Animation Festival expects large crowds
Veronica Quach, Centretown News
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
Animation buffet: Fest draws big industry names, enthusiasts
TRACEY TONG | METRO OTTAWA
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
Chinese films selected for competition at Canadian animation festival
chinaview.cn
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 2009 Ottawa International Animation Festival
Migneault | Apt.613 blog
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
Animation festival draws success from balance: Director
TIM WIECLAWSKI | METRO OTTAWA
The OIAF, the largest of its kind in North America, kicks off on Oct. 14.
The success of the festival, said artistic director Chris Robinson, has been finding the right balance between independent and commercial films.
Read more on the Metro Ottawa website: Animation festival draws success from balance: Director
Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF) and Television Animation Conference (TAC) festival schedules now online
The full 2009 schedule for the Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF) and Television Animation Conference (TAC) are now online, so head on over and have a look! All featured programs are now listed as well, so go ahead and choose from Films and Screenings, Special Events, Workshops, and more!
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.
LEGENDS OF ANIMATION COME TO OTTAWA FESTIVAL
The Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF) is proud to announce an incredible line-up of guest speakers and programming this year.
The Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF) is proud to announce an incredible line-up of guest speakers and programming this year.
The OIAF, which runs from October 14-18, welcomes several animation legends including Pixar’s Ronnie del Carmen (UP), Henry Selick (Coraline), David Silverman (The Simpsons), along with retrospective screenings of award-winning animators Don Hertzfeldt, Stan VanDerBeek, Suzan Pitt, Jim Blashfield, and Studio Film Bilder.
The Festival was able to secure amazing high-profile guests, thanks in part, to some funding provided by the Government of Ontario. “We hope to see record numbers coming out with these exciting speakers and the range of programming for our 2009 event”, says Managing Director, Kelly Neall.
Full release on Ottawa Start: LEGENDS OF ANIMATION COME TO OTTAWA FESTIVAL
Television Animation Conference Lines Up Talent
Kristin Brzoznowski, Worldscreen.com
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
Teen’s animation no Disaster: Short film picked to appear at Ottawa, Edmonton festivals
ALYSSA JULIE | METRO CALGARY
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
Wallace and Gromit, Pixar, U2, and Coraline lead star-studded lineup at Ottawa International Animation Festival
From October 14-18, 2009, hundreds of international animators will descend on Canada’s capital with one goal in mind: capturing one of the prizes up for grabs at this year’s Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF).From the record-breaking 2185 entries received, 98 films representing 20 countries have been chosen for Official Competition. An additional 58 films will be shown in out-of-competition Showcase screenings. This year’s film selection is comprised of film, video, and digital animations from Germany, France, Russia, Australia, South Korea, the U.K., Israel, Sweden, the U.S.A, Italy, Brazil, Japan, and Canada.
Among the many highlights of this year’s OIAF competition: Henry Selick, the director of the stop-motion classic The Nightmare Before Christmas is back with Coraline, a dark gem about a little girl who discovers a too-good-to-be-true world behind a secret door; twice Oscar-nominated Cordell Barker, who brought us The Cat Came Back, is once again at his best with Runaway; four-time Academy Award winning director, Nick Park shows his latest Wallace and Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death; and U2’s latest music video for “I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight”, directed by David O’Reilly. Pixar Animation Studios is also on hand with a special screening of their new short film, Partly Cloudy, directed by Peter Sohn.
The OIAF competition includes categories for feature, narrative, experimental and student films; TV shows, commercials, music video. There is also a separate competition for films and TV shows made for children. Prizes will be awarded to category winners and a Grand Prize will be awarded to the winner of each competition (Short Film, Feature Film, Student, and Commissioned).
“One of the categories I’m really excited about is the Animated Feature category”, says Artistic Director Chris Robinson. “This is, by far, the strongest feature competition we’ve had to date. Normally we take a maximum of five films to compete in this category but this year it was too difficult to narrow it down, so we increased the competition to seven films.”
Included in the Animated Feature line up along with Henry Selick’s Coraline are: Adam Elliot’s Mary and Max, the story of a 20 year long pen-friendship between an unlikely pair; Life Without Gabriella Ferri, a dramatic love story of a couple living in a world full of challenges; My Dog Tulip by Paul Fierlinger and Sandra Fierlinger is a bittersweet account of the relationship between a man and his beloved dog; Neil Burns’ bizarre animated feature Edison & Leo; Australia’s Tatia Rosenthal’s $9.99, featuring the voices of Geoffrey Rush and Anthony Lapaglia; and the family-friendly magical adventure Mai Mai Miracle directed by Sunao Katabuchi.
A complete listing of all the film selections can be found at 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. 2008 total attendance was over 25,000. OIAF 09 will be held October 14-18, 2009 in Ottawa. For more information and to experience OIAF online, please visit www.animationfestival.ca.
