Jon Frickey, director
IS THERE A JUROR IN THE HOUSE?
BY PAT FRICKEY
Is There a Juror in the House?
Actually, yes.
As of early April, my son Jon and his wife
and four-year-old son have relocated
to Stade from downtown Hamburg.
The Kita had closed its doors and
playgrounds had become off limits, so
a house with a large garden equipped
with a playhouse at the far end was
an enticing alternative to city life. The
playhouse had been constructed the
previous summer by my remarkable
daughter-in-law Judith, inspired a bit by
Pippi’s Villa Kunterbunt.
Jon had already accepted an invitation
to become one of the five jurors
to choose the winner of the Grand
Prix of the Internationales Trickfilm-
Festival Stuttgart (ITFS) and had been
looking forward to going on his annual
pilgrimage there. It is the largest
animated film festival in Germany
and worldwide a leading festival
for animation. It was scheduled to
take place May 5-10. Then came the
Stay-at-Home Epoch.
The organizers of the festival didn’t let
a mere pandemic stop them. Like other
film festivals, it regrouped, then went
online with the motto: “Stay Animated—
Go Online with ITFS.” The audience
could still participate with both free and
paid online access.
So in the middle of April, the five
jurors (from five different European
countries) were given links to view
the approximately 40 films in the
main competition. Jon disappeared
into the study for what seemed like
days, watching films and intermittently
conferencing with the other jurors,
compliments of Google Meet. Either
the soundtrack of a film or the voice of
a very serious critic was always faintly
audible through the closed study door.
Finally Jon emerged, slightly disheveled,
announcing there was a winner, a
unanimous choice. We didn’t ask him
to reveal anything, but later learned
that the 2020 Grand Prix was awarded
to the Polish filmmaker Tomek Popakul
for Acid Rain.
Now that the festival is over, things
are back to normal (if we may call it
that), and Jon can concentrate on his
own animation projects. He had been
a juror before for two other festivals,
so I asked him how this compared to
the others. He admitted that he and
the other four jurors had an incredible
amount of uninterrupted TIME to
watch the films, analyze them, and
discuss their merits before making a
final decision. However, he confessed,
he really missed the FUN of being there
in Stuttgart.
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