The nominations were announced today for the 47th Annual Annie Awards™ recognizing the year’s best in the field of animation. This year’s Best Animated Feature nominations include: Frozen 2 (Walt Disney Animation Studios), How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (DreamWorks Animation), Klaus (Netflix presents a Production of the Spa Studios and Atresmedia Cine), Missing Link (Laika, LLC) and Toy Story 4 (Pixar Animation Studios).
Thirty-two features have been submitted for consideration in the Animated Feature Film category for the 92nd Academy Awards®.
The European Film Academy announced the four animated feature films nominated for the award EUROPEAN ANIMATED FEATURE FILM 2019.
Rezo, a new film that mixes documentary storytelling and animation, directed by Leo Gabriadze will open October 18 at Laemmle Music Hall in Los Angeles. The film will also have special event screenings at Laemmle Monica in Santa Monica, Laemmle Glendale and Laemmle Town Center in Encino.
The animated film Weathering With You (Tenki no ko) directed by Makoto Shinkai has been selected by Japan Motion Picture Producers Association (Eiren) to represent Japan in the Best International Feature Film category at the 2020 Oscars.
Gitanjali Rao’s animated feature film, Bombay Rose will have its World Premiere as the opening film of Critics Week at the Venice International Film Festival on August 29th, 2019.
2-D animated horror film “To Your Last Death,” starring the voice talents of Morena Baccarin, Dani Lennon, Ray Wise, Bill Moseley, and William Shatner, will premiere at the 20th anniversary celebration of London’s Frightfest, the UK’s largest international genre festival, on Friday, August 23rd, 2019.
Meet the young, genius inventor Leonardo Da Vinci and his best friends, Lorenzo and Lisa, as they embark on a wild and exciting adventure. From flying cars, treasure maps, pirates, and sailing ships, it’s a family adventure everyone will love! Director Sergio Manfio’s Leo Da Vinci: Mission Mona Lisa, delightful new take on the great Leonardo Da Vinci will open in cinemas across the United States this Summer, on August 2, 2019.
Building on its wildly successful inaugural year, the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF) announced the 2019 Animation First festival, showcasing the vast history, enduring ingenuity, and diversity of France’s renowned animation studios and schools. This year’s schedule includes 17 premieres, provoking feature-length films, exciting shorts, immersive exhibits, video game demonstrations, panels with filmmakers, a special spotlight on the City of Bordeaux’s animation industry, and much more. It will take place from Friday, January 25 through Sunday, January 27, 2019, at FIAF in New York City.
Tito and the Birds / Tito e os Pássaros[/caption]
The nominations were announced today for the 46th Annual Annie Awards™ recognizing the year’s best in the field of animation with the year’s Best Animated Feature nominations include: Early Man, Incredibles 2, Isle of Dogs, Ralph Breaks The Internet and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Best Animated Feature-Independent, spotlighting features with a much smaller distribution footprint than major studio releases, include: Ce Magnifique Gâteau!, MFKZ, Mirai, Ruben Brandt, Collector and Tito and the Birds.
The Annie Awards™ cover 36 categories and include Best Animated Feature, Best Animated Feature-Independent, Special Productions, Commercials, Short Subjects, Student Films and Outstanding Individual Achievements, as well as the honorary Juried Awards. The winners will be announced at a black tie ceremony on Saturday, February 2, 2019 at UCLA’s Royce Hall.
Juried Awards will also be presented honoring unparalleled achievement and exceptional contributions to animation. Three Winsor McCay Award recipients have been selected by the ASIFA-Hollywood Board of Directors for their exemplary industry careers – Academy Award-winning director, animator and art director, Ralph Eggleston; Frank Braxton (posthumously), the first African-American animator, animation director and guild president; and casting director, voice director and voice actress Andrea Romano. The June Foray Award will be presented to veteran animator, Adam Burke (posthumously) for his significant and benevolent impact on the animation community. Ton Roosendaal, Dutch software developer and film producer, will accept the Ub Iwerks Award for Blender Open Source Animation Software; and a Certificate of Merit will be presented to dedicated ASIFA volunteer, Jason Jones.
Weekends – Trevor Jimenez[/caption]
The 20th Annual Animation Show of Shows returns to theaters across North America and will have its US theatrical premiere at Laemmle Theaters in Los Angeles on December 14th, and at the Quad Cinema in New York on December 28th (many other cities will follow). Since 1998, the Animation Show of Shows has been selecting the best in animated short films from around the world and has been presenting new and innovative short films to appreciative audiences at animation studios, schools and, since 2015, theaters in the US and other countries. Over the years, 38 of the films showcased in The Animation Show of Shows went on to receive Academy Award® nominations, with 11 films winning the Oscar®.
The 20th Annual Animation Show of Shows will present 15 thought-provoking, poignant, and very funny animated shorts from around the world. In a year when the best and worst of human nature has been on constant display, the works in this year’s show remind us of both the universality of shared ideals, as well as the diverse challenges we face. “Animation is such a flexible and open-ended medium that it lends itself to exploring the innumerable aspects of what it means to be human,” says founder and curator Ron Diamond. “And this year’s program, as much as any of our past presentations, really illuminates human strengths and foibles, and the bonds that unite us across cultures and generations.” The 20th Annual Animation Show of Shows represents the work of artists from six countries and includes six student films. Funny, moving, engaging, and thought-provoking, The Animation Show of Shows not only has something for everyone, but is a remarkable and insightful microcosm of our world.
The show has a running time of 98 minutes and includes 15 films, four of which have qualified for Academy Award® consideration *.
One Small Step * – Andrew Chesworth, Bobby Pontillas[/caption]
One Small Step * – Andrew Chesworth, Bobby Pontillas, U.S.
Grands Canons – Alain Biet, France
Barry – Anchi Shen, U.S.
Super Girl – Nancy Kangas, Josh Kun, U.S.
Love Me, Fear Me – Veronica Solomon, Germany
Business Meeting – Guy Charnaux, Brazil
Flower Found! – Jorn Leeuwerink, The Netherlands
Bullets – Nancy Kangas, Josh Kun, U.S.
A Table Game – Nicolás Petelski, Spain
Carlotta’s Face – Valentin Riedl, Frédéric Schuld, Germany
Age of Sail * – John Kahrs, U.S.
Polaris – Hikari Toriumi, U.S.
My Moon – Eusong Lee, U.S.
Weekends * – Trevor Jimenez, U.S.
The power of family ties, and specifically the enduring connection between parents and children, are sensitively evoked in Hikari Toriumi’s deeply affecting “Polaris,” about a young polar bear leaving home for the first time. “One Small Step,” Bobby Pontillas and Andrew Chesworth’s inspiring story of a Chinese-American girl’s dream of being an astronaut, centers on her evolving relationship with her father. The beautifully designed “Weekends,” by Trevor Jimenez, explores the complex emotional landscape of a young boy and his recently divorced parents, as he shuttles between their very different homes and lives.
The darker side of relationships is forcefully explored in Veronica Solomon’s “Love Me, Fear Me,” a tour de force of claymation that uses dance to delve into the lengths people go to to deceive each other and try to pass for something they’re not. Eusong Lee’s “My Moon” takes a more cosmic and lighthearted approach to a troubled relationship, depicting a celestial love triangle played out by the sun, the moon, and the earth.“Carlotta’s Face,” by Valentin Riedl and Frédéric Schuld, illuminates a different kind of relationship dysfunction in its sensitive portrayal of a woman who suffers from prosopagnosia, the inability to recognize faces, and her salvation through art.
Among the other program highlights are the very funny computer animation “The Green Bird,” winner of a 2018 Gold Student Academy Award® International Animation, which harks back to classic cartoons of the mid-20th century. Oscar-winning director John Kahrs’ “Age of Sail,” the latest in Google’s series of Spotlight Stories, chronicles the adventures of an old sailor who rescues a teenaged girl after she falls overboard. Alain Biet’s jaw-dropping “Grands Canons” is a dizzying symphonic celebration of everyday objects that uses finely detailed drawings created by the filmmaker. And two very short films, “Supergirl” and “Bullets,” take their inspiration from poems composed by surprisingly eloquent preschoolers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbKjakQbRzs
The London International Animation Festival (LIAF 2018) returns to the Barbican for its fifteenth year with over 100 films selected to screen in ten International Competition Programs, including the British Showcase, Into the Dark (scary shorts), From Absurd to Zany (comedy shorts), Animated Documentaries and the Abstract Showcase.
The LIAF will also present two programs of animation specifically for children – Amazing Animations for three to seven-year-olds and Marvelous Animations for eight to fifteen-year-olds. There’ll be talking animals, seriously fun adventures and tales that spark young imaginations.
The opening night gala celebrates the work of the dynamic Scottish duo Will Anderson and Ainslie Henderson. Graduates from Edinburgh College of Art’s animation degree course in 2012, Will and Ainslie’s worldwide reputation is a testament to their talent, including two BAFTAs, two McLaren Awards, a British Academy Award, a nomination for the Cartoon D’Or and almost 50 awards at festivals around the world.
London based animation director Jonathan Hodgson has been making award winning animated films since the early 1980s. An established director of commercials, Hodgson has explored almost every animation technique and in recent years has specialized in documentary animation. The LIAF is pleased to present an evening with him focusing specifically on his documentary work where he will present highlights from his early sketchbook-based animation, to his documentary feature work, which will be followed by an onstage Q&A.
Female Figures returns to LIAF for a second year, championing female animation talent in a program of extraordinary works exploring female desire by contemporary animators and their predecessors.
These films present a range of perspectives on the female body and female sexuality, reveling in fantasy, desire and intimacy, as well as sharing experiences of abuse and trauma. Abigail Addison at Animate Projects will lead a post-screening conversation with animators Kate Jessop, Jenny Jokela and Thalma Goldman Cohen and with BFI National Archive Curator (Animation) Jez Stewart.
A further special screening and panel discussion is Aftermath, a program of 13 short films inspired by I’m OK, a new film by Elizabeth Hobbs about the expressionist artist Oskar Kokoschka and his experiences as a soldier in the First World War. These films explore the Great War at its centenary, including themes of conflict and loss and date from the early 1970’s to present day.
The festival ends with the Best of the Festival on Sunday December 9 featuring the best films of LIAF 2018 as chosen by the panel of industry judges and audience votes.
Image: Mogu and Perol
Two friends live on Yummy Island, where delicious food can be found everywhere!
Japan 2018 Dir Tsuneo Goda 8min