News : Archive
Regional animate! Question & Answer sessions
The deadline for submitting a proposal to animate! 2002 is 28 February.
Meanwhile there will be four informal animate! presentation and Question & Answer sessions around the UK. Each event will include a screening of previous commissions together with some affinity work from outside the scheme. These sessions offer an ideal opportunity for film, video and digital artists unfamiliar with the scheme to find out more about the diversity of the 'animate! agenda'.
The venues are:
Glasgow, GMAC (Glasgow Media Access Centre)
Wednesday 13 February, 5 - 7pm
Bradford, National Museum of Photography Film & Television
Monday 11 February, 5.30 - 7.30 pm
Bristol, Watershed Media Centre
Monday 28 January, 2 - 4 pm
London, Whitechapel Art Gallery
Wednesday 30 January, 6 - 8 pm
More information about reserving a place is available in the animate! funding section of this site.
British Animation Awards tour for Public Choice vote
The fourth bi-annual British Animation Awards culminate in an awards evening at the National Film Theatre, London, on 15 March.
Before this event, throughout February, three programmes featuring a selection of new British short animated films, commercials and music videos will screen in London and 16 cities across the UK. Cinema audiences will vote for BAA's Public Choice awards in several categories.
The venues are Birmingham, Brighton, Bristol, Cardiff, Coventry, Croydon, Dundee, Edinburgh, Exeter, Glasgow, Central London, Manchester, Middlesborough, Norwich, Nottingham, Sheffield and Wolverhampton.
Full details of Public Choice programmes and playdates at the BAA website.
The programmes include two recent animate! works, Jonathan Hodgson's Camouflage and Lesley Adams' Postcards of Belief.
animate! 2002 call for entries
Year twelve of the UK-based animate! funding scheme goes live this week.
animate! is now commissioning a new slate of risk-taking projects for television, with running times of 3—6 minutes and production budgets from £5,000 to £30,000.
It is not necessary to be an animator to submit a proposal but applicants must have some experience of the manipulation of imagery in film, video or digital media.
Proposals should be fired by an irresistibly original idea — an idea that can only be realised using frame-by-frame techniques or a re-presentation process. Celluloid, tape and digital technologies are all acceptable, in pure or hybrid form.
Full guidelines and details of how to apply are available at the animate! funding section of this site. Closing date for applications is 28 February.
Channel 4 ends its special relationship with animation
Channel 4 closed its animation department this week, after two decades of customised commissioning of seminal British animation.
During the last three months the Channel has been shedding staff, cutting programming budgets and scaling down its interactive website division, mainly as a result of reduced advertising income. Amongst the latest departures are Camilla Deakin, Editor for Arts & Animation and Ruth Fielding, Assistant Editor, Arts & Animation. As a result it will now be up to larger departments at C4, and no longer an animation department, to commission animation by television genre rather than production technique.
Camilla and Ruth are establishing their own production company Lupus Films and have already been commissioned to produce C4's next two Christmas animation specials. They will also act as external commissioning editors for the Channel's three animation schemes: animate!, Mesh and C4/MOMI Animators in Residence.
C4 will continue to support each of these schemes into the future. animate! is co-funded by the Channel together with the Arts Council of England.
Saturday 29 September 2001
British Animation Awards 2002 call for entries
The fourth bi-annual British Animation Awards will culminate in an awards evening at the National Film Theatre, London, on 15 March 2002.
Entries are now being sought in categories across all aspects of the UK animation scene, from student work to commercials, children's entertainment, short and experimental art films, and new technologies, scenario and craft. There is also a new international section. The BAA awards themselves are one-off artworks of sheep created specially for the occasion by a range of leading international and UK animation artists.
Category information and entry forms (UK and international) are downloadable now from the BAA website; submission deadline 30 November.
Check back for details of the BAA touring programmes which will screen in a dozen UK cities during February, offering cinema audiences the opportunity to vote for Public Choice awards. You can also request email updates about BAA+, an Art & Animation symposium at the Tate Modern Cinema and the National Film Theatre over the weekend of 16-17 March.
Friday 28 September 2001
RESFEST plays in London and Bristol
The NY-based annual travelling festival presents eclectic new shorts, features, music videos and animation. These two UK screenings are part of a 13-city international tour.
During its first four years RESFEST has championed digital technologies but this year the festival is also engaged with original narrative and technique irrespective of production format. British animation on show includes works from Run Wrake, Jonathan Hodgson and Suzie Templeton. Special programmes offer a celebration of recent feature film title sequences, Japan's acclaimed first full-digital animé Blood: The Last Vampire, created by Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell) and Scratch, a documentary history of hip-hop 'turntablism'.
RESFEST is playing in London on 4-6 October, at The Gate and The Ritzy cinemas, and in Bristol on 25-28 October, at Watershed. Full programme information on the festival's website.
The RES Media Group, founded in 1966, has been a leading promoter of the desktop digital filmmaking revolution. Their RES Media Group website provides details of RES Magazine, TV and Radio, plus streamed shorts and music videos.
Thursday 27 September 2001
(Experi)mental Films from Prague screens in Leeds and London
This season of experimental films out of Prague focuses on the independent and individual character of filmmaking.
Programmes include an archive showcase of innovative films from the 20s and 30s which critically influenced the development of classical avant-garde cinema, the work of young independent directors who experimented during the 90s with physical manipulation of film, other recent experimental shorts from the Czech Republic, and the first UK performance by the film action and expanded cinema group Ultra.
The season runs 2-4 October at the Leeds International Film Festival and 4-6 October at The Lux cinema in London.
Wednesday 26 September 2001
New onedotzero series on Channel 4
The digital film festival returns to Channel 4 this week with a new 12-part series, presenting the festival's distinctive cool take on future developments in world-wide motion graphics, together with new onedotzero digital commissions.
onedottv_global starts at 1.10am on Thursday 27 September and continues every Thursday night until December. Full details of the international artists featured in each episode, "mould-breaking hybrid creatives influenced by graphic, club and vj cultures", at the onedotzero website.
Meanwhile the onedotzero5 festival that premiered at London's Institute of Contemporary Arts in May is on UK tour. This weekend a section plays during the Leeds International Film Festival. Other upcoming venues, including Bristol, Norwich, Nottingham, Manchester, Sheffield, Newcastle and Glasgow, are listed on the onedotzero website.
Wednesday 26 September 2001
Robert Abel, computer graphics pioneer, dies
One of the leading figures in the development of computer graphics and movie visual effects died on 23 September in Los Angeles.
Robert Abel, born in 1937, was studying engineering at UCLA when he developed with John Whitney Sr the computer technology used to create the "slit-scan" technique, source of the Star Gate sequence in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). After ten years making award-winning documentaries, he set up his own company Robert Abel and Associates in 1971, initially to explore vector graphics. He and his team played a key role in inventing the motion control camera and motion capture, and in developing the raster graphics that birthed 3D computer graphics as we know them today.
The company's pioneering work appeared in the feature Tron (1982), music videos for Mick Jagger and Elvis Costello, and in a high-profile output of North American multi-award-winning 3D CGI commercials which, observed New York's Museum of Modern Art, "changed television forever".
Thursday 20 September 2001
Flickerfest 2002 call for entries
Australia's leading short-film festival is held on Bondi Beach, Sydney.
The 11th edition takes place 4-12 January 2002. Fiction and animation entries are being sought for the international competitive section, up to 30 minutes running time, on 35mm or 16mm. Submission and payment of the $30AUD entry fee can be made at Flickerfest's website, deadline 1 October.
In order to be eligible for the international competition, entries must participate in a subsequent tour of the Festival around Australia. $20AUD is paid per venue; prints are tied up until late March.
Flickerfest 2002 is also introducing Australia's inaugural online festival. Preferred entry formats are DigiBeta or BetaSP, with a maximum running time of 7 minutes.
Saturday 15 September 2001
BAFTA Awards 2002 call for entries
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts will be accepting short-film entries to the BAFTA Awards 2002 from 24 September.
Rules and entry and payment forms for the Short Film and Short Animation categories are downloadable now from BAFTA's website; submission deadline is 31 October, fee £30 per film. The Academy now accepts productions which are non-film originated or use hybrid techniques, but entries must be available on 35mm or 16mm film or DigiBeta.
The Awards customarily reflect a popular view of short film and animation. However animateonline.org has long been curious about the membership of a remarkable jury in 1991 that gave the BAFTA Award for Animation to Andrew McEwan's very remarkable but very wild Toxic (1990).
Tuesday 11 September 2001
Without A Box offers simplified festival submission service via internet
A new internet-based service Without A Box went live on 5 September, aimed at streamlining a single submission route to multiple film festivals.
Filmmakers in the UK have been well looked after by the British Council's Film & Television Department but still have to fill out different entry forms for each target festival. Those of you who know the small production team behind animateonline.org will have heard one of us mutter for years about the need for the blindingly obvious — one universal 'world standard' festival entry form. This is effectively what Without A Box is creating, and much more.
After a one-off registration in Without A Box's database, a film can be instantly submitted to Sundance, Toronto and many other North American festivals, plus Edinburgh. The company plans to service festivals around the world, process credit card payment of their submission fees, and eventually supply them with downloadable digital stills, press kit and an internet-streamed viewing copy of each title. Without A Box does not handle screening prints.
At the moment registration is free. animateonline.org is very keen to hear about experiences of the service. We have also asked the British Council and Lux Distribution for their assessment.
Saturday 8 September 2001
Hedwig and the Angry Inch... and animation
John Cameron Mitchell's trash-glam-rock musical feature Hedwig and the Angry Inch, audience award winner at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival, is now on UK release.
Woven into the energetic tale of a transsexual singer's traumatic quest for her 'other half' are segments of highly idiosyncratic animation by Emily Hubley. She is interviewed on New Line Productions website about her work on Hedwig.
There is more information about Emily, her own films and her animating parents John & Faith Hubley on the MoMA NY website, amongst many others.
Friday 7 September 2001
Lovebytes offers digital media commissions
Lovebytes is the digital arts commissioning agency and annual festival in Sheffield, UK.
Submissions are being sought for the development and production of new media artwork in a range of areas including digital film, animation, interactivity and multimedia installation. The agency is keen to support emerging talent and the production and distribution of engaging, provocative new work.
Guidelines and application forms for commissions are downloadable now; closing date is 21 September 2001. The Lovebytes site also includes excellent links to other digital artwork websites.
Lovebytes is working with Yorkshire Media Production Agency as the New Media Department within the Studio of the North (SON). The next Lovebytes festival takes place 14-17 March 2002.
Thursday 6 September 2001
Potent Print at St Luke's
Next week the radical London agency St Luke's begins Think Print, a series of public talks in praise of print as an advertising medium.
Top-name speakers have been invited to talk about their thought-provoking, conceptual work in graphic design, photography and fine art. They include Stefan Sagmeister, Barbara Kruger, Norbert Schoener and David Shrigley.
Entry is by invite only but limited additional tickets are available via khandley@stlukes.co.uk.
Thursday 6 September 2001
The elusive Hy Hirsh is revived by iotaCenter
The remarkable experimental films of American Hy Hirsh (1911-1961) are largely unseen.
Hirsh started as a camera operator and advertising photographer, then in the early '50s began to make his own abstract animation through an inventive range of techniques and apparatus, including oil wipe machines, oscilloscopes, stereoscopy and Beat jazz. He moved to Europe and continued this experimentation until he died of a heart attack in Paris in 1961.
Much of his work has disappeared. Many of the surviving films had been (re)edited by him for presentation as 'happenings', with live sound. Now the iotaCenter organisation in Los Angeles is piecing together material about Hirsh and his work.
The main website of the iota community, "dedicated to the art of light and movement", details their latest Kinetica 3 North American touring programme which includes newly-preserved Hirsh titles.
Monday 3 September 2001
Animac festival, Lleida, call for entries
Animac, the annual International Animation Festival in Leida, Catalan, Spain, presents a non-competitive mix of popular and more experimental animation.
Entries are now being sought for the 6th edition taking place 7-10 February 2002. Submission forms are available from the Animac website; entry deadline 31 October.
Festival Director Carolina L?pez took her BA Animation at Surrey Institute of Art & Design. The most recent Animac festival earlier this year included a retrospective of animate! works.
Thursday 30 August 2001
DepicT! Competition 2001 seeks animated micro-entries
DepicT!, organised by the annual Brief Encounters International Short Film Festival in Bristol, offers a £3,000 prize for the best live-action micro-movie, of up to 90 seconds.
This year there will be a new, similar award for international animated entries. The £3,000 animation prize is sponsored by Global Rights Inc, a division of Sony. Winning criteria (other than a maximum 90 seconds!) remain to be revealed; previous shortlisted live-action entries have been thoughtfully and tightly formed.
Entries must be submitted by 21 September, on VHS or as a Quicktime movie or MPEG file via CD or email. Details and entry form from the DepicT! website. The 7th Brief Encounters festival takes place 14-18 November 2001.
Provisional dates for the 3rd Animated Encounters festival in Bristol, produced by the same team, are set for 25-28 April 2002.
Wednesday 29 August 2001
AtomShockwave.com reforms as two separate websites
The troubled merger that created AtomShockwave.com relaunched last week, returning to separate websites AtomFilms.com and Shockwave.com.
The sites have been overhauled and made 'searchable'. Their revised navigation is a distinct improvement upon the bloated muddle that was the AtomShockwave site, but persistence is still needed to discover the smattering of innovative and experimental work that lurks beneath the interface.
The move hopes to quell rumours that the company is about to join the long list of dot.com disasters. Nonetheless, the corporate source of some 70% of AtomShockwave's revenue stream is a salutary reflection upon initial models of the internet as an alternative film distribution channel.
Wednesday 29 August 2001
San Francisco Film Festival call for entries
The annual San Francisco International Film Festival pursues trends in international film and video production with an emphasis on work which has not yet secured U.S. distribution.
Animation is included in the independent short Film and Video section. There is also a New Visions section for experimental works that challenge the language of film and video. An international jury decides the Golden Gate Awards. Entry deadline is 30 November 2001; an application form can be downloaded from the festival website.
The 45th festival, organised by the San Francisco Film Society, will run 18 April — 2 May 2002.
Friday 24 August 2001
Art & Animation Conference to join British Animation Awards
The awards evening of the fourth bi-annual British Animation Awards will be held in London in March next year.
As before, BAA will include a wide range of categories from Best Comedy Series through commercials and craft awards to Best Film at the Cutting Edge and Most Creative Use of New Technologies/New Media. And once again, travelling programmes around the UK during February will offer cinema audiences the opportunity to vote for Public Choice awards.
The British Animation Awards evening will be complemented over the same weekend by a 2-day conference on Art & Animation at Tate Modern and the National Film Theatre. This follows the success of a similar event at London's ICA in 1999, also organised by BAA Director Jayne Pilling.
More information here shortly about these events, plus the address of the upcoming BAA website for entry details.
Tuesday 21 August 2001
British Council overseas festival service
The British Council's Film and Television Department promotes British films to audiences outside the UK.
As a key part of this work the Department views and selects submitted films and makes recommendations to festivals around the world. Filmmakers have to complete festival entry forms but the Department then looks after the handling and shipment of forms, tapes and film prints as a free service.
A film submission form is now downloadable from the British Council website, to be returned with a video for the Department's consideration.
Thursday 16 August 2001
Camouflage wins UNICEF prize at World Animation Celebration
Jonathan Hodgson's just-completed animate! film Camouflage won the UNICEF prize last weekend at this year's World Animation Celebration in Hollywood.
UNICEF commissions and works with animation around the world. Their prize was awarded to Jonathan's film for its exceptional artistic portrayal of children confronting disability, in this case schizophrenia, within the family.
Of the overall awards for best short film at the World Animation Celebration, three of the four winners were British.
Tuesday 14 August 2001
Daniel Langlois Foundation offers Grants for Researchers in Residence
The Montreal-based Daniel Langlois Foundation for Art, Science and Technology is offering grants for two 3-6 month residencies.
The grants will enable researchers to work in its collections at the Centre for Research and Documentation. Topics are: technological, artistic and aesthetic history of computer animation; conceptual, scientific and artistic issues involved in preserving digital artworks or works with digital components.
This new international competition is open to historians, curators, critics, independent researchers, artists and scientists in various fields, including computer science. The cost of moving to Montreal, plus living expenses, will be paid in addition to the grant.
Details of this and other funded projects from the Foundation's website; applications must be postmarked no later than 31 August.
Friday 10 August 2001
Kötting's Quest at FAN 2001, Norwich
Andrew Kötting, director of the award-winning live-action feature Gallivant as well as numerous short films, will talk on 28 October at the close of this year's International Animation Festival in Norwich.
In a session arranged by animate! he will discuss what drives his work — including his adventures into animation — and show extracts from his own films and others that have inspired him. The programme will include his digital animate! work Kingdom Protista, which puts 'orifice politics' under the microscope.
Andrew's filmography and a background to the talk are available on the festival website. His second feature film This Filthy Earth is scheduled for an autumn release.
Friday 10 August 2001
Ann Course & Paul Clark animation at The Lux Gallery, London
Ann and Paul are currently in pre-production on their animate! 2001 commission Rotting Artist.
Their previous animation works are being screened non-stop throughout the New England exhibition which opened today at The Lux Gallery, a part of The Lux Centre in Hoxton. Ann's drawings are also presented in the show, together with a couple of sculptures and a neon work entitled Mother Sleeping Bag.
The New England exhibition, admission free, runs until 9 September.
Thursday 9 August 2001
S4C seeks animation proposals
The Welsh broadcaster is again inviting animation submissions from emerging talent and qualified professionals.
S4C is looking for well thought out, innovative ideas and use of the medium. Categories for funding consideration range from 10-second stings (budget £1k) to 6-minute shorts (budget £69k). Proposal requirements are very straightforward, but applicants must have lived in, worked in, been educated in or been born in Wales. The deadline for applications is 31 October.
Animated Shorts 2002 is supported by S4C, Sgrîn and the Arts Council of Wales. More details from Huw Rowlands at S4C (029) 2074 1279.
Tuesday 7 August 2001
Animation at BFM International Film Festival 2001, London
The third Black Filmmaker International Film Festival, the largest UK event of its kind, is taking place 7—18 September.
The notion of black animation is the subject of two seminars at The Lux Centre on 12 and 13 September. Panellists plus film screenings will examine the aesthetics, forms, practices, paradoxes and cultural potential of work by animators from the black diaspora. Seminars will be lead by Lesley Adams, Senior Lecturer in Animation at SIAD, and panellists include animate!-makers Keith Piper and Run Wrake plus Dick Arnall, producer of the animate! scheme. The sessions conclude with a preview of Cardiff animator Tony Johnson's hour-long Fallen Angel.
The BFM Festival offers a large number of premieres, including Spike Lee's The Huey P. Newton Story, and the presentation of a Lifetime Achievement Award to Harry Belafonte. Full details from BFM Magazine.
Tuesday 7 August 2001
Mesh call for entries
Proposals are now being sought for the second year of Channel 4's digital animation scheme.
Eight directors will be shortlisted to develop their ideas then, after a series of masterclasses and workshops, four will be selected to go into production. The scheme has a strong emphasis on storytelling skills, for story-driven animated shorts or interactive fiction on the web.
The scheme is open to animators, gamers, DIY's and designers, working in 2D, 3D or animation combined with digital filming. Application forms, available from the Mesh website, must be returned by 28 September.
Friday 3 August 2001
Latest Directory of International Film & Video Festivals published
The British Council Films & Television Department has just published the 2001-02 edition of their reference guide to international festivals.
The Directory lists over 500 international film, television and video festivals, giving details on how and when to enter. Listings do not critique the events but nonetheless the guide is an invaluable starting-point for checking and accessing the festival circuit.
This year the 'paper' spiral-bound version of the guide is available free. An order form is downloadable via the British Council's www.britfilms.com website, to be returned with a self-addressed A5 padded envelope and 96p first-class stamp (or 76p second-class). Phone (020) 7389 3065 if you need more details.
The same website carries a searchable database version of the Directory but this has not yet been updated to the 2001-02 edition.
Thursday 2 August 2001
New Technology Arts Fellowship call for proposals
Three Cambridge-based partners, Crucible (Cambridge University Network for Research in Interdisciplinary Design), Kettle's Yard (exhibition gallery) and The Junction (performing arts venue), are developing a New Technology Arts Fellowship Scheme to begin January 2002.
They are seeking artists who wish to explore new and exciting ways of engaging with their audiences through interactive artwork. Applicants should have a track record in producing work based on information and communications technologies, and an interest in exploring interactivity in direct partnership with technologists and digital research laboratories.
Up to three artists will be selected for the first phase of the scheme. Full details are downloadable now; applications must be received by 24 September.
Thursday 26 July 2001
Peter Dougherty leaves MTV
Peter Dougherty has quit as creative director of MTV Networks Europe.
Peter worked at the channel for 20 years, the longest-serving staff member ever. During that time he developed the channel's vibrant profile with imaginative commissioning from a great number of animation artists, for idents and stings and through regular short-film competitions. The MTV logo suffered ongoing graphic abuse that was bold, witty, pioneering and ultimately legendary.
animate!-makers who contributed included Stuart Hilton and Run Wrake. Run went on to play a key creative role in the launch-branding of MTV2.
Tuesday 10 July 2001
Latest AnimationUK Directory published
The 2001 edition of this unique resource book is now available.
It features comprehensive listings of animators, production companies, suppliers and specialist contacts throughout the UK. Although primarily for the mainstream animation industry, it takes a wide-ish view of the form and includes very thorough details of training and college courses.
Produced by Venue Publishing (in association with BECTU), phone (0117) 942 8491. Copies cost £20 (£10 for students) plus £2 p&p.
Monday 2 July 2001
They Shoot Animators, Don't They?
Chrysalis TV are staging an animation marathon competition, for broadcast on Channel 4's Animation Zone this autumn.
6 animators will be locked together in a room for a sleepless 72 hours to create a 1-3 minute animation short, in any technique. The completed films will be voted on by visitors to C4's website and the winning animator will be awarded a holiday and cash prize.
To take part, you must be 16 or over and free to animate non-stop between 10-13 August. The entry deadline is 15 July; Chrysalis will need to see examples of previous work. Full details at the Channel 4 website.
Friday 29 June 2001
FAN 2001, Norwich, call for entries
This year's International Animation Festival in Norwich takes place 25-28 October, at Cinema City.
The deadline for entries in the competitive section (with an international jury) is 30 June. Application forms are available from the festival website.
Festival programmes will include retrospectives (Alison de Vere, East Anglia Film Archive, etc) and talks, Manga and other contemporary Japanese animation (including one of the very first UK screenings of Princess Mononoke by Hayao Miyazaki), European round-ups plus the latest from onedotzero — and the Vision Bar where all submissions can be viewed.
Wednesday 13 June 2001
Charting 2D animation and beyond
An overview of contemporary world-class 'drawn' animation 2D and Beyond, written by Jayne Pilling, was published on 3 June by Rotovision.
The book explores the diverse creative processes of leading 'auteur' animators ranging from Simon Pummell to Lejf Marcussen, via Wendy Tilby, Igor Kovalyov and a dozen others. The emphasis is on drawn 2D animated shorts but the text, illustrated with 1,200 images, also maps an inexorable meld into 3D and digital techniques.
Insightful, vibrant, textured, deeply researched and intelligent, and lavishly even breathtakingly luscious, we rate it indispensable. ISBN 2-88046-445-5. List price £22.50.
Jayne Pilling is one the UK's few specialist writers on (and programmers of) animation, as well as being Director of the British Animation Awards. Her new book is the first to be published in a forthcoming series Animation, from Rotovision.
Friday 1 June 2001
Channel 4 announces autumn Animation Zone
The next C4 animation season will be stripped across 6 weeks in the Channel's late-autumn schedules, on the same weekday night every week, for approximately 2 hours per week.
Much of it will air new comedy animation and sitcom pilots (with an emphasis on writing as well as animation talent), but there will also be documentary strands and one-off specials plus premieres of new short films including the latest slate of animate! works.
The Channel is interested in buying in a limited number of short animations ('film' or flash) for the season. Themes being sought are sci-fi, popular music, Japan or multi-cultural. Acquisitions deadline 10 August.
Interactivity with channel4.com will play a lively part in the Animation Zone. Check out C4's new animation page, submit flash animation for acquisition consideration, or enter the flash competition, at the Channel 4 website.
Tuesday 29 May 2001
Resfest call for entries
The five-year old travelling festival of innovative digital filmmaking opens this year on 6 September in San Francisco.
Resfest 2001 will then play in New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago, London, Montreal, Seoul and Tokyo. Last year Tim MacMillan's animate! film Ferment toured the world in the festival programme.
Entries and preview tapes, of shorts, features, music videos and animation, must be postmarked 15 June. Details from the festival website.
Wednesday 16 May 2001
New York Animation Festival entry deadline extended
The 2001 New York Animation Festival focuses on independently produced short works "for an adult audience" and especially seeks experimental and student entries.
The entry deadline has been extended to 29 May 2001. You can submit an application form and pay the $30 ($20 for students) entry fee online at the festival website.
The event is co-funded by the New York Foundation for the Arts and takes place 14-20 September 2001.
Wednesday 9 May 2001
Hotel Central wins at Mediawave 2001
The Best Experimental Film Award at Mediawave International Festival of Visual Arts this month in Györ, Hungary, went to Matt Hulse's animate! film. Check into Hotel Central for a relax "somewhere between Les Vacances de M. Hulot and The Exorcist".
Also shortlisted in the same competition was Paul Bush's Furniture Poetry.
Earlier this year the director of the Rotterdam International Film Festival, Simon Field, nominated Hotel Central as his favourite film of the festival.
Saturday 28 April 2001
Feeling My Way in cinemas with reality-TV satire
Jonathan Hodgson's 1998 animate! film is screening in June at The Ritzy in Brixton, London and The Cameo in Edinburgh, accompanying Series 7: The Contenders.
This new feature by Daniel Minahan, co-writer of I Shot Andy Warhol, centres on a TV show that provides guns for six lucky contestants and a grand prize for the last person left alive. Star lead is Brooke Smith.
Feeling My Way won the 1998 British Animation Awards prize for Most Creative Use of New Technology. Jonathan is in the final stages of his second animate! project Camouflage.
Sunday 22 April 2001
Postcards of Belief double-exposure in Finland
This newly-completed animate! film received an Honourable Mention today in the international short film competition at KynnysKINO ('Threshold Cinema'). The Finnish festival presents alternative views of disability.
Lesley Adams made Postcards of Belief as a response to the effects on her body and mind of living with long-term physical pain. Narration is by Harriet Walter.
The film has now been invited to another Finnish event, The Pain Festival, in May. This is organised by Eucrea (European Association for Creativity by and with Disabled Persons) at Kiasma, the new Museum of Contemporary Art in the centre of Helsinki.
Friday 6 April 2001
5 new commissions in 2001
animate!'s latest commissioning round attracted 96 applications. Competition was without doubt the strongest in the history of the scheme. Five new projects have been chosen to share the production funding provided by the Arts Council of England and Channel 4 Television.
The animate!-makers are Ann Course & Paul Clark, Ruth Lingford, Rosie Pedlow, Dan Saul and Chris Shepherd.
Their projects will be completed in summer 2002 for transmission by Channel 4 in the autumn.
The selection team was:
Ben Cook (co-director, The Lux Centre)
Sarah Cox (animate!-maker, Picasso Pictures)
Gareth Evans (writer on contemporary arts, Time Out etc, and film programmer)
Richard Kenworthy (animator, Shynola)
Camilla Deakin (Editor Art & Animation, Channel 4 Television)
Gary Thomas (Visual Arts Officer, Artists' Film & Video, Arts Council of England)
Dick Arnall (Scheme Producer, Finetake)
Wednesday 4 April 2001:
animate! news now online...