The Red Stick International Animation Festival has selected the finalists for its 2009 Best of the Fest Awards from among the more than 400 entries received. The festival will announce the winners in each category on the last day of the festival, Saturday, April 25, at noon in the Manship Theatre.
Red Stick, which will take place April 22-25 in downtown Baton Rouge's Arts District, received a record-breaking number of entries for its 2009 competition, with 421 films from 45 countries. The festival accepted entries from Aug. 1, 2008, through Jan. 2, 2009.
The finalists for the Red Stick 2009 Best of the Fest competition are:
Animated Short Film -- Student:
CHROMA CHAMELEON directed by Laura Citron (USA)DIVERS directed by Paris Mavroidis (USA)OFFICE NOISE directed by Mads Johansen, Torben Sottrup, Karsten Madsen, and Laerke Enemark (Denmark)
Animated Short Film -- Professional:
E.T.A. directed by Henrik Bjerregaard Clausen (Denmark)HOT DOG directed by Bill Plympton (USA)JEREMY AND THE YELLOW MONSTER directed by Jorge Hernandez (Mexico)
Animation for Commercials:
ITFS -- BILLSTICKER directed by Conrad Tambour (Germany)Virgin Media -- THERAPY directed by Rob Cazin (USA)
Animation for Young Audiences:
THE CURSE OF SKULL ROCK directed by Ben Smith (United Kingdom)MUMUHUG -- "Newborn Sea Turtle" directed by Vance Yang (Taiwan)MUMUHUG -- "Goodbye, Balloon Fish" directed by Vick Wang (Taiwan)
Experimental Animation/Visual Music -- Professional:
ESCAPE FROM THE TEMPLE directed by Zhou Xing (China)JAZZ LINE directed by Predrag Novakovic (Serbia)2 directed by Zhi Jin (South Korea)
Experimental Animation/Visual Music -- Professional:
LOST UTOPIA directed by Mirai Mizue (Japan)SENSORIUM co-directed by Karen Aqua and Ken Field (USA)2B TEXTURES directed by Bonnie Mitchell and Elainie Lillios (USA)
Music Video:
HEY directed by Guy Ben Shetrit (Israel)MEXICAN STANDOFF directed by Bill Plympton (USA)SLEIGH RIDE directed by Rob Corley and Tom Bancroft (USA)
This year, Red Stick will show more competition work throughout the festival's film screenings, to give participants a chance to see the original animated work the festival received.
Families can register for free Red Passes to attend the screenings and other events as part of the Red Stick International Animation Festival. For a list of screenings and times, please visit http://redstickfestival.org/events_schedule.asp.
