Animation Festival to Be Held News

The fifth edition of Anifest India, an annual international animation festival organized and promoted by The Animation Society of India (TASI), is slated to be held from August 13-16, 2009 at the IIT Powai campus in Mumbai.

Anifest India brings together some of the world's best animation directors, technicians and several international animation stalwarts under one roof. Some of the speakers at this year's event include MTV India's Piyush Raghani; Manish Sherawat and Sheetal Sudhir of Channel [v]; VCL's Bill Miller; Krishnakant Mishra of Sony ImageWorks; and Nate Wragg of Pixar.

Some of the topics for discussion at Anifest India 2009 include Art direction and pre-production, Principles of animation in 2D & 3D, VFX: Behind the Scenes, Career options, Comic Art, Graphic Novels, Character Animation and Story-Telling, Creation and Marketing of IP, Art of Voicing for Animation, Animation for tele channels, and Animation Production Management, to name a few.

Anifest India 2009 has targeted students to creative heads of organizations to enthusiasts looking to get a comprehensive in-depth understanding about the various stages involved in creating an animation film from concept to completion.

Source: http://www.domain-b.com/

20th Dusty Film and Animation Festival and Awards

The 20th annual Dusty Film and Animation Festival and Awards will highlight over 100 films by students graduating from the BFA Film, Video and Animation Department at the School of Visual Arts (SVA).

The program includes screenings of short films, videos and animations; and an awards ceremony and gala with notable presenters from the film industry.

This year's Screenwriters Night is a collaboration with the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in which SVA graduating screenwriters will have selected scenes performed live by alumni from The Neighborhood Playhouse.

"We are very pleased to have reached the 20th year of the Dustys as we recognize the outstanding achievement of emerging filmmakers, and members of the industry get the chance to see the work of the next generation of some remarkable film and animation talent," said Reeves Lehmann, chair of the BFA Film, Video and Animation Department at SVA.

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SIGGRAPH Award Winner Nominated for Oscar

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences just announced that the SIGGRAPH 2008 Computer Animation Festival Best of Show winner, Oktapodi, is among five animated short films nominated for a 2009 Oscar®. Since 1999, the SIGGRAPH Computer Animation Festival has been an official qualifying festival for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Animated Short Film award. No fewer than 16 films from the SIGGRAPH Computer Animation Festival have been nominated for the Academy Award® for Best Animated Short.

The film’s directors, Emud Mokhberi and Thierry Marchand were students when they made the film – a tale of two octopi in their comical escape from the grasp of a stubborn and determined restaurant cook. During the SIGGRAPH 2008 Computer Animation Festival, competition screening audiences were able to vote for their favorite selection to win the esteemed Audience Prize – an accolade also given to Oktapodi.

“SIGGRAPH continues to be the place to showcase the latest technical achievements and innovations in animations and computer graphics,” stated Carlye Archibeque, SIGGRAPH 2009 Computer Animation Festival Executive Producer from Sony Pictures Imageworks. “Having SIGGRAPH films continue to show up as nominees for the Academy Awards® is a testament to the incredible pieces that are prevalent throughout the SIGGRAPH Computer Animation Festival. We expect nothing different this year.”

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Ottawa Animation Festival Review: Terra

Frequent fps contributor, René Walling and I rolled into Ottawa from Montreal fairly late on Friday night, both disappointed to have missed out on The New Wave Of Japanese Animation that had screened at 7pm that evening. Our options limited, we set ourselves toward the Empire Cinema across the street from our shared Novotel room, where we had quickly shed our luggage. We were just in time to catch a screening of one of the films in the running for best feature of the fest: a little independent CG number called, Terra.

Terra sets itself up as an alien invasion tale turned on its head. Happy little, sentient tadpole people float blissfully through their naive lives in a Miyazaki film/Flight GN inspired world of flying whale-things, gliders and airships until the fateful day when a "god" appears in the sky. The god turns out to be a giant, spinning spaceship carrying an invasion force of humans, desperate to take the planet as their new home. Amidst an explosive torrent of sci-fi action and Planet of the Apes riffing revelation, we follow fishy, doe-eyed Mala (voiced by Evan Rachel Wood) through a step-by-step Campbell-style "Hero Journey" to fulfill her destiny and save her people from extinction. To its credit, the film manages to throw enough plot and character curve balls to keep the structure from being too cookie-cutter familiar but rarely ascends beyond anything more than a simple story twist, illustrated with a collection of elements cobbled together from an animation fan's nerd-moist-dreams.

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Animation Festival “KROK” Kicks Off in Saint Petersburg

September 22 saw the opening ceremony of the international animation festival “KROK” in St. Petersburg. It is the world’s only floating festival of animation and one of the biggest events in post-Soviet space of animation art.

This year the festival will run the route of St. Petersburg - Valaam - Kizhi - Yaroslavl - Moscow. It will be dedicated to young animators’ creations that are not inferior to “adult” animation in their quality and originality, the number of interesting works making up an independent large-scale program.

Animators from all over the world seek to partake in the competition - the KROK recognition gives young animators a chance to gain fame in the professional field. After selection procedure 130 animated cartoon films from 33 countries have been included in the competition list.

Source: oreanda.ru

Coming Attractions: Ottawa International Animation Festival

The Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF) is trying out some new elements this year, including a new supplementary venue (the Canadian Museum of Civilization), a new free shuttle bus between venues and new additions to programming, like a live art presentation by Daniel Barrow, who uses an overhead projector and narration to create something called “manual animation.”

Read the rest of the item at AWN's new events blog, Animated Travels.

Source : http://news.awn.com/

Two-day animation festival from Sept. 5

Bangalore (PTI): The Association of Bangalore Animation Industry (ABAI) will hold a two-day animation festival at J N Tata Auditorium of Indian Institute of Science here from September 5.

Since its formation three years ago, ABAI has been holding the festival to exhibit the best available technology in the industry, it said in a release.

"The festival will provide an opportunity for technicians to be aware of the new available technology in the industry and business opportunities. Several companies from different parts of the country will participate in the event", it said.

Noted cartoonist and Magsaysay award winner R K Laxman, Karnataka IT/BT Secretary Ashok Kumar Manoli, Vishwanath Reddy, Proprietor of Chandamama Magazine, and many experts in the field will attend, the release said.

Source : http://www.hindu.com/

Animation festival draws international VIPs

The eighth annual Animation, Comics and Caricatures Festival kicks off at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque on August 13. The four-day program features around 100 events including, naturally, animation films, as well sessions with some of the artists, workshops, master classes, exhibitions, activities for children, lectures and stalls stacked with a wide range of comics from all over the world, and from different eras.

Like every year, the event, which is supported by the Education Ministry as well the Tel Aviv Municipality, the Cinematheque and the Israeli Film Council, will host a number of acclaimed artists from abroad. One of this year's VIPs is top animator Eric Goldberg, who has worked on a string of box-office hits, such as Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Aladdin and Pocahontas.

The festival also offers a rare opportunity to get a handle on some of the best animated efforts of artists from around the world, and to see works that wouldn't normally find their way to these shores. The film program includes works by artists from Argentina, Canada, Estonia, Poland and France, as well as a spotlight on the expanding oeuvre of animation from Israel.

For more information: www.anicomfestival.co.il.

Animation Block Party Set to Roll

The Fifth Annual Animation Block Party (ABP) is taking place July 25-27 in Brooklyn, New York. Festival favorites Hot Dog from Bill Plympton, Lapsus from Juan Pablo Zaramella and The Pearce Sisters from Luis Cook will be among the more than 100 short films scheduled to screen during the three-day summer festival. A complete list of films can be found at www.animationblock.com/summerfest08.

ABP opens on Friday, July 25 at Rooftop Films, featuring live music from Plushgun, followed by a screening of the festival's most fun and fan-friendly cartoons. A party at Bar Matchless will follow with free beer from Radeberger. The fun will continue on Saturday, July 26th at Bam Cinematek, with experimental works and music videos in Program One, and a storytelling focus in Program Two. Screenings will be followed by an after-party at Cherry Tree with free Newcastle courtesy of America's favorite fake news source, The Onion Inc. The fest will conclude on Sunday at Bam Cinematek with top professional-independent works in Program Three and narrative local and international shorts in Program Four. The after-party will be held at Habana Outpost, featuring streaming cartoons, food specials and free beer courtesy of Autodesk.

Winners in ten award categories, ranging from Best in Show to Original Design. will receive juried prizes. Software sponsors include Adobe, Toon Boom, Boinx and Autodesk. Crumpler Bags and Animation Magazine will also offer prizes for filmmakers. The winner of the student film competition will receive a production grant to create a PSA for the 2009 Animation Block Party. Other fest sponsors include L-Magazine, Without A Box, AWN and Pair.

Source : http://www.animationmagazine.net/

International Animation Festival combines art and science

Animation enthusiasts had better get in line for the coveted “gold pass,” which is the hottest ticket in town next week.

It opens the doors to everything from workshops to film screenings to Cartoon-a-palooza — all events presented by the 2008 Red Stick International Animation Festival April 16-19 in downtown Baton Rouge.

Now in its fourth year, the festival brings together animators, directors, students, artists and designers in a fun, friendly atmosphere to share their skills and promote the art of animation.

The field that used to be limited to Saturday morning cartoons long ago stepped out of the box and into every area of entertainment … web sites, video games, toys, special effects, digital media, music videos and more.

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Animation festival debuts in Jakarta

Animation enthusiasts will have something to smile about from Jan. 14 to 20 with a series of screenings, seminars and workshops dedicated to the art being held daily at Taman Ismail in Central Jakarta as part of the Urbanimation festival.

Urbanimation, which was organized by several of Indonesia's animation communities and the Jakarta Arts Council, is being held this year for the first time.

Hendra, who attended a seminar on productive animation making Tuesday, said he was pleased with the session as it gave him a new perspective on the animation world.

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