How to use this Page

Hundreds of other animated shorts were released last year; which ones were the best?

Daisy Jacobs' "The Bigger Picture," a graduation film from Britain's National Film and Television School, won the top prize at the 12th annual Fantoche animation festival, which wrapped up last Sunday in Baden, Switzerland.

The Annecy International Animated Film Festival, the world's oldest and biggest animation festival, wrapped up its 38th edition on June 14th. Here is the complete list of winners.

Animation is overtaking the streets of downtown Montreal’s entertainment district, the Quartier des Spectacles, and various cities in Scotland in honor of Norman McLaren's centennial.

As most Cartoon Brew readers are aware by now, we’ve had a “no crowdfunding” policy in place for a long time. But times change, and as more animation filmmakers incorporate crowdfunding into their production plans, we feel that it’s necessary to provide a platform for noteworthy projects that need funding. Starting today, we’re going to try something new by featuring a curated selection of crowdfunded animation projects on Fridays. We especially aim to give exposure to promising animation that may slip through the cracks due to a lack of exposure in mainstream media.

For starters, I’d like to highlight WONDER 365 Animation Project by Japanese filmmaker Mirai Mizue. Mizue creates his abstract films the old-school way by drawing and painting onto paper, but he uses digital compositing techniques to fantastic effect:

If you follow Mizue on Vimeo, you know that he’s been working diligently on WONDER 365 for the past 365 days in a row. Mizue received a grant from the Agency for Cultural Affairs in Japan, which allowed him to hire over 150 painters to help color the film, but he’s still looking for funding to complete the music recording and post production.

The Wonder 365 crowdfunding effort continues through April 30. The project is currently 22% funded. Here is the film’s trailer:

An exciting array of contemporary animation will screen tonight at the Synchronicity Space in Los Angeles as part of Floating World Animation Fest’s DMTV2. Watch the trailer above. Animators represented include Jacob Ciocci, James Connolly, Amy Lockhart, Duncan Malashock, James Mercer, Mirai Mizue, David O’Reilly, Yoshi Sodeoka, King Terry and Shinya Tsukamoto. It’s described as:

A collection of experimental and psychedelic animation from around the world. The emphasis is on non-commercial, personal work. We seek pure vision. Some of the films push visual noise and glitch to the limit while others reach a peak of ambient degaussed bliss.

Synchronicity Space is located at 713 N. Heliotrope, Los Angeles, CA. Screening starts at 9pm and admission is FREE!