Ireland’s Animation Dingle annual conference went digital this year, and its two-day program was capped off by the YouTube Kids Animation Dingle Student Awards.

Students and industry professionals competed in categories including Best Irish, Best Director, Best International Professional Short and a new set of audience choice awards. Short films from Demott Burns (Forest, pictured) and Darragh Scott (Husky) picked up the most trophies with three wins each.

Jury member Will Collins—also a screenwriter on Cartoon Saloon’s Wolfwalkers, which won the festival’s inaugural Best Animated Feature Audience Choice Award—said in a release that he enjoyed Husky’s “bold style,” and that it won the Best Writer award because “the story was dramatic and compelling.”

Elmea O’Mahony, executive producer of children’s and young people’s content at Irish pubcaster RTÉ, said Forest’s beauty and vividness helped Burns win in the Best Director category.

Animation Dingle is now in its ninth year, and going digital has enabled the 2021 festival to scale up from a traditional 700 in-person attendees to 2,500 participants from around the world, according to a release.

This year’s student category judges included Patricia Hidalgo, Suzanne Kelly, O’Mahony, Sarah Muller, Sean Feeney, Louise Bucknole, Michael Towner and Collins. The professional category jury was comprised of Kyle Jenkins, Steve Henderson and Mandy Kean, with Orion Ross judging the Young Animator of the Year award.

Here’s a complete list of winners:

Best Irish: The Pursuit, Iobhar Stokes Rodriguez

Best International: 100 000 Acres of Pine, Jennifer Alice Wright (Denmark)

Best Director: Forest, Dermott Burns

Best Writer: Husky, Darragh Scott
Special Honourable Mention for The Press Conference, Daniel McNicholl

Best Design/Art Direction: Forest, Dermott Burns

Best Animation: Husky, Darragh Scott

Best 2D: Ruslan, Jack McHugh, Conor McNally

Best 3D/CGI: Coat, Matthew Duddy, Glenn O’Neill

Best Stop Motion: Pearl Diver, Margrethe Danielsen (Norway)

Best Music/Sound Design: Husky, Darragh Scott

Best Sting: Dingzilla, Tahyne Litte and Veronica Koskinen (University of Dundee)

Young Animator of the Year: Old Fool: Look to the Sky, Jude O’Brien
Special Mention to: Look To The Sky, Shayna Gail Velasquez

Best Irish Professional Short: Her Song, Éabha Bortolozzo, Jack Kirwan

Murakami Recipient 2021: Robert Cullen, Creative Director and Founder, Boulder Media

The Dingle Awards also introduced three new categories for industry professionals this year:

Inaugural Best International Professional Short: Kapaemahu, Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, Dean Hamer, Joe Wilson

Inaugural Best Animated Short Audience Choice Award: Forest

Inaugural Best Animated Feature Audience Choice Award: Wolfwalkers