Bill Dennis at the AniMazing Short Festival

Last month marked the third edition of the AniMazSpot Festival in Glendale, California. It’s a small, non-profit boutique festival that celebrates the best animated short films from around the world.

The event, founded and organized by Tee Bosustow, was held over the course of one week. It featured studio tours to fifteen area animation studios, screenings of nominated films at the Woodbury University Theatre, and an education forum also held at Woodbury. A highlight of the fest was a special screening of 20 restored, classic Mr. Magoo shorts from UPA at the Alex Theatre in Glendale.

Glendale's Alex Theatre.

For the film competition portion of the festival, submissions for consideration were accepted throughout the year. Through a system of on-line voting, a panel of animation professionals from around the world was involved in the evaluation of the films for final competition. Whether their film was accepted or not, the filmmaker for each and every film submitted was given feedback from this panel of international experts. Judging by the notes/letters of appreciation, the filmmakers are most appreciative of this personal feedback.

All told, there were twelve categories and a total of 54 finalists.

The Best of Festival was a great film by Michaela Copikova from Slovakia entitled ‘Dust and Glitter’. Other winners included:

2nd Place Best of Festival: Legacy from Adam Floeck, New Jersey, USA

3rd Place Best of Festival: Party in the CIA from Roque Ballesteros, California, USA

Best Story: Being Bradford Dillman from Emma Burch, United Kingdom

Best Humor: Nest from Michael Ruocco , New York, USA

Best Character Design: Fisher by Yoram Benz from Georgia, USA

Best Overall Design: Threadbare by Brett Underhill, New York, USA

Best Foreign Short: Jack and the Beanstalk by Fish Wang, Taipei

Best First Short: Chased by Emily Quinn, California, USA

Best Student Short: Libidinis by Rosa Peris Medina and MercedesPeris, Spain

Best short for Children: Backstage by Pierce Davison, Australia

Non-Narrative (experimental): Ballpi t by Kyle Mowat, Canada

Best of Festival winner: Dust and Glitter by Michaela Copkova from Pietany, Slovakia.

The Awards Ceremony was held at Woodbury University where filmmakers had their films screened and the awards presented.

Since it’s founding in 2009, AniMazSpot Shorts Festival has been held each year. However, following a trend with most animation festivals around the world, earlier last month it was announced that the fest will be held bi-annually. And the next edition will be held in 2014. AniMazSpot is a relevant festival and I hope it can survive. Since Los Angeles is the animation capital of the world, there is certainly a place for this kind of event. Mark your September 2014 calendar for this festival. I think you’ll have a great time.