HANGZHOU, China, July 6, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- On June 19, Rehoo Tang, a 2021 graduate student from the Department of Animation, School of Animation and Games, China Academy of Art, won the 2022 Jury Award in the student creation unit at France Annecy International Animation Film Festival for his graduation film A Dog Under a Bridge. The award is regarded as the Oscar Award in the field of animation and this is the second consecutive year that graduates of China Academy of Art have won this award.

The animated short film A Dog Under a Bridge revolves around a stray dog living under the bridge. The inspiration for this film comes from the author's experience during the postgraduate period. "The bridge was not far from where I lived. In the initial conception stage of the film, I often wandered around the deserted park under the bridge. Most young people of my age were racing against time for their careers, while by contrast, when I was in the bridge park on a weekday morning, I felt a strong sense of belonginglessness. And how to combat this feeling became the motivation for creating this film." His advisor Prof. Liu Jian commented. "The short film humorously expresses the helplessness of people who are constantly at odds with life in a self-deprecating way from the perspective of a stray dog."

A Dog Under a Bridge won the gold award of 2021 China Academy of Art Graduation Creation and Lin Fengmian Creation Award. Some audience said, "I was fortunate to see this work at the graduation exhibition last year. It deserves the Annecy Award." It's particularly meaningful that the award was received by the former Crystal award-winner Li Zehao, a 2020 undergraduate student from the Department of Animation, in Annecy on Tang's behalf. Rehoo Tang gave an award acceptance speech through video, "The inspiration for A Dog Under a Bridge comes from my personal experience and feelings. I'm very moved that this film can be recognized by the judges and people around the world. I want to thank my advisors, the film creation team and Li Zehao who receives the award for me."

In May 2022, China Academy of Art officially divided the School of Film and Animation established in 2004 into two independent schools, i.e. the School of Film Art and the School of Animation and Games, reforming its traditional academic model to support more talented students. In recent years, teachers and students of the Animation major have persisted in taking art as the core and adhered to the concept of "telling Chinese stories well". They have presented the richness and profoundness in terms of creative themes and emotions as well as expression techniques and visual presentation, and have made great achievements in domestic and international film festivals, which is enough to highlight that the young animators from the Animation major of China Academy of Art are having a unique and positive impact on the development of contemporary animation.

In the future, the School of Animation and Games will adhere to the traditional Chinese context and with a broad international vision, continue to commit to the practice and exploration in artistic directions such as humanistic animation, interactive media and games, and illustrations and comics under the discipline of drama and film. Meanwhile, it will actively promote in-depth cooperation in animation industry and incubate animated films and series with equal emphasis on commercial and artistic values.