Boulogne-Billancourt, november 20, 2015

THE TFOU ANIMATION COMPETITION
AWARDS THE 2015 PRIZE
to Ghislaine Pujol for
Banki & Frost: La banquise en pétard

This evening, at the Maison des Auteurs, TFOU and the SACD (the French society of authors and composers of dramatic and audiovisual works), in partnership with Ushuaïa TV, presented the TFOU 2015 Animation Prize to Ghislaine Pujol for her screenplay Banki & Frost : La banquise en pétard (“Banki & Frost: The polar ice cap is hopping mad”).

In the spirit of the COP 21 soon to be held in Paris, this year’s award honors the screenplay of an animated film project that echoes a civic effort to raise children’s awareness about global warming, based on the theme “Le Monde sera plus beau, si la Terre a moins chaud” (“The World will be more beautiful if the Earth is less hot!”). The winner was awarded a €1,000 grant as part the SACD’s cultural initiative. Production of the film, adapted from the screenplay for Banki & Frost: La banquise en pétard, is funded through a €15,000 commitment from the TF1 Group. In June 2016, the film will be screened in a special preview at the TFOU press conference at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival.

Of the fifty entries received, the judges most wanted to recognize Ghislaine Pujol for the quality and originality of her screenplay. With humor and sensitivity, the author creates an engaging, child-friendly work about complex and serious issues.

In her statement of intent, Ghislaine Pujol explains her approach: “Banki & Frost is an animated film: though the cartoon’s gags and the characters’ comic nature are meant to play down the subject, the movie’s purpose is to demonstrate, by example, that, if our industrialized societies don’t act quickly, Nature will remember what we’ve done and will make us pay the price later on (and maybe not just by being whapped by a polar bear, but in much worse ways!)”.

The panel of judges included Jean-Philippe Robin and Pascal Mirleau, authors, animation administrators (SACD), Yann Labasque (TF1), Christophe Sommet, Annabel Gain and Vincent Le Goff (Ushuaia TV) and the TF1 artistic team: Muriel Achery, Stéphanie Gerthoffert, Sonia Le Caillec, Caroline Maret, Anne-Sophie Perrine and Jean-Yves Arnaud.