The Mill multi award winning directing collective, Bif, has won the prestigious Jury Award at the SIGGRAPH Computer Animation Festival for their short film, Dix. The work is a mixture of live action and CG. Dix is a darkly comic short film featuring a man called Mark, and shows the complexities of psychological and obsessive behaviour.

Marc always counts to ten as he steps on paving stones.He needs the paving stones in order to be able to get about, as he is terrified of walking on lines. In order to get over his phobia he follows a treatment to confront the inner fears which lie behind his obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Dix has already scooped a raft of awards, among the most recent, the Shoot Young Directors Award and a win at the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival.

Bif are Jules Janaud, Fabrice Le Nezet and Francois Roisin. Dix is part of The Mill ongoing initiative to produce in-house short films and continuing commitment to develop talent within their growing animation team.

‘Dix’ was chosen as winner of the SIGGRAPH Jury Award from hundreds of submissions from all over the world by an expert panel of jury members. The entries were judged for computer-generated imagery, animation and storytelling and the winners announced a the event in New Orleans.

For ten years, SIGGRAPH has been an official qualifying festival for the Academy Award for “Best Animated Short Film”.

The Mill is a world-leading visual effects company with bases in London and New York and now Los Angeles. The Mill has worked on some of the most memorable visual effects projects in the world, including Ridley Scott ?‚àö√ë‚àö‚â§Gladiator’s for which it gained a VFX Oscar, and has won more awards for visual effects than any other facility in Europe.

Awards
Dix has won the Jury Award at Siggraph Computer Animation Festival, the Shoot Young Directors Award, the Silver M?©li?®s at International Fantasy Film Festival of Brussels 2009, the Best Short Film in less than 15 minutes at Anifest Trebon and Teplice International Animated Film Festival, the Grand Prix Cocotte Minute at Brest European Short Film Festival 2008, the Silver Dragon for best animation at Cracow International Documentary & Short Film Festival 2009, Prix RTP2 Onda Curta at Lisbon IndieLisboa International Independent Film Festival 2009, Prize for Best Animation at Zinebi International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Bilbao 2008, along with awards at Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival 2009 and Larissa Mediterranean Festival of New Directors 2009.

Credits
Actors: Ian Faure (Marc), Lucien Momy (Marc as a child) and Alain Choquet (Monsieur X).
Directing Collective: Bif (Jules Janaud, Fabrice Le Nezet and Francois Roisin).
Producer:Nicholas Schmerkin, Autour de Minuit,
Director of photography: Reynald Capurro.
Post production:The Mill, London,
Post producer: Stephen Vennin.
Sound design: John Baptist St Pol at Dune Sound
Sound mix: Guillaume Leriche.
Music: Raphael Martinez-Bachel (Azel).

Sources:
The Mill
The Inspiration Room

Related Links
www.themill.com
http://theinspirationroom.com