The Crab Revolution Takes Over Nextoons
For its second season, NEXTOONS: THE NICKTOONS FILM FESTIVAL has announced that Arthur de Pins, with his film, LA RÉVOLUTION DES CRABES, is the $10,000 Grand Prize winner.
The short film was selected as the best of the fest by a grand jury that included actor Mark Hamill, AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER co-creators Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, director/animator Mike Gabriel, 10-year-old cartoon connoisseur Noah Webb and feature storyboard artist and winner of the Producers' Choice Award in the first Nicktoons Film Festival, Elizabeth Ito. All jury members agreed that the clever story about the life of crabs doomed to only travel in a straight line was a side-splitter. The simple plot, black-and-white format and straightforward animation add to the film's undeniable charm.
The other festival prizewinner is California Institute of the Arts student J.G. Quintel, who earned both the Producers' Choice Award (an Apple G5 computer and a copy of Bauhaus Software's Mirage) and the Nextoons Student Animator Award ($1,000 and a copy of SOFTIMAGE's XSI|Foundation). Quintel took home both prizes for his short, THE NAÏVE MAN FROM LOLLILAND, about a very gentile ambassador who totally loses his cool during a typically benign encounter.
Films that made it into the Top Ten category and received an additional screening in the final episode of the on-air portion of the festival on Nicktoons included: ANTHEM, PSYOP (New York); PREY, Tom Kyzivat (Illinois); THE MOUSOCHIST, John Dilworth (New York); MAESTRO, M. Toth Geza (Hungary); BETTY, Rie Ito (New York); OH, DEAR, Jiwook Kim (Los Angeles); FARM FORCE, Dominic Carola & Paulo Alvarado (Florida); and FEE FI FO FUM, Shane Swinnea (Illinois).
Sponsors and Friends of the Festival include Bauhaus Software, SOFTIMAGE, the Ottawa International Animation Festival, STASH DVD Magazine, Toon Boom, Your Next Tee, Digital Tutors, ANIMATION MAGAZINE, Mighty Fine Inc. and DreamWorks Animation.
"Our second season winners have established NEXTOONS: THE NICKTOONS FILM FESTIVAL as the premiere electronic animation festival for independent animators and artists," concludes Fred Seibert, festival exec director and president of Frederator Studios, which is a co-producer of NEXTOONS: THE NICKTOONS FILM FESTIVAL. "Arthur de Pins and J.G. Quintel are the original talents to watch out for in the future."
A one-hour special of the festivals top 10 will air on Nicktoons Sept. 18, 2005, at midnight (ET).
Frederator makes cartoons for television and the movies. Since its 1998 founding by former Hanna-Barbera Cartoons president Seibert, Frederator Studios has become one of the industrys largest and most prolific independent cartoon studios. For more information, visit www.frederator.com.
Nicktoons (www.nicktoons.com), Nickelodeon's 24-hour animation network, is seen in more than 34 million homes nationwide. The network's 24-hour schedule features exclusive original programming as well as a roster of hits. Nicktoons is a part of the MTV Networks expanded suite of channels available for digital distribution. The new channels include MTV Hits, MTV Jams, Nicktoons and VH1 Mega Hits, expanding and strengthening MTV Networks' digital offerings to 13 services.