A sold-out ByTowne Cinema screened local animator David Cooper’s music video alongside other films at the Ottawa International Animation Festival last night.

His video was showcased alongside other films for the commissioned animated competition, including promotional work, music videos and adult television animation.

“This festival carries a lot of weight with animation industry people,” he says. “It can only help to have a film in competition here.”

The festival chose 99 films to compete out of 2,185 entries this year.

Full story from Centretown News: Music video showcased at animation festival

The Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF) comes to an end with the highly anticipated closing ceremonies held this evening at the Museum of Civilization in Gatineau. Organizers announced the winners of the official competition during the ceremonies.

This year’s event, held October 14-18, was a tremendous success with packed screenings, sold out workshops, high profile networking events such as the Television Animation Conference and the Recruiting Fair. The Festival is a major international film event that attracts 1500 industry pass holders from across Canada and around the world with a total attendance of over 25,000. Although the final numbers are not officially in, there are strong indications that this year’s Festival reached the highest attendance to date.

The 2009 international jury for Short Program, Student and Commissioned Films include: Amid Amidi (USA), Jim Blashfield (USA) and Suzan Pitt (USA). The international jury for Feature Film Competition include: Thomas Meyer-Hermann (Germany), Christa Moesker (Netherlands) and Marie-Josée Saint-Pierre (Canada).

The Festival has a special jury made up of local kids to select the Best Short Animation Made for Children and the Best Television Animation Made for Children. This year’s kids jury included: Tallie Doyle, Tegwyn Hughes, Jamie McCormick, Felipe Bemfica, Isabelle Birchall, Aditya Mohan, Paris Mullin, Quinn Murphy and Eric Ding.

 Full story: Ottawa festival winners announced

Mary and Max, directed by Australia’s Adam Elliot, took home the grand prize for best animated feature at the Ottawa International Animation Festival last night.

Kaasündinud Kohustused (Inherent Obligations) by Rao Heidmets of Estonia took home the grand prize for best independent short animation.

The 33rd annual festival featured 93 short films and seven features in competition and 58 in the international showcase, attracting a record 27,000 people, said festival spokeswoman Lindsay Wellwood. The festival had three local entries, including Nick Cross and Dave Cooper, who did a video for Danko Jones called King of Magazines, and Canterbury High School student Benjamin Woodyard.

Source: Metro Ottawa online: Animation fest wraps up 33rd year

More than 150 animated films — from as short as 10 seconds in length to this year’s record crop of feature-length entries — will be screened between today and Sunday evening. Ninety-nine of those films will be in official competition, and 58 others will be showcased outside the competition.

It’s all turning into the biggest year to date in the 33-year history of the Ottawa International Animation Festival, which can say without hyperbole that it attracts the best of the world’s animation, and some of its biggest hitters as guest speakers.

This year’s speakers include Henry Selick, director of Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach, who will talk about his 2009 hit Coraline. Story supervisor Ronnie del Carmen will talk about the making of another big animated hit this year, Pixar’s Up!, and David Silverman will talk about directing The Simpsons Movie and 22 episodes of The Simpsons on TV.

Full preview available on Peter’s The Big Beat blog: Here’s what you’ll see at the animation festival

The festival features the competition of animated films, including short films, PSAs, commercials and feature films. Approximately 100 films are selected from 1,000 entries from all over the world each year, says Kelly Neall, managing director of the festival. It also allows animation professionals and fans to get together and network.

More students groups are expected to boost attendance, says Neall. Groups from all over North America have time to organize and are expected to come out, she says. When the festival was held in September, schools did not have time to prepare, she says.

More than 1,500 people have signed up for passes this year and the festival expects to break the attendance record from last year, says Neall. People attend because the festival is one of the largest animation festivals in the world, she says.

Full story at centretownnewsonline.ca: Animation Festival expects large crowds

From the new Wallace and Gromit movie to a new film by The Cat Came Back creator Cordell Barker and appearances by The Simpsons Movie director David Silverman, Up’s Ronnie del Carmen and Coraline director Henry Selick, the Ottawa International Animation Festival has “some pretty heavy stars in animation” here this year, said artistic director Chris Robinson.

The 33rd annual festival, which kicked off Wednesday and runs through Sunday, has “taken over downtown” with screenings at the Bytown, the Arts Court, the Canadian Museum of Civilization, the National Gallery of Canada and the Empire Theatre, said Robinson.

With so many film choices – 99 in competition and 40 in the international showcase – and lectures, workshops and networking opportunities for those in the industry, Ottawans have a lot to choose from.

Read the full preview on Metro Ottawa online: Animation buffet

Three short films from the Chinese mainland were selected for competition at the Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF) which opened here on Wednesday.

“We are very exited to have Lei Lei, a Chinese animator here with three films in competition,” the OIAF’s managing director Kelly Neall told Xinhua in an interview at the opening ceremony in downtown Ottawa.

The three Chinese entries — “Magic Cube and Ping-Pong,” “Pears or Aliens” and “The Universe Cotton” — are all from Lei Lei, a 23-year-old up-and-coming multimedia animator, who graduated from Tsinghua University in 2007.

Full story: Chinese films selected for competition at Canadian animation festival

The Ottawa International Animation Festival is the largest festival of its kind in North America and one of the most respected animation festivals in the world. We are a competitive film festival, featuring cutting edge programming, catering to industry executives, trend setting artists, students, and animation fans. Events at the OIAF include screening, panels and workshops. All events are open to the public.

Festival Information:

General information: 613.232.8769 
General information email: info@animationfestival.ca
Location: Various locations throughout the city, including the Museum of Civilization, National Gallery, Arts Court – Club SAW, etc.

On the Web:

Website: www.animationfestival.ca

Map:

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This week the Ottawa International Animation Festival will celebrate its 33rd year. No that wasn’t a typo. The Animation Festival has been around for more than three decades. In that time it has cemented itself as one of the premier animation festivals on the planet [We here at Apt. 613 cannot comment on what goes on in other solar systems]. Animators from around the world can point out Ottawa on a map because they know that the festival has always been on the cutting edge for their field. In short, the Ottawa International Animation Festival is the place to be if you want to know what exciting directions all forms of animation are headed in the next few years. We should be proud that animators look up to this event to check the collective pulse of their industry. There is no better way to show that pride than to check out some of the best films the festival has to offer.

This year the Animation Festival will run from Wednesday Oct. 14 to Sunday Oct. 18. Over the course of those five days 93 short films and seven feature films will be screened for competition. These films were hand picked from 2,185 different entries over the course of the past year. There will be an additional 58 films (out of competition) that are meant to showcase Canadian talent. The festival also hosts many different workshops and keynote speeches by industry leaders. Spaces for these events are limited for the general public, however, because they are really meant for animation insiders.

Read the full post on Apt. 613: The 2009 Ottawa International Animation Festival

The Ottawa International Animation Festival is right around the corner (Oct. 14 – 18), and this year we’ve got 9 films screening, 3 of which are in official competition.

» View trailers for the 9 NFB screenings: 9 films at the Ottawa International Animation Festival