Ottawa Animation Festival Newsletter
Written by: FFT Webmaster | March 10th, 2011
It’s that time of year! The Ottawa International Animation Festival opens its 2011 activities by announcing the official call for submissions to this year’s competition!
With a variety of categories and NO ENTRY FEE, it would be crazy NOT to submit your film! Whether you are a student, independent, or industry animator, you are invited to enter your short or feature length animated works to OIAF 11. Entry forms must be submitted online by May 20th, and preview DVDs are due by June 3rd.
For more info, or to register and submit your film, just click here!
This year, the OIAF is getting back to its roots (and warmer weather), with a return to September! The festival will run September 21 – 25, and TAC will take place September 21 – 22. Mark your calendar!
What have we got in 2011, you wonder? Let’s see… So far there are rappers, chefs, operatic buttons, coloured graphs, cereal killers, drunks, singing parrots, cow pyramids, two guys named Joe, and a fight club.
Translation: We pay tribute to the bizarre, funny, angry, scary, and confusing worlds of Matti Kütt, Gil Alkabetz, and Aaron Augenblick. OIAF Honorary President and Executive Producer of the NFB’s Animation Centre David Verrall picks his Ten Reasons To Love Animation. John Canemaker takes us through the art of Joe Ranft and Joe Grant. Jerry Beck invites us into the Cartoon Fight Club. Plus, two of our very own OIAF staffers – Matt Rosen and Dominique Forget – put screenings on the turntable and the dinner table, with animation in the culture of Hip-Hop and a look at our relationship with Food.
It’s like Picasso making a new picture. It feels good.
We are pleased to reveal the 2011 Festival Poster designed by renowned illustrator and animator Gary Leib!
Gary has won wide praise for his work as an animator and cartoonist, including a 1994 Harvey nomination for his comic book Idiotland. His illustrations and cartoons have appeared in The New Yorker, Musician Magazine, The New York Observer, Raw, Blab and as weekly features in The New York Press for many years. Be sure to visit www.garyleib.com to learn more about the man and his work!
Gary has been generous and given us two versions of the poster. There’s a family-friendly version on display at our Toon Apprentice Website for kids and teens, and a grown-up version available on our main site.
The grown-up poster will be available to purchase at the Aniboutique at this year’s Festival. But be warned: if you look under 25 we will ask for ID!
Keep up with the world of animation, 140 characters at a time. The OIAF is on Twitter, and it’s a great source for news, views, and all kinds of links to the animation community in Canada and around the world. Follow us @OIAF_Animation
And don’t forget to check our new Facebook fan page, where you can discuss the latest developments with other festival goers, filmmakers and animation lovers! Go ahead — jump over to the OIAF Fan Page and click Like! You do Like us, don’t you?
Our friends at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival are teaming up with YouTube once again to launch the second edition of the Annecy / YouTube competition. This competition is open to all!
For more info on the competition, visit www.youtube.com/annecyfestival
The Annecy International Animation Film Festival will take place from June 6 to 11, 2011. For more festival info, visit www.annecy.org
The OIAF is proud to add a new member to our family! Sponsorship Co-ordinator Jennifer Levin has joined the core staff to help gather supporters for our next edition and beyond.
Jennifer will be working with Managing Director Kelly Neall to offer companies the chance to get extensive exposure to the animation industry before, during, and after our event this September.
Not only will you be getting some great, reasonably priced promotion, but you’ll also be supporting the OIAF — a charitable organization. Click here to get some more information, and here to see who was involved last year. We’d love to tailor a package to your needs.
FFT Webmaster
The FFT Webmaster use displays whenever an article has multiple authors. It also pops up on articles from old versions of Film Festival Today. The original author byline might be missing! In that case, if you are the author of such an article and see this bio instead of your own, please send us an email. Some of our contributors that might be missing bylines are: Brad Balfour, Laura Blum, and Sandy Mandelberger, among others.