One World Film Festival is an annual event showcasing outstanding and inspirational films and videos about our world. The festival is a platform for filmmakers and the public to exchange ideas and information about issues of social justice, human rights and the environment.

This years festival will be running October 15, 23, 29 and 30th.

Festival Information:

General information: 613.238.4659
General information email: wiam@wiam.ca

On the Web:

Website: www.wiam.ca

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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Thursday, October 15th
Library and Archives Canada, 395 Wellington Street, Ottawa
Doors open at 5:30 pm. Film starts at 6:00 pm.

Admission for the full evening of three films and speakers is $12.00/$10.00 for students. See Festival line-up: wiam.ca/downloads/OWFF_Program2009.pdf

Us Now takes a look at how internet communities could transform the way that countries are governed. It tells the stories of the online networks whose radical self-organizing structures threaten the fabric of government forever. ForeignPolicyCamp is an innovative unconference conference that is using social media tools to get Canadians to rethink Canada’s role in the world.

For more information contact:
Jolynn Sommervill: jolynn@wiam.ca
Micheline Shoebridge: michelines@magma.ca
WIAM office: 613-238-4659
www.wiam.ca

Go to the One World Film Festival blog to download the program.

OFFICIAL COMPETITION (NARRATIVE CATEGORY)

Cordell Barker’s Runaway, the Winnipeg-based filmmaker’s highly anticipated third collaboration with the NFB, is a provocative, hilarious follow-up to his zany Oscar-nominated The Cat Came Back (1988) and Strange Invaders (2001). In Runaway, Barker takes a hard look at reality and asks sardonically: What would happen if the world were a driverless train thundering recklessly over bumpy tracks? Produced by Michael Scott and Derek Mazur for the NFB, the film’s wild ride careens to music by Benoît Charest, whose score for The Triplets of Belleville contributed to that film’s frantic rhythm.

Runaway rolls into Ottawa after stops at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Petit Rail d’Or for Best Short, and the Annecy International Animation Festival, which granted the film a Special Jury Prize. The film’s elaborate website, complete with making-of features, is at nfb.ca/runaway.

In Bruce Alcock’s bittersweet Vive la Rose, an ancient chanson performed by the late Newfoundland musician Émile Benoit is brought to life with melancholic passion. A woman dies in the film and a simple man devastated by loss sings to her in a last farewell. Co-produced by Tina Ouellette (Global Mechanic) and Annette Clarke and Michael Fukushima (NFB), Alcock’s first NFB collaboration is a spectacular animation filmed on location, with available light, in Newfoundland. Fishhooks, shells, driftwood, and rocks lend the mixed-media short an unusual texture. The film uses a unique visual triptych design to amplify the song’s emotions while honouring land, sea, and the harsh lives of local fishermen. To watch the trailer, visit nfb.ca/vivelarose.

In Phillip Eddolls’ Git Gob, produced by the NFB’s Michael Fukushima and associate produced by Maral Mohammadian within the Hothouse 5 program for emerging animators, two creatures ponder the meaning of a hole. The fuzzy, brightly coloured humanoids have different points of view. Their debate leads to an idea that changes the world. This is a story of practical magic, whimsy with a cosmic conclusion.

IN THE CANADIAN SHOWCASE

Chris Landreth’s The Spine, the director’s eagerly awaited follow-up to his groundbreaking, Oscar-winning Ryan (2004), amazed spectators at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival and was named Best of the Festival at Melbourne’s animation event. Like Ryan, Landreth’s depiction of a fallen NFB animator, The Spine raises the bar on the ability of digital animation to probe deeply into human emotions, merging realism with surrealism in the director’s trademark “psychorealist” style. A National Film Board of Canada production in Association with Copperheart Animation and C.O.R.E. Digital Pictures, the film is a strangely beautiful and highly original look at a man and a woman trapped in a spiral of mutual destruction after 26 years of marriage. The NFB’s Marcy Page produced this poignant, bravely honest story with Copperheart’s Steve Hoban and Mark Smith. The production also benefited from the creative participation of Autodesk Canada CO. and Seneca College School of Communication Arts. The Spine website at nfb.ca/thespine includes Chris Landreth’s entertaining blog.

Like the competing film Git Gob, Brandon Blommaert’s Batmilk and Neely Goniodsky’s Pearl are shorts from the NFB’s Hothouse 5 series, both produced by Michael Fukushima and associate produced by Maral Mohammadian.

Batmilk is a comically macabre film about an oafish ghoul who faces ruin when his soft exposed brain is unexpectedly killed. A bizarre form of predatory behaviour feeds the ghoul with new life. Entirely different in mood and animation style, Pearl is a tender film about longing and memory in the aged. A lonely old lady sits in an empty room, knitting. As her thoughts wander, her dreams take the shape of fanciful knitted creatures and objects that cocoon her in a pattern of wonder and comfort.

Cédric Louis and Claude Barras’ Land of the Heads swoops into Ottawa with dark, dense, and funny images reminiscent of Tim Burton’s expressionist animation. Parodying classic horror films, the film is a ghoulishly funny children’s story about a vampire forced to go out every night to separate kids from their heads. Why? His vain, domineering wife wants to replace her wrinkled head with a young and pretty one. Land of the Heads was coproduced by Michael Fukushima (NFB) and Claude Barras (Hélium Films).

Commissioned by the NFB for the Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards Foundation, Howie Shia’s Peggy Baker Four Phrases is a brief animated documentary that blends spare live-action with swirling animation to depict Canadian dance legend Peggy Baker’s view of the intersection between her art and life. Produced by Michael Fukushima (NFB), the film was created to celebrate Baker at the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award gala.

In Inés Sedan’s accomplished first film, The Man who Slept, a young woman gazes lovingly at her husband, who sleeps day and night. But the slumbering body is only a memory, one that becomes increasingly oppressive. This vibrantly textured animated film is a work about resilience. It takes us on a journey through darkness toward a new awakening. The Man who Slept was coproduced by Ron Dyens and Aurélia Prévieu (Sacrebleu Productions, France), Marcel Jean and Galilé Marion-Gauvin (L’Unité centrale), and Marc Bertrand (NFB).

SPECIAL PROGRAM OF RARE NFB FILMS

Presented by the NFB and curated by the OIAF, a Rarities Program of twelve intriguing, but seldom seen animated shorts from deep within the Film Board’s archives will celebrate its 70th anniversary of producing acclaimed films. OIAF audiences will have the opportunity to see Guy Glover’s Lining the Blues (1939) Jim McKay’s Bid it Up Sucker (1944), George Dunning’s Cadet Rouselle (1947), Colin Low’s The Romance of Transportation in Canada (1952), Gerald Potterton’s My Financial Career (1962), Eliot Noyes’ Alphabet (1966), Yvon Mallette’s Boomsville (1968), George Geertsen’s Klondike Gold (1980), Donald McWilliams’ Aloud/Bagatelle (1983), John Weldon’s The Lump (1991), Anita Lebeau’s Louise (2003), and Paul Morstad’s Walking Catfish Blues (2004).
About the NFB

Canada’s public film producer and distributor, the National Film Board of Canada creates social-issue documentaries, auteur animation, alternative drama and digital content that provide the world with a unique Canadian perspective. In collaboration with its international partners and co-producers, the NFB is expanding the vocabulary of 21st-century cinema and breaking new ground in form and content, through community filmmaking projects, cross-platform media, interactive cinema, stereoscopic animation – and more. Since the NFB’s founding in 1939, it has created over 13,000 productions and won over 5,000 awards, including 12 Oscars and more than 90 Genies. In 2009, the works of NFB animation pioneer Norman McLaren were added to UNESCO’s Memory of the World Registry. The NFB’s new website features over 1,000 productions online – visit NFB.ca and start watching.

                        OCTOBER 2ND – 4TH  IN HINTONBURG!    

World Inter-Action Mondiale (WIAM) is pleased to announce the launch of Awesome Indies Urban Arts Festival for Youth.  All events, performances and workshops will take place October 2^nd -4^th in Hintonburg at Patrick John Mills Gallery and the Hintonburg Community Centre.   The festival wiil include the following events: 

•  Urban Scrawl

 Urban Scrawl will include public presentations of laser art, how-to workshops in laser-tag, LED Throwies and scratch animation. The program  is designed to allow artists to display their work live to the public and offer youth participants an opportunity to experiment with creating their own images on film and electronically. 

•  Beat Boutique

Beat Boutique will showcase local percussionists and rhythm and beat enthusiasts producing work in music and dance.  Beat Boutique artists will parade through the Hintonburg neighbourhood and gather together to perform a colossal clash-cultural rhythm symphony for the entire family to enjoy.

• Halloween Extreme

Working with professional special effects make-up artists and costume designers, youth participants will learn how to transform themselves into a vampire, zombie, or monsterous character,  then learn to dance Michael Jackson’s Thriller, one of the most popular routines in the world. 

The Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF) is the largest of its kind in North America, attracting film buffs, art lovers, filmmakers, and cartoon fans from around the world to the nation’s capital.

This year’s festival will take place from October 14 to 18, 2009.

David Silverman, best known for directing numerous episodes of The Simpsons as well as The Simpsons Movie, and Josh Selig, the founder and president of Little Airplane Productions, will headline this year’s Television Animation Conference, taking place October 14 and 15 at the Chateau Laurier hotel in Ottawa.

Full article: Television Animation Conference Lines Up Talent

We’ve all had our bad days.

Luckily, on the day he submitted his short film to Ottawa’s landmark animation festival, 14-year-old Calgarian and Westmount Charter school student Eric Hayes wasn’t having one – and yet, that’s just what his film is about.

He’s one of three Canadian high school students with work appearing at the Ottawa Animation Festival in October. The festival, which received 2,185 submissions, will also showcase new work by animation heavyweights, Aardman – the creators of Wallace and Gromit, and the inspiration behind Hayes’ work.

 Read the story on the Metro Calgary website: Teen’s animation no Disaster

“If you’re looking to really get noticed in the industry, Pitch THIS! gives you that chance!” says TAC Director Azarin Sohrabkhani. “Take advantage of this opportunity to show off animation’s next big hit!”

Two intrepid producers will step up to the plate on Thursday, October 15th and have 10 minutes to pitch their projects to a panel of the world’s leading animation broadcasters. Not enough pressure? An audience of over 300 buyers, financiers, partners and industry gurus will also be hanging on your every word!

Following the pitches, representatives from various networks will respond with detailed insights, assessing each project’s creative and financial elements and analyzing its marketability and appeal to each broadcaster. Along with this invaluable feedback, each participating producer gains the type of industry exposure that can lead to future success.

“If you have a great idea for an animated television show and work hard to package and pitch it, then coming to the Ottawa International Animation Festival and TAC could change your life,” says Al Bohl, creator of “It changed mine. Not only did I make a development deal with 9 Story Entertainment, but I met people who can make things happen. If you are serious about cartoons, you need to find a way to bring your dreams to the festival.”

For Pitch THIS! consideration, producers should submit their proposals for an original adult or children’s animation series and must include a project bible, sample episode synopsis, concept art and biographies of the key creative team.

Submissions may be sent to tac@animationfestival.ca or by regular post to 2 Daly Avenue, Suite 120, Ottawa, ON, K1N 6E2. Please mark Attention: TAC Pitch THIS! No more than two submissions per production company will be accepted. Deadline for submissions is August 14, 2009.

For additional information on Pitch THIS! , TAC and the Ottawa International Animation Festival please call 613-232-8769 or visit www.animationfestival.ca

About TAC
The Television Animation Conference is Canada’s only animation business forum designed for professionals in content creation, development, production, distribution and marketing. TAC brings together key players in North America and international markets and provides a forum for active networking, practical information exchange, and trade in a comfortable and intimate environment. TAC ‘09 will be held October 14-15 in Ottawa. For more information about TAC, please visit www.animationfestival.ca

About OIAF
The Ottawa International Animation Festival is one of the world’s leading animation events, providing first-class screenings, exhibits, workshops and entertainment since 1976. The annual five-day event brings art, industry and inspiration together in a vibrant hub that attracts artists, production executives, students and animation fans from across Canada and around the world. In 2008, more than 1700 industry delegates flocked to the capital to take part in the festival. A similar crowd is expected to attend OIAF ‘09, which will be held from October 14-18 in Ottawa. For more information and to experience OIAF online, please visit www.animationfestival.ca.

About 9 Story Entertainment
9 Story Entertainment is an Emmy Award® winning animation studio and production company. Established in 2001, 9 Story creates, produces and distributes children’s and family entertainment, from concept stage to delivery.
Please visit www.9story.com for more information.