The recent exponential growth of the animation industry has seemingly deflected interest away from independent animation filmmakers. At the same time, a number of venues and opportunities for independents appear to have vanished or have seriously diminished. For instance, animation festivals which once seemed almost totally focused on the independent scene seem to have shifted their attention to more mainstream (i.e., commercial) pursuits. In the midst of all this talk, I checked in with a number of individuals who, each in their own way, have tried to keep the channels open for independent filmmakers, and even provide them with new opportunities.

June Foray. Photo courtesy of June Foray.

June Foray
Although, the Academy Awards hardly seems a battleground for independents, the Oscars for Best Animated Short have long provided a means to gain wide visibility. The fact that this award still exists, however, owes much to the singular efforts of June Foray, who as a member of the Academy's Board of Governors consistently fought attempts to do away with it.

Foray, voice artist extraordinaire (who is reprising her role as Rocky in the forthcoming Rocky and Bullwinkle live-action/animated feature), has been defending the award from its detractors since joining the Academy Board in 1977, when she and Saul Bass led the fight.

"The issue," she says, "has come up several times since. I think it was 1993 the last time. It has always been a struggle, because there haven't been many shorts playing at regular theaters, even though people love them. Don't forget many big filmmakers, like John Lasseter, started by making shorts, [as well as] people like Bruno Bozzetto and John Halas."

The diminutive Foray has always been an activist, having played a key role in building ASIFA-Hollywood and even organizing the nationwide meat boycott in the 1970s. "I have a big mouth," she says. "I care."

"For the time being," she feels, "the [animation Oscars] are safe." Her current fight, though, is helping documentary filmmakers fight an attempt to do away with the Oscars for Best Documentary Short Subject.

Clare Kitson. Photo courtesy of Channel 4.

Claire Kitson
Britain's Channel 4 has long been a force whose influence extends well beyond broadcasting into financing theatrical films. It has also provided one of the few sources for funding one-off short animations in the U.K. And it is Claire Kitson who has been the driving force behind these commissions, which include Barry Purves' Gilbert & Sullivan: The Very Models. However, according to Kitson, the ability of Channel 4 to continue funding many of these films seems seriously in doubt.

"We have a problem scheduling them," she laments, "and they are very expensive. It costs us about £10,000 (US$16,100) a minute for shorts, which is an enormous amount of money for us. And the only place to schedule these films is late in the night."

After experimenting with several formats, the films are now seen in a program called Beyond Dope Sheet, shown at midnight following the half-hour Dope Sheet, a magazine show on animation. The program not only includes original films, but a range of works by the likes of Jan Svankmajer and Bill Plympton.

In commissioning new films, Kitson is able to expand her reach by joint programs with the Museum of the Moving Image and the Arts Council. The former involves "a competition for first time filmmakers, usually college students to develop new ideas. We usually get 100 applications, and we have a panel who pick the best 4, who then work in a glass fronted studio at the Museum for 3 months developing their project; if they are approved (which they almost always are) then they go into production. (We have a similar program in Scotland as well.) In the future, these films will be 3 minutes long instead of 5, in order to fit in a new time slot after the news." With the Arts Council, Channel 4 is able to fund an additional 6 films a year.

Even though prospects for original animated shorts on Channel 4 are not bright, Kitson does note, "There is a bit of expansion into adult series, though their prospects are up in the air right now. In the past, we have done three original series, including Alison Snowden and David Fine's Bob & Margaret, which is done with Nelvana. Unfortunately," she notes, "it is more popular in the U.S. than in the U.K."