JOKO Wins at the 2025 Émile Awards – Plucińska’s Grotesque Clay Epic Earns Major European Recognition

Clay animation visionary Izabela Plucińska returns with one of her most visually commanding and thematically unsettling works to date. Joko—a Poland–Czech Republic–Germany co-production—takes viewers into a surreal world where exploitation is literal, oppressive, and suffocating. Crafted in Plucińska’s signature plasticine style, the 15-minute short has already become one of the most talked-about European stop-motion films of the year, earning festival acclaim and major industry awards.

Based on a story by the legendary surrealist Roland Topor, Joko follows a young man who shoulders the financial responsibility of supporting his entire family through grueling tanker work. On the second anniversary of his employment, Joko and his coworkers are confronted by mysterious foreign delegates who demand something strange, humiliating, and dehumanizing… that Joko carry himself on his own back. This absurd and macabre request becomes a grotesque metaphor for the endless cycle of labor exploitation and domination.

Plucińska—long praised for her mastery of plasticine animation—brings extraordinary detail to the film’s characters and environments. More than 600 hand-sculpted plasticine puppets were created for the film, shaped through a painterly method that allows color to shift and flow across their surfaces. This gives Joko its distinctive look: a clay world that feels alive, textured, and disturbingly malleable.

The film is produced by Animoon (Poland) with co-production support from Maurfilm (Czech Republic), Clay Traces, and Las Sztuki, along with funding from several European film institutes. Production took place in Berlin, Warsaw, and Szczecin, with post-production completed in Prague. The evocative score by Aliaksandr Yasinski earned the Best Original Music Award at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival.

That early momentum was reinforced this month when Joko achieved another major milestone:
the film won the 2025 Émile Award for Best Character Design and Backgrounds in a Short Film, as confirmed in a press release from Maurfilm. The ceremony was held in Tallinn, Estonia, marking the official return of the European Animation Awards after a pandemic-related pause. This recognition places Joko firmly among the standout European animated works of the year.

Maurfilm also noted that Joko received two nominations at the Émile Awards, further emphasizing the industry’s appreciation for Plucińska’s artistic vision and the film’s distinctive puppet-animated world.

With an Oscar-qualifying Grand Prix win at the Animator Festival, screenings at Annecy, Animafest Zagreb, and numerous international animation festivals, Joko continues to build a powerful reputation. Dense with metaphor, dark humor, and an unflinching look at systems of human domination, Joko stands as one of Plucińska’s most accomplished films—an essential viewing experience for anyone passionate about clay animation and bold, socially charged storytelling.