Put your AniMazing Short in the Spotlight!
Due to popular demand, we’ve made a few important changes in our contest, the most important probably being a reduced student fee. So, here is the definitive regulations and application. But, soon to come … more international experts and the announcement of the first entries.
This is a unique competition for animated shorts. We have lined up an international panel of animation experts who will review the shorts and select award winners, but most importantly, will give personal comments on every short entered. These can be used for edification and promotional purposes.
If you have any questions, or want a pdf of the regulations and/or application, please DON’T use our “Comment” email at this time. We’re having some technical difficulties. Instead, for now, you can reach us at …
Paste the above email into your To: line (don’t just click or it goes to our flaky email), and then, add “AniMazing” in the Subject line, to insure that we receive your email.
Each quarter, AniMazing Spotlight will present two awards for Excellence in Animation. At a Final Awards Ceremony, from these eight quarterly winners, we will select a single winner as Best Animated Short. We will also announce and present Specialty Awards. The ceremony will be held on November 8th, 2009 at the world-renowned Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, California.
Final Awards Ceremony Presenters will include top animation artists in the Hollywood and Burbank animation worlds. In addition, Special Programs will feature remarkable and worthy shorts from the past and present.
American Cinématheque’s Egyptian Theatre
Put your AniMazing! Short in the Spotlight!
The panel of first-quarter international experts includes:
Gene Deitch, Legendary Animation Director, Prague, Czech Republic
Paul Dopff, Animator/Children’s Workshop, Verneuil-sur-Indre, France
Tsvika Oren, Animation Director/Journalist, Tel Aviv, Israel
Chris Robinson, Animation Festival Director, Ottawa, Canada
Raffaella Scrimitore, Animation Festival Curator, University of Milan, Italy
Hrvoje Turkovic, Scholar/Film Theory Professor, Zagreb, Croatia
Malcolm Turner, London Intn’l Animation Festival, Co-Director, Melbourne, Australia
Paul Wells, Historian/Screenwriter/Educator, Loughborough, England
Sharon Wu, Animation Festival Curator, Los Angeles/Taipei
… the back-up panel is being assembled now, and will be announced soon.
We have lined up four so far, from Canada, Brazil, and Los Angeles.
Initial Sponsors for AniMazing Spotlight, so far, are:
Toon In to the World of Animation
For answers to your questions, responses to suggestions,
or a pdf of the regulations and application, contact us at:
Please be sure to put “AniMazing” in the subject line.
Applying to AniMazing Spotlight
Eligibility:
The AniMazing Spotlight competition is open to undiscovered and/or rarely seen short animation (12 minutes or shorter) that has received no major award prior to submission to AniMazing Spotlight. There are no limits on production year or format. For filmmakers, there are no age limits or education requirements. Even animation industry professionals exploring the independent sector are eligible!
Requirements:
All shorts must be submitted on DVD in NTSC format, with no copy-guard. This allows duplication for judging. For foreign-language shorts, English subtitles or dubbing are recommended, but not required. AniMazing Spotlight’s initial rights are limited to retaining the submitted DVD in our archives, pursuing the judging process, and screening the short(s) at the Annual AniMazing Spotlight Awards Ceremony.
Processing Fee & Membership:
For non-students, single or first submissions require a processing fee of US$95.00. Each additional submission included in a single shipment will require a processing fee of US$65.00. Although applicants may burn more than one submission on a single DVD, fees are charged per short, not per DVD. If shorts are mailed to us separately, each one will require the initial processing fee of $95.00.
Fees cover transfers, shipping, handling, and guarantee the applicant an expert review, comments and voting by at least three experts. All non-student primary applicants also receive a one-year Membership in AniMazing Spotlight. Co-creators may purchase membership for US$25.00. Membership is open only to filmmakers and co-creators who submit shorts to AniMazing Spotlight.
Current students of animation in a recognized animation program may enter at a student rate of US$50.00. This fee brings all of the advantages of the $95.00 entry except membership. Students, and their co-creator applicants, may purchase membership for US$25.00.
Students, please remember to add the name of your program, school, and primary instructor or administrator to your entry form.
In all cases, the person primarily responsible for the short should submit it. Schools may submit shorts in the name of the primary filmmaker(s). Everyone credited on the entry form, as primary or co-creators, will be named in all awards programs and promotional materials.
Special Inaugural Membership Bargain:
Memberships gained by submission or purchase (by students or co-creators) in 2008-2009 and 2009-2010, up through the AniMazing Spotlight Awards Ceremony 2010, are valid through the end of 2010.
Membership includes an AniMazing Spotlight Certificate for the submitted short, an annual members’ magazine highlighting the year’s submissions, awards, programs and winning shorts. Members also receive a membership card for discounts on tickets to the AniMazing Spotlight Awards Ceremony and on other AniMazing Spotlight events and products.
Beginning in 2011, memberships can be renewed annually for US$25 and will be valid through the end of each calendar year.
Judges’ Comments:
Every short submitted to AniMazing Spotlight will be viewed, critiqued, and commented on by at least three international animation experts on our judges’ panel. Awards are given out quarterly and annually, but comments will be sent approximately one month after our receipt of the DVD. These comments become the joint collateral of the AniMazing Spotlight competition and the filmmaker(s). One comment will be engraved on the winners’ award plaque, and all can be used for the promotion of the work.
Critique by specific experts on the panel during the voting period or at later dates, when new experts join our panel, can be obtained for an additional fee of $US50.00. The filmmaker need only submit the name and reference number of the short, with name of the requested panelist, and the attendant fee.
Judging:
Every short submitted will be assigned a reference number, which will also be on the AniMazing Certificate and the Membership Card. All communication about the entry should include this number.
Scoring will be based on ten categories, and will determine the two winners each quarter. The eight quarterly winners will be judged separately to determine the year’s Best Animated Short.
The Ten Categories of Excellence are …
- Uniqueness: Does this short stand out from the others?
- Story: Is it a compelling, dramatic, funny, or unique, narrative?
- Character: Do we believe in the character and care what happens?
- Animation: How well does the movement support the whole short?
- Importance: Is there an intrinsic value in the premise of the short?
- Technique: Are there unusual approaches that heighten the effect?
- Artistry: Is the overall visual aesthetic outstanding?
- Audio: Are music and effects used to best advantage?
- Clarity: Is the theme coherent in its progression throughout?
- Moral: Are we left with a thoughtful message?
Specialty Awards:
Specialty Awards will acknowledge shorts that may score very high in some categories but not as well in others. The shorts themselves will dictate our selection of the Specialty Awards.
The final year-end Awards Ceremony Presentations and Screening of Winners will be held at the American Cinématheque’s historic Egyptian Theatre, on Hollywood Boulevard. In 1922, the great Hollywood impresario, Sid Grauman, supervised the building of the majestic Egyptian Theatre. Among the many major movie premieres at the Egyptian, was for Cecil B. DeMille’s Ten Commandments, which featured over 100 costumed performers entertaining celebrities as they arrived and walk down the red carpet along the Egyptian’s grand foyer. In later years the theater fell on hard times, but in 1998 the American Cinemathéque purchased the Egyptian and restored it to its original grandeur. Today it has become one of the highlights along rejuvenated Hollywood Boulevard. A detail of the American Cinématheque’s Egyptian Theatre interior ceiling is on the right.
Deadlines:
Deadlines for awards are the last Monday of December, March, June and August.
First Quarter - Monday, December 29th, 2008
Second Quarter of 2009 – Monday, March 30th, 2009
Third Quarter of 2009 – Monday, June 29th, 2009
Fourth Quarter of 2009 – Monday, August 30th, 2009
Final Awards Ceremony – also, Monday, August 30th, 2009
Shorts must arrive at our address on or before each deadline. Any late arrivals will be included in the following quarter’s competition.
Submissions:
Send entry form, DVD and check for processing and other fees (in US Dollars) made out to “Artist in Me, LLC” to:
Artist in Me, #406
6311 Van Nuys Blvd.
Van Nuys, CA 91401.
Atten: AniMazing Spotlight
Since the Processing Fee checks must
be in US dollars, some of you may
prefer to pay through Pay Pal, click this PayPal logo.
If your not a member of PayPal, you can sign up for free at
https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_registration-run
Send questions and requests for the pdf version
of the regulations and rules to
Please put AniMazing Spotlight in the subject line.
AniMaZing Spotlight Entry Form:
Please give us as much detail as you can on the entry form; the more you tell us, the easier it will be to evaluate your short(s) for the Specialty Awards. If more space is required, use extra pages.
Date (required) ___________________ Age (optional) ____________
Primary Filmmaker’s Name (required) __________________________
& Credit (required) ______________________________________
Additional Filmmaker’s Name (if needed) _______________________
& Credit (required) ______________________________________
Additional Filmmaker’s Name (if needed) _______________________
& Credit (required) ______________________________________
Additional Filmmaker’s Name (if needed) _______________________
& Credit (required) ______________________________________
Address (optional) ____________________________________________
City & Country of Origin (required) _____________________________
Email (required) ______________________________________________
Total Check or Pay Pal amount (required) _______________________
First Submission: $95
Student Entry: $50
Additional Submission at same time $65
Additional Student Submission at same time $50
Additional Filmmakers $50
Specific Expert Request $50
Student Membership or Renewal $25
Additional Student Filmmakers Membership $25
Number of shorts being submitted (required) _____________________
Is this a work-in-progress? (required) ________________________
Title, Length, and Production Year of short(s) being submitted (required)
First animation(s)? (required) ___________________
Student project(s)? (required) ______________________
If so, which school? (required) _____________________________
If submitting as a current student, please provide the name of the animation program and/or school you are currently enrolled in, and the name of the primary instructor or administrator.
Have any of these receive any awards? (required) _________________
List Awards
Type of animation (recommended) ______________________________
(hand drawn, computer animation, stop motion,
mix of animation, and/or with live action, etc.)
Background info of submitter(s) (recommended) …
By signing below, you indicate that you understand and agree to the terms of our competition. Your signature also means that you give AniMazing Spotlight the right to duplicate your short to send to the panel of animation experts; to screen the winners’ shorts at the Final Awards Ceremony and to retain a copy of the short for archival purposes. You retain the rights to all other uses of your short, unless separately negotiated between filmmaker and AniMazing Spotlight.
____________________________
Filmmaker’s Signature & Date