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A surprising short tops Ottawa 2016.

The post ‘I Like Girls,’ ‘Louise en Hiver’ Wins Top Prizes at Ottawa appeared first on Cartoon Brew.

The 40th anniversary of North America's biggest animation festival is here.

The post Ottawa International Animation Festival Starts Tomorrow appeared first on Cartoon Brew.

A new episode, a marathon, and a vinyl LP will mark the 5th anniversary of the Adult Swim gem "Off the Air."

The post ‘Off The Air,’ The Best Animation Anthology Since ‘Liquid TV,’ Is Celebrating Its 5th Anniversary appeared first on Cartoon Brew.

New York-based commercial production company Hornet has opened up a new outpost in London's Shoreditch district.

The Sundance Film Festival announced that they will launch a touring animation short program next month.

SXSW has announced the selections for their 2013 film festival, which takes place in Austin, Texas from March 8-16. Ten shorts were selected for the animation category. Several animated projects were also chosen for other categories, including Chris Mars’ In Hanford for the documentary category, and Daniel Garcia and Harry Teitalman’s “Reagan” in the music video category.

Below are the animation selections, which includes the first US screening of the new Pixar short Blue Umbrella:

The Blue Umbrella
Director: Saschka Unseld
It is just another evening commute until the rain starts to fall, and the city comes alive to the sound of dripping rain pipes, whistling awnings and gurgling gutters. And in the midst, two umbrellas — one blue, one not — fall eternally in love.

Cicada Princess
Director: Mauricio Baiocchi
Cicadas spend a long time planning…

The Event
Director: Julia Pott
Love and a severed foot, at the end of the world.

The Gold Sparrow
Director: Daniel Stessen
In a black and white world artists must defend their color.

Kishi Bashi — ”I Am The Antichrist To You”
Director: Kishi Bashi
A surreal stop motion collaboration between avante-pop/violinist Kishi Bashi and acclaimed animator Anthony Scott (Coraline, Paranorman). An abandoned puppy awakes in a post-apocalyptic world with vivid memories of his love and all that he lost.

Marcel, King of Tervuren
Director: Tom Schroeder
Greek tragedy enacted by Belgian roosters.

Oh Willy…
Directors: Emma De Swaef, Marc James Roels
Forced to return to his naturist roots, Willy bungles his way into noble savagery.

Old Man
Director: Leah Shore
For more than 20 years Charles Manson has refused to communicate directly with the outside world. Until now.

The Places Where We Lived
Director: Bernardo Britto
A man wakes up with a weird feeling. His parents are selling his childhood home.

Shelved Director: James Cunningham
Two loser robots discover they are being replaced … by humans

Pictoplasma will stage the fourth US edition of their character design conference this weekend in New York City. The two-day conference (Nov. 2-3) will include artist talks, animation screenings and a roundtable discussion focused around the use of character design in contemporary culture. The full conference schedule can be found on the Pictoplasma website.

Speakers will include the standard mix of artists from the animation, illustration and design communities. The artists who will speak at this edition are Buff Monster, Gemma Correll, Jason Freeny, Mark Gmehling, Anna Hrachovec, David OReilly, Ryan Quincy, Julia Pott, Andy Rementer, Adrian Sonni, Olimpia Zagnoli, Steven Guarnaccia, Taylor McKimens and Mark Newgarden.

Online registration is $190 HERE. The conference will take place at the Parsons’s Tishman Auditorium (66 W. 12th Street, NY, NY).

New York-based filmmaker Julia Pott combines her quirky illustration style with dreamlike, faded live-action in her latest short The Event. The reverse-chronology end-of-the-world themed story is based on a poem by Tom Chivers. Pott makes smart use of masked screen shapes to heighten the story’s sense of disorientation. The short was commissioned by Channel 4′s shorts initiative Random Acts.

CREDITS
Directed by Julia Pott
Poem by Tom Chivers
Conceived and Produced by Carrie Thomas
Animation Production:
Hornet Inc.
Executive Producer: Michael Feder
Producer: Zack Kortright
Director of Photography: Adam Wissing
Additional Compositor: Tom Brown
Animation Assistant: Sophie Gate
Editor: RJ Glass
Sound Design: Joseph Tate
Re-recording mixer: Maiken Hansen
Male Voice: Alex Britton
Female Voice: Laura Free

In an impending sign of the apocalypse, Elle Girl magazine published a story about a female animator. The artist is Julia Pott, who provided a photo essay about a day in her life. Granted, it’s the Korean version of Elle Girl, but I’ll take anything we can get. Stories about female animators in the mainstream media are virtually nonexistent, particularly in any kind of contemporary fashion-forward context, so this can only be considered a step forward.

Not all spiritual books for kids are obviously so at first glance. Fiction may help children deal with spiritual questions even better when there is not direct spiritual content. A librarian friend offers three of her multicultural favorites for older kids. Crash, by Jerry Spinelli, documents the growing friendship between a Quaker boy and an agnostic jock. Samir and Yonatan by Daniella Carmi, is a Batchelder Award-winning memoir of a Palestinian childhood. In Iqbal, by Francesco D’Adamo, a fictionalized account of a Pakistani boy sold into slavery, children develop spirituality without any wholesome adult influence. (At PaperTigers, see a review of Susan Kuklan’s Iqbal Masih and the Crusaders Against Child Slavery, a non-fiction account of this tragic but inspiring story.)

Two recent Australian animal picture books are among the many endearing examples of spiritual books for young children. Breakfast with Buddha, by Vashti Farrer and Gaye Chapman, is a first-person account of an ego-filled cat’s encounter with Buddhist monks and his consequent lesson about humility. Samsara Dog, by Helen Manos, beautifully relates the story of a dog’s several lives as he develops the spiritual qualities that finally free him from the cycle of rebirth.

And a Buddhist nun friend from Taiwan highly recommends Kate Decamillo’s The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. “I read it six times,” she said with a smile, “and cried every single time.”

The deep themes of human life are everywhere, for eyes that see. Non-didactic fiction gives children a way to explore large spiritual questions without being “spoon-fed” opinions and views.