a nine-minute 2026 stop-motion short and list its Sweden-France-Czech Republic-Norway-Finland co-production. This is a separate award event from SMDB's June trailer-and-Annecy story, so the earlier article and its original publication date remain unchanged.

Films & works (1)

Please

People

Anna Mantzaris

Sources

Listed so you can verify every claim. Cartoon Brew · Animation Is Film · Anna Mantzaris · Miyu Distribution

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