GLAS Guide to Animation Festivals

[Soom]

Here is some new website and they have quite a nice guide to animation festivals: http://www.glasanimation.com/2014/04/25 ... festivals/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Paul Fierlinger]

A quote from that link:

DON’T BE DISCOURAGED

Many animators submit their films to only the top three festivals, get rejected, become discouraged, and stop making films.

Is this true? I mean, do many people become animators for the sole purpose and ambition of making it big one day at an animation festival? And if so, why? There is so much better work and joy for animators to experience outside of festivals. After all, animation festivals serve only one purpose, which is to make as much money in a week to give 2 or 3 people an income to live off of for a year. These dark individuals select only those films that will attract the largest amount of mediocre visitors to subject themselves to abusive treatment by greedy organizers and pay lots of money for it. If a handful of worthy films slip through, it's pure luck and has nothing to do with the festival owner's understanding and appreciation of art.

[Mads Juul]

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I actually think it is first time I have written LOL. But I was actually Laughing out load when I read your Comment Paul. It is funny but also sad and probably also a little bit true, like I think all good comedy should be.

[Paul Fierlinger]

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I actually think it is first time I have written LOL.

LOL!

[Soom]

Haha! Nice observation - sounds quite ridiculous indeed. Paul, your cynicism both amuses and saddens me. Actually it is partly an old truth - when I was writing my grad theory work, I was researching the history and future of animation, and I have found one interesting idea concerning this problem (I think I mainly took it from Bendazzi's book "Cartoons: One Hundred Years of Cinema Animation"). The problem, that animation has fallen into it's own trap by enclosing itself into a world of movies - in the eyes of people, it is kind a sidekick of a film, and not completely a form of art on it's own, and animators themselves have created kind of a ghetto for themselves by creating their occult gatherings, where only other animators come to see each other - the animation festivals Nevertheless, I have been to quite a few European animation festivals, and I must say, there is much more to them. and for any animator it is important to show and to be shown, and to meet others like him, and to see what others do. besides - festivals usually are good way to see the world, to have lot's of parties with cool people, etc etc.
I have posted this guide mainly because there are links to festivals, not for what they write there

[Fabrice]

On my side (but ok, I'm not animator) I like the festivals because it helps me to put faces on emails or forum avatars.
Making people discovering and trying TVPaint is also great + seeing TVPaint mentionned in some end credits is nice too.

All this helps to be in good spirits, get some energy, after several months of work in the office .

[Paul Fierlinger]

When I was a young and ambitious animator, I had only one dream, which was to get accepted into a festival too only I was after the biggest prize of all prizes: to escape through the Iron Curtain into Freedom. It never happened because the animators were never allowed -- only the party bozos and the festival organizers were perfectly aware of this shameful situation . Yet they were also perfectly happy to heap their prizes and adulation upon these party officials without once taking into consideration to make it a rule that only the animator must be present for the film to receive the award.

[Soom]

When I was a young and ambitious animator, I had only one dream, which was to get accepted into a festival too only I was after the biggest prize of all prizes: to escape through the Iron Curtain into Freedom. It never happened because the animators were never allowed -- only the party bozos and the festival organizers were perfectly aware of this shameful situation . Yet they were also perfectly happy to heap their prizes and adulation upon these party officials without once taking into consideration to make it a rule that only the animator must be present for the film to receive the award.

I will respond with a joke, which was not a joke, but a real story. You might know Nancy Phelps - she is a journalist and producer of animation - she is the only English speaking journalist, writing about all the small animation festivals in Europe. anyway - she was in a huge animation festival in China, and was telling about it in an interview: so first - there are no screenings at the festival! - there are only awards, but no screenings whatsoever. it's all about the ceremonies - you know - those massive gymnastics shows in huge stadiums, with dancing schoolgirls and soldiers, etc., but no screenings! So Nancy sits there in one of the ceremonies, watching this crap, and then the awards ceremony begins, and suddenly she hears the name of Alexey Alexejeff, as the winner of the best foreign film award (you might know - this guy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1f503FDk9U" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;). Now - it happens, that Nancy is actually Alexey's producer, so she waits for him to show up. All of a sudden a Chinese guy runs into the stage, gets the prize, thanks the audience, makes a little speech, and happily waving his hand, goes back. She is totally confused, and after the ceremony, she went to the managers, and told them, that they cannot do that! So the management promised, that next year they will allow Nancy to be a representative to get prizes in the name of the foreigners. So next year, she went there, and asked, what is she supposed to do, and they told her - well, you get the prize, look happy, and say, how happy you are to get this prize. When she refused to act so, they asked her again and again, but she still refused. After she went to get the prize and in the speech she said, that she gets the prize in the name of the winner, she got back to her seat, and asked a woman (which was European and knew Chinese) - how did they translate her speech? the woman answered: "That you are very happy to get this prize" )) A totally diferent world, where individual achievement and qualities are not part of the culture - it's all about the face and the ceremonies!

Anyway - no matter what, a festival is a good place to go and meet people after sitting in a studio all year round. Besides - where else can you actually watch all these independent films? there is no way you can get them in cinemas or on TV, only on internet, but not on a big screen with directors present. many creative people teamed up and became friends during festivals - so there is a bright side to it too.

[Soom]

Oh, here I found this long 1.5 hours interview with Nancy , Nick and Alexey talking about festivals: http://www.animationconversation.com/po ... cy-alexey/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Fabrice]

classic problem with chinese culture ....

[Paul Fierlinger]

Soom, just watched your link now:
(you might know - this guy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1f503FDk9U" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;).
Very, very funny. I love this type of humor and haven't seen anything this good in the genre since the seventies... maybe I should go back to a festival or two if this stuff is making a comeback!

[Soom]

Soom, just watched your link now:
(you might know - this guy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1f503FDk9U" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;).
Very, very funny. I love this type of humor and haven't seen anything this good in the genre since the seventies... maybe I should go back to a festival or two if this stuff is making a comeback!

Haha - Paul, you clearly need to go see a festival probably you have been sitting too long hiding behind your (how many..?) monitors

[Fabrice]

Did anyone try Hiroshima Animation Festival ?
There is a lot of conviviality here.

[Paul Fierlinger]

They've been asking me to come there for years but it was too expensive for me so they then stopped (Mr. & Mrs. Kinoshita). Now it's just too far (too many hrs in inhumanely crammed jets.) Of course, it's a festival and country I've wanted to visit all my life.

[Paul Fierlinger]

Haha - Paul, you clearly need to go see a festival probably you have been sitting too long hiding behind your (how many..?) monitors

Five Actually I've been going almost every year to festivals (DocAviv, Israel, Ottawa, Amsterdam documentary fest, TIFF Toronto, even Annecy when I was forced to by contract with our producer, and TIFF again next month) but most festivals I go to now are documentary ones since the films we make fall into that category. I have to say that I generally like them far more than strictly animation fests because they are less abusive towards their invited guests and the films selected for competition are based on merits).