After a late screening in the Aidikoff Screening Room for the William Morris agents, the filmmakers had a chance to meet with a few of the agents. Like many people have said along the tour, the agents felt that this year is one of the strongest years for animated shorts in quite some time. Peter and the Wolf asked how an animation director or producer finds representation. Ken Freimann said that it depends on what the filmmaker wants. Based on their nominated work, he said it would be tough because it’s hard for them to sell less than mainstream projects to the studios. He added that their films prove what they can do, so coming to agents with projects worked out would be a great help in determining what an agent can do for an animator. Agent Danny Gabai, who represents many independent writer/directors, said that if you want to move into the mainstream then they could help, or they could help connect their projects with artists who could help getting the project made. Ken’s example was that if Tim Burton gets involved with a project, the studios would be more interested. For producers, Ken said that they would represent them on a project-to-project basis.

Seeing the pictures from the Oscar Showcase tour is a great way to convey all the events that took place. Here are some more shots from Ron from William Morris, the AWN/Acme Oscar party, Sony Animation and CAA.

I thought I was going to have Thursday morning to catch up, but I was wrong. Wednesday night Ron invited me to be his guest to the Canadian consulate general’s home for a lunch the next day. I’ve been to two previous Oscar functions at the Canadian consulate general’s beautiful house in Hancock Park and couldn’t pass up the chance to go again. The luncheon took place in the lovely courtyard in back by the pool. They were prepared for the rain and had tents and heaters set up, making it comfortable on the rainy L.A. day.