By Nancy Phelps.

This year Anima Brussels (4 through 13 March 20) pulled out all the stops to celebrate the festival’s 30th Anniversary.  In addition to the seven programs of World Shorts in competition and numerous feature films in and out of competition, there was an outstanding roster of who’s who from the world of animation. Peter Lord, Bill Plympton, Gil Alkabetz and Raoul Servais were just some of the luminaries in attendance.

From the shores of enchanting Rio to Sao Paulo’s urban hustle and bustle, I was lucky enough to attend Brazil’s 2008 Anima Mundi festival. This is the only festival I know about that starts in one city for a week and then moves to another town for another week of festivities. While this makes it one of the longest festivals, I think most people would want it to last even a little longer.

 

 

By Dan Sarto.

No other festival I’m aware of consistently generates as much controversy as does the Ottawa Festival. People may scratch their heads at the judging decisions in Annecy (insert favorite French joke here), but in Ottawa, beer-fueled grumbling and incessant whining are as much a part of the annual festivities as head-scratching competition screening introductions and the cavalcade of toothless panhandlers lining Rue Rideau.

Despite the umbrage some people take with the selection process, the competition this year at Ottawa by and large was relatively solid.  It has taken years, but I’ve finally learned the difference between films I don’t like and those I consider just plain “bad.”  I’m still amazed at how often my thoughts on films differ wildly from those of friends and colleagues whose opinions I otherwise respect. For every screening I leave thinking “That was a pretty strong program,” I hear someone exiting the theatre lobby muttering under their breath about the “unbelievably shitty films” they’d just seen.  Such is festival life. Indeed, such is life.

The 2010 SIGGRAPH Art Gallery has done away with the old phrase “look but don’t touch.”

The 14 juried pieces exhibited this year absolutely require human interaction with a focus on haptics (touch).  Richard Elaver from Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne has taken the cross disciplinary theme of Leonardo and applied it to the selection process for the exhibits on display.  Leonardo is a journal that has a philosophy of combining science, technology and art.  Leonardo can be explored at www.leonardo.info.

Richard comes from a traditional art background of metalsmithing and jewelry making.  He was always chasing new techniques and looking for different ways of doing things.  Technology is fine, but there is something satisfying about working with materials.  As a boy, when the others were making snowmen, Richard made a six foot toilet out of snow in his parent’s front yard.  Certainly that was different, more importantly, it was a combination of science and technology to produce art.

Stop the printing machines! Hold everything! I have seen the film of the festival.

Sorry, but I am still under heavy shock and I think my feel-good hormones are still busy on the merry-go-round called my brain. And this happens only, when I see a truly overwhelming film.

It had been an already busy day full of big events, when we, me my friends and I went to the Grand Salle, sat down and saw “Mary and Max.” And this one hour and 32 minute long stop-motion movie turned out to be an outstanding, brilliant movie, which has to, which must, which will win the Cristal for best feature. The Clay Puppet-Movie tells the story about a strange and bewitching pen-pal friendship between two very different people: Mary Dinkle, an 8-year-old Australian, and 44 year-old obese Jewish American Max Horowitz. Based on a true story, the funny heartwarming film was written, directed and designed by academy award winning artist Adam Elliot from Down Under, who already enchanted us with his four short films, the trilogy “Uncle”, “Brother” and “Cousin” and of course the beloved “Harvie Krumpet”.

 

 

By Dan Sarto

There are a number of things I can always count on at an Ottawa festival. First, I will find myself defending Chris Robinson and the selection process. Second, I will find myself defending Chris Robinson and the selection process with people whom earlier in conversation I had defended Chris Robinson and the selection process.  Third, after watching several days of screenings, I will question Chris Robinson’s selection process.  Nothing ever changes.  I love it.

The festival brings together everything uniquely interesting about the animation industry.  Art, commerce, tattoos, the best and worst of kids cartoons, unintelligible films from Asia, alcohol, great student films and big studios walking hand in hand with little studios,  agreeing they'll refrain from poaching talent except at the parties. The Ottawa festival brings together big and small, have and have not, legend and newbie together in a unique way - cozy, intimate, unpretentious, inviting.  The care that goes into its planning is always evident – from the programming of retrospectives to the variety of master classes and talks, nothing on the schedule seems out of place and each holds its own against the other.  It’s tough to arbitrate the constant decision making surrounding what to do and when.  Suffice to say, days and nights are always full and I travel home lamenting all I didn’t get a chance to see or do.

Some final observations on the 5 day fest, in no particular order and really, to be honest, displaying limited insight:

 

The grand prize went to "Life Without Gabriella Ferri" by Pritt and Olga Parn. This is a complex, sensual, poetic film. "Wallace & Gromit: A Matter Of Loaf And Death" by Nick Park took the special jury prize. Even though they are masters of the art, these filmmakers were pleased and genuinely touched by the recognition. (For the rest of the award winners see I Castelli Animati's website.)

What is it about Italians? Give any of them a microphone and invite them to speak and they immediately turn into the best public speakers known to man. Joking, calling out to the audience, laughing, and then delivering interesting insight and banter. This is I Castelli Animati. Led by unfazable festival director, Luca Raffaelli, the festival bounced along for four days, from November 26 – 30, 2008 in Genzano di Roma, a little hill town north of Rome located around sparkling blue lakes.

Autodesk University is primarily a training conference.  There are over 500 classes that fill four floors of the convention center for almost a week.  Seeing the list of classes demonstrates just how broad and deep Autodesk’s design software reaches.  Everyone from architects to product designers to engineers to animators had something to attend.  In addition to classes, Autodesk used the show as a way to introduce products and reveal future directions for the company.

An upbeat Cartoon Forum, recently ended September 16th in Sopot, Poland- seems to have made a tremendous impact on the European animation business scene.   Sixty-six new animation series from 19 European countries were presented to over 800 participants at this year’ three-day event.  “The best Cartoon Forum in years” reverberates in post-Forum conversations with broadcasters, co-producers, distributors, investors and creators.  It’s unanimous.  Everyone loved Poland, and has had little time to go home and catch their collective breaths before heading to Cannes, France.

Cartoon Forum participants will “continue the Poland conversations” in the south of France, during MIP Junior (October 1 and 2) and MIPCOM (October 3-6). Many producers are optimistic about securing significant, tangible results for Cartoon Forum animation projects.  Making new deals needs to be done quickly all agree, due to the scary economic climate everybody’s facing today across Europe, and the rest of the globe.