Branchage Film Festival Jersey 2009

For the 1st 4 days of October the island of Jersey will be home to the Brachage Film Festival. There is a lot packed into those 4 days but here's some of the highlights for animators.

Friday 2nd October 2009 - Mont Orgueil Castle

The Secret of Kells is an animated fairytale for both children and adults. It won the audience award at both the Edinburgh Film Festival 2009 and the prestigious Annecy animation festival in France.


Friday 2nd October 2009 - Opera House

This is followed by Animagica Night. The Icelandic quartet Amiina performing an original soundtrack to classic Lotte Reiniger animations followed by the ‘live cinema’ experience of Paper Cinema. Inkblots, photocopies, cardboard, angle-poise lamps, the occasional table, video technology, a laptop and a banana box, are all put to use alongside a cast of hand-drawn marionettes magically brought to life.

Saturday 3rd October 2009 - Town Hall

Bev Sage is host to Richard Golesowski from Aardman Animations, for a special Shaun the Sheep masterclass, with models and images to show how little Shaun makes it to the big screen.

Also featuring trailer of new animation “The Puffas” by Ray Hedges and live performance by Simon MacDonald.

StopPress:

There will also be animation in the Max Hattler retrospective and in the London Short Film Festival presents Music & Video.

Follow the latest about the Branchage Festival on Twitter.

London International Film Festival

The official opening of the 2009 London International Film Festival is on Monday 31 August 6pm at the Renoir Cinema.

However tonight is party night for the festival goers at the Roxy, The Brothers McLeod join with animation and film night organisers Paperbag with DJs and musicians.

The Monday night even will be no-less special with a special preview of Mary and Max by Adam Elliot and the results of the POOP Golden Poo Awards.



http://www.liaf.org.uk/

Stoke Your Fires Festival of Animation April 2009

Stoke Your Fires Festival of Animation 2009 - call for submissions

Press Release by John Simmonds

The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery is excited to announce that the Stoke Your Fires Festival of Animation will return in 2009.

This year’s animation festival builds on the success of the 2008 event by hosting a month of animation themed events at The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery.

The festival itself takes place on 2-3 April 2009 at The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery. This ticketed two day event will see professional animators come to Stoke-on-Trent to take part in seminars, lectures and masterclasses to share and develop their understanding of the industry.

The festival also has a major international competition element. Last year saw more than 100 submissions from animators across the globe. The Best Animated Short was awarded to Aardman Animation’s ‘The Pearce Sisters’ which now has more than 35 awards worldwide.

The competition is not limited to professional animators. The 2008 competition saw many pieces of original and engaging work by student animators.

The organisers of the 2009 festival would like to invite submissions in the following categories:

Best Animated Short
Best Professional Regional Animation ‘Made in the Midlands’
Best Animated Commercial
Best International Animation
Best In Game Animation
Best Student Animation

See www.stokeyourfires.com for more information about how to submit work to the competition.

Animation festivals

There are a few festivals and conferences to look forward to in February 2009.

Aminex festival International Festival of Animation and Computer Games, Middlesborough 2-6 February 2009
Imagina in Monaco 4-6 February 2009
Animated Exeter 13 - 21 February 2009



Animated Exeter is in it's 10th Year and has previously showcased great animations such as Peter and the Wolf. The two week programme includes workshops, screenings and talks.

Animex and Imagina are on the boundary of computing and animation. Animex focusing on computer gaming and Imagina focusing on visualisation and simulation.

Flip Animation Festival

Next month is the Flip Animation Festival in Wolverhampton.

Being based in the heart of the Midlands should enable a wide range of people to visit the festival. There will be workshops, experimental animation, panel sessions, feature films and of course short animations.

The full programme is still being finalised but some of the items already selected are: Ninja Theory; Osbert Parker; Sita Sings the Blues; Animated Doctor Who; 4mations and Boulder Media.

Tickets should on sale shortly.

www.flipfestival.co.uk

London International Animation Festival Winners

From the London International Animation Festival Newsletter.

The best films as voted by the judges were:
International Programme 1: The Tiny Fish - Gregory Malshev (Russia)
International Programme 2: Skhizein - Jeremy Clapin (France)
International Programme 3: The Life Size Zoetrope - Mark Simon Hewis (UK)
International Programme 4: The Irresistible Smile - Ami Lindholm (Finland)
International Programme 5: Sundance 'Forgetfulness' - Julian Grey (Canada)
Digital Panorama: Drift - Max Hattler (UK)
Abstract Panorama: As They Pass/Mnemosyne 01 - B.Bodenauer (Austria)
Puppet Panorama: Pecatum Parvum - Asya Lukin (UK) AND Madame Tutli-Putli - C.Lavis,
M.Szczerbowski (Canada)
Long Shorts: Three Love Stories - Svetlana Filippova (Russia)
Best British film: Stand Up - Joseph Pierce (UK)
Best Overall film: The Life Size Zoetrope - Mark Simon Hewis (UK)
The audience votes were:
International Programme 1: I Met The Walrus - Josh Raskin (Canada)
International Programme 2: Skhizein - Jeremy Clapin (France)
International Programme 3: Oktapodi - J.Bocabelle, F.Chanioux, O.Delabarre, T.Marchand,
E.Mokheberi (France)
International Programme 4: Procrastination - Johnny Kelly AND The Irresistible Smile
- Ami Lindholm (Finland)
International Programme 5: A Mouse's Tale - Benjamin Renner (France)
Digital Panorama: Lifeline - Tomek Duckl (Hungary)
Abstract Panorama: Material - Boran Richard (Canada)
Puppet Panorama 1: Madame Tutli-Putli - C..Lavis, M.Szczerbowski (Canada)
Puppet Panorama 2: L'Animateur - Nick Hilligoss (Australia)
Long Shorts: Animal - Tatu Pohjavirta (Finland)
British Panorama: The Reason I Collect - Emma Curtis (UK)

5th London International Animation Festival

Next week sees the start of the 5th London International Animation Festival. 220 films from 28 countries will be shown from 1st September till 7th at the Curzon Soho, the Renoir, the Horse Hospital and the Rio Cinema.

The full programme will contain sessions on Digital film, Puppet Films, Documentaries, British Films, International Films, Swiss Films and Abstract Films. In addition to all this will be Q & A sessions from special guests Jonathan Hodgson and Josh Raskin and even more. If previous years are anything to go by then this will be an excellent event. For those with time to spare you can save money by buying a festival pass.

AFI DALLAS International Film Festival

AFI DALLAS International Film Festival – Animation Competition

2009 Call for Entries

Submission Now Open

DEADLINES:

Early: October 17, 2008
Regular: November 21, 2008
Late: December 5, 2008

AWARDS:

Target Filmmaker Award for Best Narrative: $25,000
Target Filmmaker Award for Best Documentary: $25,000
Current Energy Earth Friendly Award: $10,000
MPS Studios Texas Filmmaker Award: $20,000*
*Cash, Goods and Services from MPS Studios

For more information and to submit a film,

Visit http://www.afidallas.com/callforentries.php

London International Animation Festival

The dates for the London International Animation Festival LIAF 2008 have now been set and they are Tuesday September the 2nd to Sunday September the 7th, one week later than last year.

Barton Hill Animation Festival call for work

The Barton Hill Animation Festival is now in it's third year. It consists of animation workshops and a cinema showing both amateur and professional films.

Following a successful event for 2007 the festival is now looking for submissions for the 3rd Barton Hill Animation Festival in Bristol on Sunday 16th March 2008.

If you would like to submit a short animation, please send them as either AVI or MOV files on DVD. Please send your animations to:

Sarah Winch
Community at Heart
Wellspring Healthy Living Centre
Beam Street
Barton Hill
Bristol BS5 9QY

Unfortunately they are unable to return any of the work received unless specifically requested.

Deadline for submissions: 31st January 2008

For more details about Commiunity at Heart visit http://www.ndcbristol.co.uk/

LIAF 2007

The London International Animation Festival started yesterday with an excellent and varied selection of animations. There was a slight bias towards hand drawn animations but there were also some very creative pixilation and CGI examples with a couple of mixed media films too.

Carlitopolis' experiments with a marsupial was really a short spoof documentary with a very convincing CGI animal and raises the question of is this animation or simple a short film with animation used as a special effect.

Robin King's "Ten Thousand Pictures Of You" took pixilation to it's absolute limits with a story of troubled relationships and screwed up paper. Its a bit of a shame it felt the need to use the rather cliched going for a drive in an office chair. Otherwise it was very creative with some new effects I've not seen in pixilation before such as a person being pushed across a room and into a painting.

Joanna Quinn and Aardman both had excellent longer shorts but not quite long enough to make the Long Shorts session on thursday.

If you missed last nights showings then you have the oppertunity to see them again on Friday at 9pm at Renoir. The festival continues till Sunday. For more details see the LIAF website.

Siggraph 2007 Computer Animation Festival

At Siggraph 2007 this week there was also a Computer Animation Festival, films from around the globe were shown and a couple were picked out for special merit.

Ark was previously shown at Cannes and looks at a dark future where a virus has destroyed most of the human race with the few remaining survivors escaping on an ark. The film is produced by Marcin Kobylecki and Grzegorz Jonkajtys. Grzegorz Jonkajtys previously won awards for his Mantis film. The pair has worked on films such as "The Cathedral (2002)" an equally artistic film so it's not too surprising to discover that Marcin Kobylecki comes from a painting background. I'm also pleased to see that Grzegorz has some animated fleas.

Ark
BEST OF SHOW
Poland
Marcin Kobylecki, Grzegorz Jonkajtys, Producers

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Dreammaker is a student film by another Polish chap, Leszek Plichta from the film school in Baden-Württemberg. Adobe were so impressed with the images that he's made using 3DMax that they put the images into their current 3dMax brochure.

Dreammaker (Trailer)
JURY HONORS
Germany
Leszek Plichta
Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg

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The final award went to a Tango film, En Tus Brazos (In Your Arms) by Fx Goby, Matthieu Landour and Edouard Jouret.

En Tus Brazos
AWARD OF EXCELLENCE
France
François-Xavier Goby, Edouard Jouret, Matthieu Landour, Directors
Supinfocom Valenciennes

There is an opportunity to see En Tus Brazos and Dreammaker at the Bitfilm festival in Hamburg next month.

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Although it did not win an award Joel Green's "The Itch" was shown on the BBC Breakfast news today.

The Itch
United Kingdom
Joel Green
Bournemouth University

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Details of other films shown:
http://www.siggraph.org/s2007/attendees/caf/et.html
http://www.siggraph.org/s2007/attendees/caf/at.html