TAAFI Announces Evening with Don Hertzfeldt

Announcement from the Toronto Animation Arts Festival:

TORONTO, OTTOWA – The Toronto Animation Arts Festival International (TAAFI) today announced an evening with cult animator and Academy Award nominee, Don Hertzfeldt, including a screening of his latest film, It’s Such a Beautiful Day on March 5th at The Royal Cinema.

The popularity of Hertzfeldt’s work is unprecedented in independent animation. This film, the third chapter of his Everything Will Be OK trilogy, was recently featured as one of 32 films (of 4,083 submissions) at the Sundance Short Film Program this past January. Hertzfeldt has had more films play in competition at the Sundance Film Festival than any other filmmaker and is the youngest filmmaker to ever receive the San Francisco International Film Festival’s Persistence of Vision Award.

“We are very honoured to have Hertzfeldt make a stop on his North American tour to support TAAFI and share his new film and vision with us,” says Ben McEvoy, Vice-Chair of TAAFI.

The evening will include the screening of the entire animated trilogy, immediately followed by a live on-stage interview and audience chat with Hertzfeldt. Nearly two years in the making and the final chapter in the trilogy, the 23-minute It’s Such A Beautiful Day is Hertzfeldt’s longest and most ambitious piece to-date, blending traditional animation, experimental optical effects, trick photography and new digital hybrids printed out one frame at a time. The film was also captured entirely on an antique 35 mm animation stand, one of the last operating cameras of its kind in North America.

Tickets for the screening and exclusive after-party with Hertzfeldt are available starting Tuesday, February 21, at www.taafi.com/donhertzfeldt [1].

Proceeds from Hertzfeldt’s screening will go to support the inaugural Toronto Animation Arts Festival International (TAAFI) scheduled for July 6 – 8, 2012, at TIFF Bell Lightbox. Programming highlights, workshops and presentations to be announced soon.

About the Toronto Animation Arts Festival International (TAAFI)
The Toronto Animation Arts Festival International (TAAFI) is Toronto’s first top tier mainstream animation festival. It was developed by a dedicated group of animation industry stalwarts to celebrate the art of animation in all its forms from across Canada and around the world. It will endeavor to showcase content from the wide world of animation, and feature industry presentations, retrospectives and student competitions with a special interest in emerging animation media. Sponsors for TAAFI include Fresh TV and ACME Pictures. For more information, visit www.taafi.com [2].