Animated Travels: Ottawa Animation Festival

Festivalitis Part 3: CTN Animation Expo Ho!

EventsEditor — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 11:25:09 -0800

What makes an animation festival great? With OIAF recently past and CTN on the immediate horizon, it seems like a good time to ask this question, one I’ve been asking myself in the aftermath of every festival experience for so many years I’ve lost count.

Festivalitis Part 2: OIAF’s Return to the NAC

EventsEditor — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 16:02:34 -0700

Ellen Besen applauds OIAF's return, at least in part, to the NAC.

Festivalitis Part 1

EventsEditor — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 18:28:27 -0700

Festival fever can hit hard - you’re all pent up ready for a good time- and then just as suddenly it’s over…

Ottawa 2012 – And So It Begins Again…Again

EventsEditor — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 07:15:25 -0700

Somehow, I knew my journey to the Ottawa International Animation Festival would no go smoothy. Alas, I was not to be disappointed.

Final Thoughts on Ottawa 2011

EventsEditor — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 13:07:03 -0700

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.

Ottawa 2011 – Scenes From The Closing Ceremonies

EventsEditor — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 17:37:35 -0700

Another OIAF Grand Prix gets awarded, another Phil Mulloy feature takes top prize, another grumbling voice can be heard complaining about the winners. Much like the start of Ontario’s moose hunting season, which I watched in awe Sunday on a TV at the back of a bar, as the Nelvana Grand Prix is announced, "second-guessing the judging" season once again begins in the province. Hopefully, you won’t see too many animators hanging upside down, suspended from a crane over the bloody bed of a pickup truck. But you never know.

Ottawa 2011 – I Feel So Old

EventsEditor — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 16:04:38 -0700

The Animator’s Picnic is inspired event programming – stop all proceedings, go to a park, eat, drink, see and be seen. On this unseasonably beautiful Autumn day, as I gaze out on the crowd of young animators, I can’t help but think…I feel so old. Nothing like a large gathering of energetic young hipsters, free from the burdens of metabolic decline and hearing loss, to remind you just what a sorry-ass geez you are. The crowd gets younger, the walk to the Bytowne Cinema gets longer and no amount of Advil or Scotch can change that. Sometimes I wonder, if I start talking to a young female animation student, am I perceived as someone who has something useful to say, or just a perve? Can one be both?

Ottawa 2011 – And So It Begins…Again

EventsEditor — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 07:26:54 -0700

I know it must be Ottawa Animation Festival time because it’s been roughly a year since my last verbal manhandling by an airport customs agent. Happy Anniversary! I seem to be a magnet for every disaffected flak vested agent looking to brush up on their 12-step time mismanagement drill.

Final Thoughts on the Films at Ottawa

EventsEditor — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 17:22:32 -0800

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.

Ottawa 2010 - Scenes from the Awards Ceremony

EventsEditor — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 11:14:28 -0700

The closing ceremonies bring an end to another Ottawa International Animation Festival. And while I await my connecting flight in Newark for the final leg of my journey home, I linger just a bit longer on the images in my mind of all the wonderous activities of the past week. Though I was constantly too warm or utterly frozen and could never get comfortable wearing layers and a heavy jacket, I was able to stop griping often enough to have a thoroughly great time. Here are some images from the closing.