by mtonta20 | Jul 6, 2015 | FILM FESTIVALS
by Nadine Promes What is Annecy? Annecy is a city located in the Haute-Savoie region in France, relatively close to Lyon. Although small and tranquil, it has plenty of things to do including various types of sports and outdoors activities. However during the summer, when the International Animation Film Festival occurs, Annecy fills up with people like no other time of the year. The event is divided into two sections. The Festival includes expositions, screening, special programs, signing sessions and more. The MIFA (International Animation Film Market) is where booths held by different studios or companies related to the entertainment business show their new products, shows or simply give information to future business partners or employees. In 2010 the Festival celebrated its fiftieth anniversary and this year (2015) MIFA is thirty years old. Every single year the festival grows in visitors and participants. This year the festival had more than 8,250 badge holders, 83 countries represented, and 500 films screened, and for the MIFA 2,680 badge holders. The Festival chooses a theme and a country to represent every year. This year for example, Spain was the country represented and ‘Women in Animation’ was the theme. Hence the beautiful poster created by Regina Pessoa, both a woman animator and a Spaniard. Volunteering for Annecy 2015: A Bénévole (Volunteer)’s Perspective Students get exclusive benefits that normal Festival badge holders don’t. For one day, students are allowed to enter the MIFA. There, they can and the stands, network with the companies and talk to recruiters. This is an immensely important opportunity of which one must take advantage. As an international animation student...
by mtonta20 | Mar 8, 2015 | FILM FESTIVALS
One of the goals filmmakers generally have in making a film is to have it seen by audiences. While platforms such as Youtube or Vimeo are great for public distribution, another way to garner recognition and a great way to get your film out is through Film Festival screenings. Granted most festivals worth entering not only have a submission fee ranging from around $25 to 45 dollars. With limited budget, which festivals are worth submitting to? There are many subjective answers to this question but having a general idea of some of the existing film festivals is usually a goo way to start. This list was compiled from some festivals we have submitted STARLIGHT to, research, and recommendations from other filmmakers. (To see a full list of festivals STARLIGHT has been accepted into and screened at, here is our information on our press page.) The tabs below are sorted into general, global, Atlanta-specific, and FREE (information focused on shorts, especially animation. Features not included). DOWNLOAD FILM FESTIVAL LIST AS PDF We will also be running another article on basic film festival submission guidelines, submission platforms, how to prepare for your Press Kit, benefits of online screener, fees, information and more tips and tricks in another article. *Disclaimer: Please note this list was compiled based on the year 2014 Festivals and as current updated information as possible in 2015 but are still subjected to change. Please do your own further research for your film submission as we claim no authority or liability for any misinformation that may occur from the information in this...
by mtonta20 | Jan 22, 2015 | FILM FESTIVALS, PEOPLE
As it so happens one lazy afternoon as I was browsing my inbox, I was surprised to see an email from Daisy Jacobs and Chris Wilder telling me they’ve read my blog. For those of you who are not familiar with their work, you probably wouldn’t rationalize with my excitement of running around the living room in my pajamas doing this… As an avid stop motion fan, the first time I saw the well deserved Oscar-nominated animated short “The Bigger Picture”, I was captured by the unique technique of blending live size 2.5D and 3D elements. Currently, Daisy and Chris are now in the process of campaigning for their next upcoming larger-than-life animation. As it is, I would like to take a moment to acknowledge and commend the efforts of independent artists. As an artist, I know fully well the efforts that goes into creating your own original pieces. It is a labor of passion and one that is a time investment often with cost involved. While there is still the idea that if art is passion, it should be free but the reality is artists also have to eat, pay rent, and function in the world as any other field of occupation. So to artists that are doing their own thing to carry out their creative vision is always a refreshing site to see and has my support and admiration. Their Next Project Now not much has been revealed about the upcoming animation Daisy and Chris has planned for yet but here are some sneak previews of images and animated gif that is sure to thrill and delight. Just looking at the lovely...
by mtonta20 | Oct 19, 2014 | FILM FESTIVALS
WINNER OF THE FEAST POSTER ANNOUNCEMENT: Congratulations to Win Leerasanthanah for winning this official feast collectible lithograph poster. We will be contacting you soon. Results are generated through the http://www.miniwebtool.com/random-name-picker * For a chance to win a collectible commemorative lithograph copy of The Feast Animated Short poster, scroll to the end of this article. There are times I really love my school for all the extracurricular activities they bring that I feel help to broaden my scope as an animator. Every year, we are encouraged to go to the Animation’s Show of Show featuring a handful of amazing animated shorts selected from over thousands around the world curated by Ron Diamond and hosted at the new SCAD-Atlanta SCAD SHOW theatre. A quick brief for those that don’t know what the Animation Show of Show is, it’s a pretty big deal if you are in the animation field. Ron Diamond,founder and executive producer of Acme filmworks , has traveled across different states since 1998 to screen his top selected animation shorts (a lot of which has ended up as Oscar nominees or winners) at schools and major animation studios including PIXAR, Dreamworks, and more. The Show of Show is free and runs every year so catch it at your nearest location and book yourself a seat by going to their website and checking out the details. This year I found the particular selections to be a bit different from the past two years and there are three animated shorts from big name studios that the audiences were looking forward to including Disney’s Feast (Set to be out with Big Hero 6 Feature Animation), Pixar’s...
by mtonta20 | Sep 19, 2014 | FILM FESTIVALS
Animation Festivals Submissions Tips/ Tricks This article is a part 2 continuation from the article Submitting to Animation Festival pt1: Avoiding Rookie Mistakes. In the last article, we wrote about rookie mistakes to avoid when submitting to an animation festival, this article is focused more on other aspects you might not be aware of that may bog down or help your submission too that goes into a bit more details. Today’s guest post are tips to understanding Animation Film Festival submissions adapted from an interview with our very own talented animator Allyssa Lewis at Floyd County Productions working on Emmy Nominated Best Animated Series and Critics Choice Award Winner 2014 Archer and current Vice President of ASIFA-Atlanta. *Different Festivals may have different ways of judging and criterias. IF YOUR FILM HAS DIALOGUES…YOU MIGHT NOT WANT TO HARDCODE YOUR SUBTITLES While most short animation may avoid the second level of animation complexity by avoiding talking characters or lip syncing altogether, there may be a time you will have to venture into the zone of having text to help out your story or dialogues. In this case, subtitles are very important to how far your animation may go. The two basic languages you should at least have for your animation is at least english and french subtitles. These subtitles should also be at a professional level, otherwise you should not embed them straight onto the animation. Instead, choose to have a transcript or have it closed captioned instead of hard-coded into the animation. This way, if a festival likes your film or wants to send it off to other films, they have the choice to use/not use it....
by mtonta20 | Sep 12, 2014 | FILM FESTIVALS
Animation Festivals Submissions Tips/ Tricks As an animator, there comes a point in your career you might want to consider submitting your work to Film/Animation Festivals but where to begin? While your animation might have top-notched quality animation aesthetics and story, there are many reasons that could stop it from being chosen. Knowing about the rookie mistakes and some tidbits behind how the animated short selection process works from one of the jurors working directly behind the scenes might help you understand better how your film can have a better chance at being picked and give you an advantage over other submissions. Today’s guest post are tips to understanding Animation Film Festival submissions adapted from an interview with our very own talented animator Allyssa Lewis at Floyd County Productions working on Emmy Nominated Best Animated Series and Critics Choice Award Winner 2014 Archer and current Vice President of ASIFA-Atlanta. RESEARCH/ KNOW YOUR SUBMISSION CATEGORY As with most things in life, research is crucial to how successful your submission might be. If you have a film you are submitting to within a category, make sure it’s under the right one. While a film can be more than one thing, try to aim for what it mostly is. A documentary or live-action with a little bouncing animated ball as an additional animation element probably wouldn’t really be considered very strong in an animation category. If it isn’t under the right category, don’t always bank that the person watching your film will help you put it under a more fitting one…they might just find it easier to nix it altogether. Which also leads...
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