Sprockets

Hi everyone,
I hope you are having a great summer.  I returned this afternoon from three weeks at animation festivals in Kosovo and China and an e-mail was waiting for me from my friends at the KROK festival.  We are all aware of the political situation between Russia and the Ukraine and KROK is caught in the middle with their usual government funding sources cut off. They have started crowd funding on two sites to make the festival happen.
I know that animators don't have much money and I don't normally send out pleas for money but for so many years the KROK INTERNATIONAL Animation Festival has given so much to so many of us so if you can give anything to their crowd funding campaign to help the KROK boat sail this year, please do.
The final fund raising date is September 5, so please visit the sites listed below and help if you can
Even if you can only give a few dollars, every little bit will help.
Here are the links to get to the KROK funding sites:

When I saw French animator and illustrator Franck Dion’s beautiful 2014 Annecy poster I felt it was going to be a good festival this year and it was.   For the first time in its history the festival team choose an animator to design the poster and let’s hope it won’t be the last time. It was also the first time in many years that the sun shone brightly down on the entire six days of the festival. There was no rain, just hot and hotter weather.

The festival got off to a splendid start with the presentation of a Honorary Award to Isao Takahata at the opening night ceremony.  The seventy-seven year old Japanese animator was honoured for his outstanding career and life-long contribution to animation.  His films include Grave of the Fireflies, Pompoko, and My Neighbors Yamadas.  Along with Hayao Miyazaki and the Tokuma Shotem Company he also founded Studio Ghibli.

They were very busy but they took time out to sit down with me and tell me about The Hollow Land Experience.  The talented couple have created an audience inter-active installation to “explore the possibilities and expel the boundaries between theatre and animation, fiction and realism, transforming a screen based experience into a physical one”.  Participants are given masks and costumes representing the two characters in the film as they enter the “animated rooms” which are created by multi-angled projections which change rapidly as the masked participants explore them.  The blind “explorers” do not realize that there is one actor among them who leads them through the experience and hands them props such as toilet plungers to put on their heads.  There is also an audience watching all of the activity much like old time residents of a city would watch newcomers. The installation was conceived at the Open Workshop in Viborg where they are both artists-in-residence.  They said that it is expensive to install but they hope to be able to present it at animation festivals and in museums.  You can see a small excerpt about the project on their website: http://Hollowlandfilm.wordpress.com

Whether you are a seasoned professional with a track record or making your first film finding your way through the co-production maze is difficult.  This year at FMX in Stuttgart, Germany (22 to 25 April) I came across Chimney’s Top 100 European Film Funds (The Gateway to European Financing)   This book is an invaluable tool for any animator who is looking for co-production and funding opportunities in Europe.

The 175 page book is organized by country, from Armenia to the United Kingdom, and in countries with several diverse regions such as France, the regions are subdivided into regional funding opportunities.  Vital information, including available tax shelters, VAT percentage and requirements, and co-production treaties are listed along with contact information.  The glossary demystifies terms such as soft money and pari passu and the through indexes list funds by countries, alphabetically, and funding levels.  Chimney plans to publish a yearly update to keep information current, and in the next year is planning to create an app with all the information in digital form.

Anibar International Animation Festival is pleased to announce its worldwide call for entries for its 2014 festival, taking place the 5th to 10th of August, in the city of Peja. Regulations and a link to the online application form is available at: http://anibar.com/2013/En/media/news/178/ here

Animation filmmakers are invited to submit their work to compete in three main categories:

Regulations for entering are at: http://www.varnafest.org/regulations-2014//

Entry forms can be downloaded at: http://www.varnafest.org/wfaf2014/entry-form/

Entry deadline is 10 June!