Ottawa International Animation Festival (9/22-26/04).

The majority of the winning films at the 2004 Ottawa International Animation Festival relied primarily on traditional animation styles, instead of complex CGI. Films like Jacques--Remy Girerd's La Prophetie des grenouilles (Raining Cats and Frogs)--a quaint French-language feature film offering a new spin on Noah's Ark--held off stiff competition, including Daniel Robichaud's CGI--animated P3K: Pinocchio 3000. When Raining Cats and Frogs won the Feature Film Grand Prize, it seemed inevitable that "Machinima" was doomed.

Hyped as an exciting new animation category, Machinima (movies made entirely on personal computers and filmed in real time using computer game technology) was allowed into the festival for the first time. However, the judges strangled this concept at birth by deeming that the four Machinima entries, Anna, A Great & Majestic Empire, Fake Science and The Journey, all lacked "a certain level of excellence of expression." Ultimately, none were awarded a prize in the Machinima category, yet another poke in the eye for computers.

The festival's five-day schedule also included a Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away ) retrospective, a celebration of 75 years of Popeye and a presentation by Ren & Stimpy creator John K. arguably putting further emphasis on the notion of going back to basics instead of CGI ultrarealism. This would be true if not for one glaring exception, the ultra-surreal Ryan, which won the Nelvana Independent Short Film Grand Prize. Overflowing with imagination, enthusiasm and, ironically, humanity, this CGI-crafted biographical tale examines the life of legendary NFB animator Ryan Larkin. Creator Chris Landreth takes the unusual step of joining his subject in the film to interview the ubiquitous Larkin. The animators sit across from one another, with their 3-D heads seemingly broken, perhaps pushed apart by their own immense creativity that spills out into luminescent rainbow colours and a mass of twisted wires.

Landreth and Larkin were reunited on stage in the cavernesque studio theatre at the National Arts Centre where the winners were announced during the festival's closing ceremonies. It was an emotional affair for Landreth, and the audience, as he dragged Larkin up to take a bow. Ryan is a deeply felt film, and what makes it more unimaginably personal is that viewers have literally seen inside the heads of the stars, making it even more difficult to separate the real people collecting the prize from the lifelike CGI models on screen.

A popular favourite with the audiences, and in the genre of 1980s Saturday morning children's cartoon, David Wachtenheim's and Robert Marianetti's Saddam and Osama reinvents the notorious troublemakers Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden as superheroes, who use their magical powers to evade capture by the American "infidels." Saddam and Osama scooped two awards, Best Television Special and the Mike Gribble Peel of Laughter Award, presented to the most hilarious film in competition.

One of the film's highlights included a mock-commercial break promoting a children's toy called Rocks, pieces of rubble that come in a variety of cool collectable colours and designs, "perfect for throwing at U.S. tanks.

Political satire was also welcome in the form of Gregg and Evan Spiridellis's This Land (winner of the New Media Work Grand Prize), featuring photo heads of U.S. presidential candidates Bush and Kerry attached to tiny bodies and then manipulated to dance and sing about their election platforms. Much more fun than watching the live debates on television. Another comedic favourite was Jennifer Shiman's The Shining in 30 Seconds, Re-Enacted by Bunnies, which is exactly as the title suggests, a re-enactment of Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, condensed into 30 seconds with bunnies instead of Jack Nicholson and company.

Compared to the colourful offerings of Saddam and Osama, This Land and The Shining in 30 Seconds, the black-and-white pencil work of Son of Satan and the charcoal shadings in La Piccola Russia were stark, dark and frank. Gianluigi Toccafondo's La Piccola Russia, which picked up Best Narrative Short Film Under 35 Minutes in the Independent Short Films competition, capitalized on grainy sketching to corrupt photographs, adapting them from portraits and snapshots into a void of disturbing violent and sexual fantasies. Then there was J.J. Villard's Son of Satan, described by one festival judge as "fucked up," and for good reason. In this raw and unpretentious film, cartoony young bullies pick on a fellow student. They curse and beat on him and eventually try to hang him while the artist's pencil seems to be motivated by this hate, even driven by it. Nevertheless, Son of Satan is undeniably charged with genuine passion, particularly visible from the hand-drawn nature of the film. And one might ask: Would it have worked so well if had been constructed out of pixels on a sterile computer screen? Of course, the computers will have their chance for revenge next year as the festival has officially announced that it will now be an annual event. In 2005, it will run from September 21 to 25. Based on the talent at this year's festival, I've already noted the dates on my calendar.

Toby Osborne is a freelance writer, and a film and journalism graduate.