Daughter. A short animated drama by Daria Kashcheeva.
The film was produced in 2019 year as a student film on FAMU in Prague with a co production with MAUR film. Daughter was successfully premiered at Annecy Animated Film Festival 2019, where the movie has got the Cristal for the best Student film, and the Young Jury Award in Student film category.
The film has got the 46th Student Academy Award Gold Medal in the category International Animation!
Watch the Making of Daughter
Synopsis
In a hospital room, the Daughter recalls a childhood moment when as a little girl she tried to share her experience with an injured bird with her Father. A moment of misunderstanding and a lost embrace has stretched into many years all the way to this hospital room, until the moment when a window pane breaks under the impact of a little bird.

Awards
The 46th Student Academy Award Gold Medal in category International Animation Film.
Annecy International Animated Film Festival 2019 Cristal for the Best Student Film, Young Jury award for the best Student film
Insomnia animation festival 2019 The best film of the international competition – Young animation
Melbourne International Film Festival 2019 City Post Award for Best Animation Short Film
Fantoche International Animation Film Festival (Switzerland) 3-8/9 2019 Best film of Fantoche
World Festival of Animated Film Varna (Bulgaria) 11-15/9 2019 The best student film
Tirana International Film Festival (Albania) 23-29/09 2019 The Best Student film Sweaty Eyeballs Animation Festival (USA) 4-6/10 2019 Best Student Animation Award
Balkanima (Serbia) 1-6/10 2019 Best Student film
Sweaty Eyeballs Animation Festival (USA) 4-6/10 2019 Best Student film
Taichun International Animation Festival TIAF (Taiwan) 11-20/10 2019 Grand Prix for the best Student Film
Animafilm (Azerbaijan) 18-20/10 2019 Best Short Animated Film
Bucheon International Animation Festival BIAF (South Korea) 18-22/10 2019 AniG‘s Choice and 1st Prize Jury Prize
Contact – International Student Film Festival (Turkey) 21-25/10 2019 Best Cinematography award
ReAnimania (Armenia) 24-29/10 2019 Best Graduation Film
Kuandu International Animation Festival 27.10-3.11 2019 Best Student Film Award
Primanima (Hungaria) 30/10-2/11 Best Graduation Film, Primasound jury – Best Sound Design
Big Cartoon Festival (Russia) 25/10-4/11 2019 Critics’ prize
Baku International Short Film Festival 6-9/11 2109 Best Animated Film Award and Best Animation Director
Stop Trick in Lodz (Poland) 8-10/11 2019 Lodz Audience Grand Prix
Ajayu International Animation Festival (Peru) 6-10/11 Grand Prix at the Main Competition
Denver Film Festival (USA) 30/10-10/11 Marilyn Marsh Saint-Veltri Award for Best Student Animated Short Film
VGIK student film festival (Russia) 12-15/11 Best Animated Film
Norwich Film Festival (UK) 4-17/11 Best Animated Film
Palm Springs Intl. Animation Festival & Expo (USA) 14/11 Best Animated Short
Cinanima (Portugal) 11-17/11 International Student Film Competition Award
FESTIVAL DU FILM COURT DE VILLEURBANNE 16-25/11 2019 (France) Best Award of the Short Animated Competition
Rome Independent Film Festival – RIFF Awards (Italy) 15-22/11 The winner at the Animation short section
PÖFF Shorts – Black Nights Film Festival 19-27/11 (Estonia) The winner at the New Talent competition
Anilogue International Animation Festival (Hungary) Best Short Film
Cyprus International Film Festival “Golden Aphrodite” (Cyprus) 22-30/11 Animation award
ISFF ZUBROFFKA (Poland) 4-8/12 Best film in the EASTWARD WINDOW Competition and THE BEST ANIMATION
Contemporary Animation Festival ICONA (Greece) 29/11-1/12 2nd place by the Jury in Student Short Animation Category
Cinemaiubit (Romania) 3-7/12 The Best Animation Film
Whistler Film Festival (USA) 4-8/12 International ShortWork Award
2020 year
Jaipur International Film Festival (India) 17-21/01 The Best Animation film
Sundance Film Festival (USA) 23-29/01
Cena České Filmové Kritiky 2019 v kategorii MIMO KINO
Animotion Film Festival (Italy) The best stop motion animated film ½
Filmwochenende Wurzburg (Germany) 30/1-2/2 Audience award
VOID – International Animation Film Festival (Denmark) 30/1-8/2 Best Graduation Film
New Jersey Film Festival (USA) Spring 2020 Best Animation
SPIFF World Cup of Genre Cinema (Russia) 14-17/2 Audience award, Best DOP, Best Sound design, Best Editing in the category Drama
McMinnville Short Film Festival (USA) 21-23/2 WILL VINTON AWARD FOR BEST ANIMATED FILM
International Film Festival ZOOM – ZBLIZENIA (Poland) 24/1-1/3 2020 The Best Animated Film
Japan Media Arts Festival Contest (Japan) 6/3 New Face Award
Watersprite International Student Film Festival (UK) 6-8/3 The Best Animation Award, The Best Directing Award, The Film of the Year Award
Special mentions
Pixelatl International Animation Film Festival (Mexico) 3-7/9 Jury special mention
Philadelphia Film Festival (USA) 17-27/10 2019 Honorable Mention recognition by our Shorts jury
Russian Indie Film Festival (Russia) 18-20/10 2019 Special mention by the Main Judge of Animation Jury Benoit Berthe Siward
Stop Trick in Lodz 8-10/11 2019 Special mention from Weronika Płaczek (Director of ANIMOCJE International Animated Film Festival)
Reanima (Norvegia) 14-17/11 Jury special mention in Student Category
Kinoproba Festival (Russia) 1-5/12 special jury diploma for a cinematic break through in puppet animation
Animax Skopje Fest 2019 (Makedonie) 22-24/12 Special Jury Prize
SPIFF World Cup of Genre Cinema (Russia) 14-17/2 Special mention of the Jury member Nikita Ordynskiy and Special mention of the Jury member Manuel DeCoco

Director’s note about the film
My film’s key theme is the father-daughter relationship, a very personal and important topic to me. To draw viewers into my world of memories, I made the film with a hand-held camera feel, big close-ups, low depth of field and a lot of motion, lending it an authentic immediacy and a para-documentary nature. To show the characters’ emotions with facial expressions, I paint the eyes directly on the puppets’ faces, giving them a lot of life and an intense expression of the characters’ emotions.

Reviews
“Daughter” is beautifully photographed, employing a hand-held camera feel with big close-ups, low depth-of-field and a lot of motion, lending it an authentic, documentary-like immediacy.” Variety (read the whole article)
“In Annecy, we also discover graduation films, such as
the exceptional DAUGHTER, by young Czech director
Daria Kashcheeva, who explores the father-daughter
relationship with a remarkable sense of direction and
great technical courage.”
Marcel Jean, Artistic Director, Annecy Animation Film Festival
“Daria’s scenographic style upholds the evocative power
of expressionistic touches over realism. Her attention
to texture with her paper mache-painted figures serves
to further emphasise the puppets’ materiality.”
Isn´t Nice That, 16 May 2019 (read the whole article)
“Daughter is a cruel film, and this is meant as a
compliment. This is a dangerous game to play, but Daria
Kashcheeva pulls it off. The Daughter is mostly shown
either in profile view or from the back, as if refusing to
let us know her truth. It is only her eyes that reveal the
troubled psyche of a girl who seems unable to forgive.”
Zippy Frames, 4 June 2019 (read the whole article)
“It is one of the rare stop-motion films in which the
hand-held camera is simulated throughout the film”
Stop Motion Magazine, April 2019
“A film which seemed to come up in every “What’s the best thing you’ve seen” conversation at Encounters this year, Daria Kashcheeva’s wordless stop motion short Daughter deftly deploys the immediacy of a hand-held camera aesthetic as it depicts the emotional gulf which has stretched through the years between a woman and her father. ” Directors notes, September 2019

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