The French student film, Oktapodi, not only won the hearts of the audience at SIGGRAPH, but also the CAF Best in Show. All images, unless otherwise marked, courtesy of SIGGRAPH. Oktapodi © Gobelins.

This year was the debut of the new and improved, expanded Computer Animation Festival at SIGGRAPH. Held in the brand new Nokia Theater in downtown Los Angeles, the festival was a five-day expansive program featuring panels, special presentations and numerous screenings. I was also lucky enough to be able to speak with Carlye Archibeque, the computer animation festival producer, to get a behind-the-scenes look at this year's new program and her thoughts about the future.

"We didn't so much expand the Electronic Theater as expand the Computer Animation Festival to its proper proportion," explains Archibeque. "The Computer Animation Festival has been comprised of the Electronic Theater (ET) and the Animation Theater (AT) since 1984, when Maxine Brown was the chair of the festival. She changed the name from 'The Film and Video Show,' which was run by Tim DeFanti. So, it's an organic process: a small program, the Film and Video Show, split into two, the Electronic Theater and the Animation Theater; and now the festival has split into three: Competition, Curated and Presentations, all of which fall under the umbrella of the Computer Animation Festival."

Archibeque continued by explaining the selection process: "Because of the breakdown of the festival into these three types of content -- Competition, Curated and Presentations -- there were three tracks for content selection. Competition screenings were chosen by, first, a triage jury, which cut the 800 or so selections down to 600-ish selections. Then the main jury met over a weekend in March and our selections for the competition reels were made. The curated reels like Eye Candy, Schools, and Flash, were chosen specifically by our Curated chair, Sande Scoredos, and her team of curators: Tom Pereira, Adriana Jaroszewicz and Hael Kobayashi. Of course, we all weighed in on our favorites, but ultimately the [curating] team guided the reels. The rest of the presentations were all the amazing work of our director, Jill Smolin, who just showed the community what she loves in digital content as it relates to entertainment."

If SIGGRAPH was going to expand their repertoire, they certainly picked the right year to find an ideal venue. Opened in October of 2007, the 7,100-seat Nokia Theater is absolutely gorgeous. "As we stood in the theater the first time, we knew the project was going to be a lot of hard work just based on getting all of the content to look amazing on a 70-foot screen; but with the team we put together, we all knew it was ultimately doable. Even more obvious, as we looked around the Nokia, was that the theater was the perfect venue to kick off the new incarnation of the Computer Animation Festival. It was a room worthy of a premiere."

Kouhei Nakama's Shatter sealed an impression in many audience members at SIGGRAPH. © Nabla Inc.

The Competition
The standard of the competition films was excellent. While there was a programming issue with the competition films that I will discuss later, the overall quality and entertainment factor of the seven competition screenings was fantastic. What a joy and triumph. From television pilots and movie trailers, to commercials, to effects work, to looking at the simulation of cloth, to unbelievable student films, I didn't see one dud. There were so many wonderful films that it is hard to single out favorites, but I will try anyway!

Carbon Footprint was created by Matt Lambert, Stefano Salvini, Matt Chandler and Fabio Zaveti at Jellyfish Pictures for the Discovery Networks located in EMEA. This photorealistic recycling message shows the degrading of an aluminum can in exquisite detail over the span of fifty years. Another really funny short with a message was Now Look What You Did – Cigarette, from the animators at Make. Charring adorable rodents was never more humorous than in this over-the-top "what if."

Shatter, created by Kouhei Nakama of Japan, was simply spellbinding. I saw the film three times and I could easily watch it three times more. A study of shiny and reflective objects shattering, it was one of the most artful and fascinating explorations I have ever seen. It looked mesmerizing on the big screen and, while one knew the skill and computing power behind it, it would have looked great projected on a wall at the trendiest of dance clubs.