What is the importance of gaining recognition and winning an award at Berlinale?
David: Awards aren’t important per se. They are symbols of recognition, which act like a consolation for all the pain you went through making a film. More significantly, they affect how other people see your work, which can make it easier to make the next film. So how did you start your career in animation? I worked at the Cartoon Saloon in Kilkenny between the ages of 15 and 18. They taught me how to draw and some basic computer skills. What’s the significance of an animated piece winning first prize over ‘traditional’ short films? The most obvious point when this happens is that it proves animation can exist outside the genre of children’s entertainment or fantasy art. The only other animation filmmakers to get this were Jan Svankmajer and John Lasseter with Pixar’s very first short, which actually took silver. [Svankmajer won the Golden Bear for Moznosti dialogu in 1982 and Lasseter won the Silver Bear for Luxo Jr. in 1986.] My film in particular proves a number of things; it wasn’t
