AniMaze & CinAnima Updates
The AniMazing Spotlight competition is moving forward, as we return from the awesome CinAnima animation festival in Portugal. Before we bring you up to date, a reminder that our Contact email is still not working properly, and until it is, please use …
(with “AniMazing” in the Subject Line)
… we don’t want to miss any of your communications.
So, we received our first entry for the AniMazing Spotlight compatition, just a few days ago …
A Long-distance Call
by award-winning animation director/artist,
Joe Chang, from Zhuantang, Hangzhou, China.
The very next day, an anonymous donor pledged $1,750 to be used as prize money, for first ($1,000), second ($500), and third ($250) prizes, to be awarded at the Final Awards Ceremony, about a year from now. These final awards will be selected from the winners of the Quarterly Awards.
So, if you want your film to qualify for the first Quarterly Awards, for “Excellence in Animation”, and be eligible for the Final Annual Awards, the deadline is Monday, December 29th, 2008. It has to be in our hands by then. See our Oct 1st post for more details, or email us at the above email address for the full Rules, Regs, and Application, with the updated addition of Prize Money.
The address to send your check, application, and DVD, is …
Artist in Me,
6311 Van Nuys Blvd., #406,
Van Nuys, California, USA 91401.
Last but not least, we have begun negotiating with some animation experts we met at CinAnima to join our AniMazing Spotlight panel. So, we hope to have the final panel of a little over a dozen experts from around the world, to be announced here by early next month.
So, more about this terrific little CinAnima festival … I have now been to Annecy (France), Zagreb (Croatia), Ottawa (Canada), Anima Mundi (Brazil), and Platform (Portland, Oregon), presenting UPA programs at most of those, as well as other non-festival events, such as Pixar. I’m finding the experience increasingly enjoyable and enlightening, meeting more and more animation enthusiasts and practitioners. I’m convinced that the world-wide animation community is among the most dedicated and enthusiastic group one could ever want to meet. I love you guys.
CinAnima is held every year around this time in a small seaside town in the north of Portugal, Espinho (pronounced Schpin’knew). It’s a former fishing village, turned summer beach/golf resort. But, in November the weather turns a tad bracing, not cold, the sun is shining and the sea breeze is stimulating our senses. And, although the festival is one of the smaller ones, it attracts some of the world’s top animation luminaries, many of whom I was able to meet and interview. I will add them to our batch of new interviews, which we hope to get back to before the end of the year, or early next year.
Some of the highlights for me were the audience reactions to my two UPA programs, a fascinating program of African animation, by Amal El Kalifa, a retrospective of the Belgium master, Raoul Servais, a screening of Bill Plympton’s new feature, Idiots & Angels, a retrospective of “Irish” animation great, Jimmy Murakami, a retrospective of Estonian animation, and a program specifically on one of it’s most well known, Priit Pärn, as well as a number of short films in competition.
The festival also had a lively opening night reception, as well as a reception at City Hall, by the Mayor of Espinho, as well as a tour, and lunch, thanks to the Mayor of the larger city to the north, Porto. All included the Portuguese version of tapas. Perhaps you’ll recognize someone you know in this last photo. If you like fish, and food in general, you can go to Espinho just for that. I had a grilled sea bass that was the best I’ve ever had.
Well, we’re back home now, ready to get the first entries off to our AniMazing panel of experts, and finish up assembling our final panel. Good luck to all entries.
