Cartoon festival Knokke-Heist

Last Saturday was the inauguration of the cartoon festival of Knokke-Heist, one of the oldest cartoon festivals in the world.

Since a few years the organizers changed the concept of the festival by putting the focus on a specific theme, and less on the cartoon contest itself. So this year the theme was ‘Everybody GENius’. The aim is, in collaboration with the University of Leuven, to make the topic of ‘Human Genetics’ accesible for the public. Nine Flemish cartoonists (Lectrr, Zaza, Eva Mouton, Steve Michiels, Erwin Van Mol, Pieter De Poortere, Joris Snaet, Reinhart Croon and O Sekoer) and scientists got together in a brainstorm lab with as result: cartoons about ‘human genetics’.

After the introduction of this exhibition, it was time to distribute some prizes.

First of all the winners of the Press Cartoon Belgium (PCB) and Press Cartoon Europe (PCE) were announced. Quirit was the winner of the PCB prize (6 000 Euro) with a cartoon about burn-out, the Obama work of Karl was awarded with the 2nd prize and the 3th prize was for ZAK. The Belgian cartoonist Royer was honored with a live achievement award.

Winner PCB Quirit

2nd prize PCB: Karl

3th prize PCB: ZAK

The Portugese Rodrigo De Matos won the PCE-prize (8 000 Euro) and his Dutch colleages Tjeerd Royaard and Hajo de Reijger did recieve the 2nd and 3th prize.

Winner PCE: de Matos

PCE 2nd: Tjeerd Royaard

PCE 3th: Hajo de Reijger

At the third part of the opening ceremony the prizes for the international cartoon competition were announced.

There were some changes in the final decision of the jury, as at first a cartoon was awarded as 2nd prize, that seemed to be plagiarism. So the jury decided to withdrawn that prize and so Gregori Katz got finaly the 3th prize, Kiliçaslan Musa was 2nd and the Golden Hat was for the Belgian Dieter Bevers.

Golden Hat: Dieter Bevers

Silver Hat: Kiliçaslan Musa

Bronze Hat: Grigori Katz

Luc Vernimmen did win the Davidsfonds prize.

Luc Vernimmen Davidsfonds prize

The free exhibition with 400 cartoons about ‘Human Genetics’, the press cartoon Belgium and Europe and the cartoon competition can be visited on the beach of Knokke (Albertstrand) till the 15 of September.

More information: http://cartoonfestival.knokke-heist.be

Grigori Katz, Quirit and Bob Vincke

Ludo Goderis, Luc Vernimmen, Ab Moolenaar, Fernand Vogels and Grigori Katz

Dieter Bevers, Luc Vernimmen and Grigori Katz

Part of the ECC-team with Luc Vernimmen, Nikola Hendrickx (IOA); Ivan from Knokke and O-sekoer

Cartoonists exhibition ‘everybody GENius’ at work