At the festive opening of HAFF the winner of the Professional Award was presented and the nominees for the Grand Prix of Dutch Animation were revealed.

Professional Award for Dutch animation
The Professional Award for Dutch animation was awarded to The Black Room by Robbie Cornelissen & Kees Went.
The expert jury, consisting of Marieke van Middelkoop (filmmaker, NL), Menno de Nooijer (performer and filmmaker, NL) and Serge Onnen (filmmaker, NL), said this about the film:
‘Using the most basic drawing tools, Robbie Cornelissen has been building his own world for years. And since a few years, this world is put into motion in richly layered animations. This is how simple it can be, and how complex the game played with it. A triptych where a dark choreography of lines and side wings encloses the spectator and releases him again: air & earth, breath & suffocation, play & coercion, freedom & captivity, black & white. Pencils never get boring.
The soundtrack was made by editor Kees Went, turning the film into a seamless whole, so the viewer gets sucked into it even more. The expert jury opted to reward a groundbreaking project.’

Nominations Grand Prix for Dutch animation
Also on Wednesday, the professional jury revealed the nominations for the Grand Prix for Dutch Animation. Three films were selected:
Descent by Johan Rijpma, in which a cylinder-shaped cup falls and breaks into pieces. Every frame of this recorded movement is then manually translated into ceramic layers made from the original remains of the cup. The contagious music video for Nobody Beats the Drum: Let it Go (2014), made by Max Italiaander and Levi Jacobs, about a man who leaves his stressful life behind and sets off on an adventure on Planet Tropicana. And Ultrakort Leader (2014) by Patrick Raats, with a dachshund featuring in the announcement of a series of ultrashort animation films.

The winner of the Grand Prix for Dutch animation will be proclaimed Sunday March 22 at 16.30, just as the winners of the competition for features, shorts, students and HAFF Junior. The MovieZone jury, consisting of young adults between 15 and 19 years old, will also present their favorite short.

Tips for Thursday
Start your day well with a good conversation with your favorite animator at Meet the Filmmakers in Das Kabinett. Join Daily Masters shortly after that in LHC4. Paul Wells will talk about the connection between sports and animation using exemplary footage. Dive in a seat at LHC3 to watch the Korean thriller On the White Planet and get out in the sun afterwards for a walk to Goede Vrijdag. In this tiny café is an exposition of HAFF festival posters through the years. We hope to see you back in Louis Hartlooper Complex in the evening for our other competition programmes!