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Rebecca Moline and Robert May are the creators of The Animation Show and its companion web site, but they’ve done much more. Robert May graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a BFA in dramatic art in 1998. He’s been wildly active in theater, television and film since 1994. Working with Bitter Films, Robert has performed voice work in Don Hertzfeldt films, “Lily & Jim,” “Rejected,” and all three of Don’s more recent shorts created specifically for “The Animation Show”. Rebecca Moline graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a BA in Film Studies in 1998. She has handled all of the editing for Don Hertzfeldt films, “Billy’s Balloon,” “Rejected,” and all three of Don’s shorts created for “The Animation Show.” After moving to Los Angeles, Rebecca worked for four years on the NBC drama “The West Wing” as Post Production Supervisor.

Both Rebecca and Robert have produced The Animation Show since 2003, for Mike Judge and Don Hertzfeldt. The Animation Show is an annual feature-length compilation of the best animated short films from around the world, exclusively curated by Mike Judge (Office Space, “Beavis and Butt-Head,” “King of the Hill”) and Academy Award nominated animator Don Hertzfeldt (Billy’s Balloon, Rejected, The Meaning of Life). Animation may be the single most misunderstood film medium, and the animated short in particular is undervalued in American cinema, despite widespread appreciation throughout the rest of the world. With luck, popular animated shorts may see limited theatrical play, but most are relegated to the dungeons of the internet.

The theatrical animation festival tour was born in 1976 with the launch of the Fantastic Animation Festival. This was the first show to create the now-universal “program on a flyer” and the first to receive a first-run 35mm theatrical release. It’s popularity helped pave the way for similar commercial programs, including Spike and Mike’s Festival of Animation, the Tournée of Animation, and several others that came and went with varying success. The Animation Show launched in 2003, was the first festival of animation created and produced by actual animators. A sister series of high quality Animation Show DVDs now supplement the theatrical tour. Every year the Show works diligently to put animated shorts into more theaters than any festival in American history, giving these filmmakers the wide exposure their work deserves. The 2007 program also includes a ten minute documentary on the 100 year history of the animated short.

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This episode is sponsored by The UPA Legacy Project.

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 14th, 2007 at 2:02 pm and is filed under Episodes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.