The French film Adama, directed by Simon Rouby, is the winner of the Best of Fest Award at the 2015 Chicago International Children’s Film Festival. Adama also won The Liv Ullmann Peace Prize, and the Adult Jury Prize—Animated Feature Film.
As twelve-year-old Adama is about to experience his boyhood rite of passage, he and his brother’s lives are changed forever. Adama lives in a remote African village, but his older teenaged brother Samba gets lured outside of their community to join the ranks of the Tirailleurs, French West African soldiers recruited by the French during World War I. Despite all odds, Adama goes on a journey and finds his brother at the ferocious Battle of Verdun on the Western Front. This stunningly animated coming-of-age story is an inspiring depiction of perseverance and personal striving where fraternal bonds triumph.
The complete list of 2015 Awards for 2015 Chicago International Children’s Film Festival.
Special Prizes
The 2015 Best of Fest Award
Simon Rouby, Adama (France, 2015)
Programmer’s Choice Award
2nd Prize, Animated Feature Film
Alê Abreu, Boy and the World (Brazil, 2013)
The Kenneth and Harle Montgomery Prize—Best Film by an Emerging Director
Eloi Henriod, The Little Blond Boy with a White Sheep (France, 2013)
The Kenneth and Harle Montgomery Prize—Best Child-Produced Film
Eli Staub, Noted (USA, 2014)
Science Award
Mark Bellamy, Bushwhacked! (Australia, 2013)
The Liv Ullmann Peace Prize
Simon Rouby, Adama (France, 2015)
Teacher’s Choice Prize
Matías Lucchesi, Natural Sciences (Argentina, 2014)
Best Production for Young Children (Ages 2–5)
Siri Melchior, Rita and Crocodile (Denmark, 2014)
Children’s Jury Prizes
Children’s Jury Prize—Live-Action Feature Film
Douglas Boswell, Labyrinthus (Belgium, 2014)
2nd Prize, Live-Action Feature Film
Dennis Bots, Code M (Netherlands, 2015)
Children’s Jury Prize—Live-action Short Film
James Everett, Dreaming of Peggy Lee (England, 2014)
2nd Prize, Live-action Short Film
Kenny Basumatery, Myna and Asterix (India, 2014)
Children’s Jury Prize—Documentary Short Film
Dean Hamer, A Place in the Middle (USA, 2014)
2nd Prize, Documentary Short Film
Jennifer Treuting and Kristen McGregor, Mo’s Bows (USA, 2015)
Children’s Jury Prize—Animated Feature Film
Hiromasa Yonebayashi, When Marnie Was There (Japan, 2015)
2nd Prize, Animated Feature Film
Rémi Bezançon & Jean-Christophe Lie, Zarafa (English version) (France/Belgium, 2015)
Children’s Jury Prize—Animated Short Film
Yulia Aronova, One, Two, Tree (France/Switzerland, 2015)
2nd Prize, Animated Short Film
Pascal Adant, La Fontaine Turns Film-makers—The Crow and the Fox (France/Belgium, 2014)
Children’s Jury Prize—Child-Produced Film
Matas Skudra, Da Vincki and the Button (Ireland, 2014)
2nd Prize, Child-Produced Film
Eli Staub, Noted (USA, 2014)
Youth Jury Prizes
Youth Jury Prize—Live-action Short Film
Ursula Meier, Kacey Mottet Klein, Birth of an Actor (Switzerland, 2015)
2nd Prize, Live-action Short Film
Vaughn Stein, Yussef Is Complicated (England, 2014)
Youth Jury Prize—Animated Short Film
Alexandra Hetmerová, Mythopolis (Czech Republic, 2013)
2nd Prize, Animated Short Film
Alice Guimaraes and Monica Santos, Amelia & Duarte (Portugal, 2015)
Youth Jury Prize—Youth-Produced Film
Ivana Jandras, Melani Adamic Golic, Katarina Tadic Ivan Knezovic, Luka Mravunac, Dinka Biocic, Symbols of Hate (Croatia, 2015)
2nd Prize—Youth-Produced Film
Isabella Olaguera, Hoping for the Dream (USA, 2015)
Adult Jury Prizes
Adult Jury Prize—Live-action Feature Film
Olivier Ringer, Birds of Passage (Belgium, 2015)
2nd Prize, Live-action Feature Film
Douglas Boswell, Labyrinthus (Belgium, 2014)
Adult Jury Prize—Live-action Short Film
Sabin Dorohoi, Way of the Danube (Romania, 2013)
2nd Prize, Live-action Short Film
Jure Pavlovic, Picnic (Croatia, 2015)
Adult Jury Prize—Documentary Short Film
André Hörmann, Andrew with Great Fanfare (Germany, 2014)
2nd Prize, Documentary Short Film
Annelies Kruk, Sisi and Wanwan (Netherlands, 2015)
Adult Jury Prize—Animated Feature Film
Simon Rouby, Adama (France, 2015)
2nd Prize, Animated Feature Film
Alê Abreu, Boy and the World (Brazil, 2013)
Adult Jury Prize—Animated Short Film
Phuong Mai Nguyen, My Home (France, 2014)
2nd Prize, Animated Short Film
Alice Guimaraes and Monica Santos, Amelia & Duarte (Portugal, 2015)