Annie Award Call For Entries

36th Annual Annie Awards Set for Friday, January 30, 2009 at UCLA's Royce Hall

BURBANK, Calif. (September 10, 2008) The International Animated Film Society, ASIFA-Hollywood, announces its Call for Entries for consideration for this year's 36th Annual Annie Awards. Current Categories & Rules as well as all entry forms can be found online at www.annieawards.org.

The Annie Awards honor overall excellence as well as individual achievement in a total of 24 categories ranging from production design, character animation and effects animation to storyboarding, writing, music and voice acting. Entries submitted for consideration will be from productions that originally aired, were exhibited in an animation festival or commercially released between January 1, 2008 and December 31, 2008.

Key deadlines for this year's Annie Awards are as follows:

Entry Forms: Friday, Oct. 10
Nomination Judging Materials: Friday, Oct. 31
Deadline to become an ASIFA-Hollywood Member: November 30
Nominations announced: Monday, December 1
Ballot clips: Monday, December 8
Bios & Photos for Program Book: Friday, December 12
Advertising Reservations For Program Book: Friday, December 12
Artwork for Program Book: Friday, January 9, 2009
Ceremony Clips: Friday, January 9, 2009
Online Voting: Monday, January 12 - Friday, January 23, 2009

This year's ceremony will be held on Friday, January 30, 2009, at Royce Hall on the campus of UCLA. The black-tie ceremony will feature a lively mix of animation luminaries, celebrity presenters and comedic talent to celebrate this year's best of the best.

The Annie Awards have long recognized pioneers at the forefront of animation through nominations, juried awards and certificates of merit. In 1972, legendary voice actor June Foray organized the very first Annie Awards. Today, supported by major animation studios and production companies, the Annie Awards have grown into a much-heralded industry event and are considered an important industry benchmark and a predictor of the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

ASIFA-Hollywood is the largest of an international network of chapters and supports a range of animation initiatives through its membership . Current projects include an animation archive, library and museum, classes and screenings, and animated film preservation efforts.

ASIFA is the French acronym for L'Association Internationale du Film D' Animation, an organization founded in 1957 in France by a group of professional animators and chartered by UNESCO in 1960 to encourage the art of animation and further international understanding and goodwill through the animation medium. Today, there are ASIFA chapters in nearly 30 countries worldwide.

For up-to-the-minute information on the 36th Annual Annie Awards, please visit www.annieawards.org, or email: Gretchen@annieawards.org or call: 562.209.9900. Media inquiries, please contact Gretchen Dixon, Dixon PR, at 562.235.0991 or email: Gdixonpr@aol.com.

Stumble It!

VES: Panel Discussion on Working Overseas

Today we are all living in a global economy and many of us have been or will be called on to work in other countries at some point during our careers. Our panelists, who have all had a great deal of experience working outside the United States, will discuss many issues. They will cover everything from language issues to cultural faux pas, monetary realities to food and lodging, family adjustments to reintegrating back into the US, and much, much more. This will be a most enlightening and, we suspect, occasionally humorous event.

MODERATORS:
Frank Gladstone, globe trotting Emmy award winning Animation/Visual Effects Consultant
Art Durinski, Visual Effects Supervisor/Computer Animation Director, who has done extensive work in Japan and China

PANELISTS:
Director, Tony Leondis (Igor, Lilo and Stitch 2: Stitch has a Glitch)
Visual Effects Supervisor, Mike Fink (Academy Award winner- Golden Compass)
Visual Effects Supervisor, Tim McGovern (Academy Award winner- Total Recall)
Visual Effects Producer, Janet Muswell Hamilton (Dragonball, Snakes on a Plane)

If you haven't already worked out of the country, the day may come when you will be offered that opportunity. It could be as close as Canada or Mexico, or as far away as China, India or New Zealand. "Working Overseas" will be a good way to share your own adventures as well as learn form others who have had the experience. We hope to see you at the panel.

RSVPs: VES Members: Log on to: www.visualeffectssociety.com for reservations.
Non VES Members: Contact VES Office at (818) 981-786 for reservations.
FEES: FREE for VES Members. All non-members $10.00

The "Working Overseas" event will be held at Sony Imageworks' Ince Theatre, 9050 West Washington Blvd. Culver City on Thursday, October 16th, from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Light refreshments will be served.
.

Stumble It!

Annie Awards: Call For Judges

The International Animated Film Society, ASIFA-Hollywood is seeking individuals interested in serving on nomination committees for the 36th Annual Annie Awards. Nominating committees shall select the Annie Award production nominations and individual achievement nominees.

Nomination judging shall take place on Saturday, November 15, 2008, at Woodbury University, in Burbank, California. Judges may also be required to do some additional judging within the following days, as well as participate in pre-selection activities, via email, prior to the judging session(s).

To apply, please visit http://annieawards.org/Judging.htm.

Applications must be received no later than Friday, October 17, 2008. Individuals who are selected to serve on a nomination committee, shall receive a pair of complementary VIP tickets to the 36th Annual Annie Awards, which will take place on Friday, January 30, 2009, at UCLA's Royce Hall, in Los Angeles, California.
.

Stumble It!

The ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Educator's Forum

The ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Educators' Forum is dedicated to bringing together Southern California animation education professionals for the advancement of the quality of animation education.

PROJECT GOALS
DEFINING THE CORE SKILL SET: Even the accreditation bodies that are judging animation programs do not have a list of skills that should be taught to animation students. Programs going through accreditation have to prove their case by matching skill sets from a mixture of other semi-related programs. It would be of great service to compile a list of what is being taught at all of the animation programs in the area and have that available to all.

SYLLABUS AND TEACHING OUTCOMES: Plans are underway to create a database with lists of student teaching outcome statements that could serve as building blocks for writing syllabi.

INSTRUCTOR DATABASE: It would be a great service to animation educators and animation programs alike to have an online listing of animation teachers' profiles.

STUDENT ANIMATION FILM FESTIVAL: Almost all programs demand that students create a short animation as a requirement for graduation. The timing is such that very few of the deadlines for established animation festivals match up with the academic school year. A student animation festival under the umbrella of ASIFA-Hollywood taking place on college campuses would give an affordable venue and could be the precursor to a possible recognition of student work at the annual Annie Awards.

ROTATING TRAINING SEMINARS: Coordination is beginning for a lecture series by teachers and for teachers to travel to different area campuses throughout the year.

ROTATING CLASS LECTURE SERIES: Every school sponsors lectures by industry professionals who come to campus to speak about their career. Encouraging attendance between various programs, we could increase exposure to these events and promote networking between students from different programs.

ACTING FOR ANIMATORS: The goal is to build a list of resources and contacts in the acting community to help with the development of improv games and techniques that apply to the creation of an animation performance.

COPYRIGHT AND TRADEMARK: Business law is often overlooked in art programs. The intent is to gather resources and build a knowledge base for artists regarding intellectual property rights.

PRODUCTION SKILLS: The actuarial process of creating animation needs to be taught. Schedules and budgets are the nuts and bolts of the production process, and students need to have the organizational skills needed to track and plan their projects.

UPCOMING MEETINGS AND EVENTS
September 20th, 2008
ASIFA-Hollywood Student Animation Festival Judging Breakfast
(venue to be determined)


October 18th, 2008
ASIFA-Hollywood Student Animation Festival
Admission FREE to the animation community
Woodbury University
School of Business / Fletcher Jones Foundation Theater
7500 Glenoaks Bl
Burbank, CA 91510
(Click for printable map)

Festival Schedule:
Portfolio Review: 10am to 4pm
Treasures of the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Screening: 10am to 12 noon
Screening of Student Festival Films: 1pm to 2pm
State of the Animation Industry Panel: 2pm to 3pm
Breaking Into Animation Panel: 3pm to 4pm
Screening of Student Films: 4pm to 5pm
Meet the Filmmakers Party: 5pm to 6pm
Awards Ceremony and Screening: 6pm to 7:30pm

CONTACTS
aef@asifa-hollywood.org

ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Educators' Forum Yahoo Group
.

Stumble It!

Event: Animator Educatior's Forum Film Festival

The International Animated Film Society, ASIFA-Hollywoods' Animator Educator's Forum is hosting its first Student Animation Film Festival at Woodbury University located on 7500 Glenoaks Blvd. in Burbank, CA 91510 on October 18, 2008 from 10 AM to 7:30 PM. Students enrolled in professional academic programs throughout the United States including NYU Tisch School of the Arts; UCLA; USC; Woodbury University; Loyola Marymount University; CSU Fullerton; Bay and The Art Institute of California-Orange County have submitted short animations. The winners are to be announced at the festival in the following categories: Best Visual Storytelling, Best Character, Best Technical Achievement, Judges' Choice and The Emile Cohl Award for the Best Animated Short.

In addition to the competition portion of the event, a free demo reel and portfolio review will be offered to the public. Students and artists alike are encouraged to bring demo reels in DVD format and/or an organized collection of flat artwork to be critiqued by some of the competition judges and other industry professionals.

Judges for the competition include Jorge R. Gutierrez, Creator and Executive Producer of El Tigre; Robin Brigstocke, Director and Storyboard Supervisor at King of the Hill; Floyd Norman, Disney Legend and master storyman at Pixar, Disney, etc.; Tim Johnson, Director of DreamWorks's Over the Hedge; Aki Umemoto, Pioneer of CGI Commercials and Creative Director at Mattel for 25 years. The awards show and screening of winners will be held at 6 PM in the Fletcher Jones Foundation Auditorium.

Sponsors include DigiCel FlipBook, Creative Talent Network, VISUCATE (Autodesk Authorized Education Value Added Reseller) and Woodbury University. Prizes include generous software packages such as FlipBook, Maya, 3D Studio Max, Motion Builder, and Combustion Educational software in addition to prize money based on the category won.

ASIFA, a French acronym for "Association Internationale du Film D'Animation" was founded by a group of animators in 1957 and chartered by UNESCO in 1960. ASIFA encourages the art of animation and furthers international understanding and goodwill through the medium. Today there are about thirty chapters of ASIFA all over the globe.

ASIFA- Hollywood was established over thirty years ago as a 501(c) (3) California non-profit organization. It is the largest chapter of ASIFA in the world. ASIFA is self-sustaining through membership dues and the proceeds from various projects and events.

For more information about the event visit http://asifa-hollywood.org/ or email aef@asifa-hollywood.org.

PRESS CONTACT: Veronica Esquivel
W: 714.338.1351
C:323.215.9085
vesquivel@aii.edu

Stumble It!

Screening: Igor

ASIFA-Hollywood cordially invites members and a guest to an advanced screening of



Thursday, September 18, 2008 7:30 p.m.
Mann's Chinese 6
6801 Hollywood Blvd.
Hollywood, CA 90028

Immediately following the screening will be a Q&A with Director Tony Leondis, Writer Chris McKenna and Producer Max Howard

Members and their guests only. To RSVP, please see the RSVP number in your email box. The deadline to RSVP is September 17, 2008.

(Most of ASIFA-Hollywood's correspondence with its members is via email. To make sure your address is current in our lists, please check with membership@asifa-hollywood.org)
.

Stumble It!