Early 2004 we entered our newly completed animation film on child sexual
abuse,
'Daughter, a Story of Incest',
into one of the biggest and most prestigious animation film festivals in
the world. The Annecy International Film
Festival is an off spring of the Cannes festival and has been in
existence for the past 40 years. This year there were more than 1500
entries from all over the world, but only 240 were selected for the
final competitions. We were already thrilled when we learned in April
that Daughter was amongst those selected to be shown and compete at the
festival ceremonies, which were to take place June 7 to 12 2004.
Saturday night June 12 we received news from the festival committee that
'Daughter' had won 2
first prices. One is for best educational film and the other one is from
UNICEF. We are of course proud of the recognition, but even more so, we
are pleased that ears, eyes, minds and hearts apparently are open to the
issue of child sexual abuse in places far from our usual circles of
outreach. According to Mr. Soeren Fleng, a Danish animator who
represented Stairway at the ceremonies, the 1000 people audience was
absolutely spellbound when 'Daughter'
rolled over the screen, and the decision of the jury was unanimous