ANNUAL AWARD FOR AN OUTSTANDING ARTIST AND TUTORS,
THE SPECIAL GOLDEN DINOSAUR AWARD FOR
BARRY PURVES

The Special Golden Dinosaur Prize for an outstanding artist and educator which has been granted since the 10th edition of the Etiuda&Anima Festival, has always had an individual character and has been granted to animation, documentary and feature filmmakers. So far, among the awarded artists, there are: Jerzy Kucia (2003), Kazimierz Karabasz (2004), Paul Driessen from Holland (2005), Wojciech Marczewski (2006), Priit Pärn from Estonia (2007) and the last years ' laureate s– Iranian film director Mohsen Makhmalbaf (2008), Polish documentary filmmakers Jacek Bławut and Marcel Łoziński (2009) and Martin Sulik from Czech Republic (2010).

This year the award goes to Barry Purves -  the great animator and pedagogue from Great Britain.

The Special Golden Dinosaur awarded already for the nineth time to outstanding the artist who manages to combine film-making with teaching, this year goes to an animator, for the fourth time in the history of the prize. This year's winner is Barry Purves, a British puppet animator, following Jerzy Kucia, Paul Driessen and Priit Pärn. This born in 1955 artist received classical education, which allows him to easily derive inspiration from the European tradition, in particular the Greek and British ones. He loves combining specific features of 3D animation with theatre, opera and music. Having done training with different companies and worked on children's films, TV series, commercials and pilot films, he made his debut when working for the well-known Aardman Animations with Next (1989). Since the beginning of the 1990s, already in his own company Bare Boards Productions co-founded with Glenn Holberton, apart from functional animations he made his ‘theatrical animated films’, among others Screen Play (1992) nominated to the Oscar Award and Achilles (1996) nominated to the BAFTA award. In one of his interviews Purves said: “Animation and theater have a lot in common – they both like unreality and artificiality, just like ballet and opera. Animation likes artificiality in design, movement. Just like theater does. It is a very interesting form of story-telling. And I like telling stories. I am not interested in realism. Opera, animation and theatre tell the truth”.

Purves is a truly versatile artist, who does not limit his work to puppet animation; he is fascinated with ballet, writes plays, and even appears on stage. He also likes cooperating with other film-makers, like Tim Burton and Peter Jackson. Purves has written works on the creative process in animation entitled Stop Motion – passion process performance (2008) and Animation Basics – Stop motion (2010) addressed to students and debuting animators. That latest book proved once again his talent and interest in teaching. When asked about advice for young novice animators he replied: ‘Simplify. Tell a story. Animation has nothing to do with technology. There is no point to create fantastic dinosaurs, giants and good witches if there is no story to be told. Always think about the story first, and next how to tell it – using drawings, puppets or a computer. Give the story time to be interpreted.”

The director teaches at the Animation Department of the National Film and Television School in Great Britain and the National Film School in Italy, in Turin, where in 2010 he organized a Directing and 3D Animation Master Class (stop motion) for 2nd year students of animation (3D Faculty). Purves also runs master courses in animation, documentary, acting and animation at a number of universities all over the world (Italy, France, Morocco, Argentina, etc.) and at the main American film studios, including Dreamworks, Pacific Data Images, Pixar and Will Vintons. In 2004 he run a course called “Writing performances” at his mother university, which ended with the staging of six plays (Sketches for a Marriage) written with students inspired by Jan Van Eyck’s painting The Arnolfini Portrait.

Barry Purves’s achievements in teaching are indeed outstanding. In a letter addressed to the festival organizers he wrote: ‘I work with students all over the world a lot. Sometimes I advise them on their short films, and sometimes I am responsible for specific tasks in the film-making process. This year I have run a three-month course for the University of Drama students, carefully watching how animation tells stories. At the Staffordshire University I have run a practical course during which each student had to make a film for a specific part of an orchestra piece. I will present the film (Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra) at the festival. All the films that I am going to present have been made by students as part of my courses and workshops in recent years.”

Short films made by students of Barry Purves – the winner of the Special Golden Dinosaur Award for the outstanding artist and pedagogue

TOMORROW, dir.: Bob Lee, UK, 2009, 4’

An elderly man fears to leave the safety of his kitchen, but something keeps drawing him out.


STANLEY PICKLE, dir.: Vicky Mather, National Film and Television School, UK, 2010, 11’

Stanley’s
 life
 runs
 like
 clockwork,
 and
 everything
 seems
 normal
 until 
an encounter 
with 
a 
mysterious 
girl 
turns
 his 
world 
upside 
down.
.
LITTLE RED PLANE, dir.: Charlotte Blacker, UK, 2011, 4’

A lively musical journey in wool.


ASTONOMERS SUN, dir.: Simon Cartwright, Jessica Cartwright, UK, 2010, 5’


A young man, accompanied by his mysterious mechanical bear, visit an abandoned observatory to confront memories of his past and follow his Father on a journey into the unknown. A magical story about relationships and what it is to be human.

DAMNED, dir.: Richard Phelam, National Film and Television School, UK, 2011, 9’

A beaver’s effort to build a damn are constantly thwarted

PLAYING GHOST, dir.: Bianca Ansem, National Film and Television School, UK, 2011, 8’

A mother and a child both cope with grief in very different ways.

BRITAIN, dir.: Bexie Bush, University of Central Lancashire, UK, 2011, 3’

Two armchairs wittily discuss the state of Britain today.

THE YOUNG PERSONS GUIDE TO THE ORCHESTRA, dir.: Barry Purves, University of Staffordshire, UK, 2011, 16’

An ambitious exercise with students animating to Benjamin Britten’s infectious orchestral suite.

CHARACTER OF PLACE, various directors, National Film and Television School, UK, 2010, 6’

Eight very short films done as an exercise, bringing together a cinematographer, a designer, and an animator to make a film in a short space of time.