SIGGRAPH Nominees Named

Friday, May 09, 2008
By: Ryan Ball

ACM SIGGRAPH has announced the award nominees for the SIGGRAPH 2008 Computer Animation Festival, taking place in Los Angeles this summer. Nominees were chosen from more than 900 submissions from professional animators and students around the world. A jury of animation industry leaders reviewed each submission and narrowed the field of competitors to 15 projects.

“With nearly 30 jurors from all corners of the globe, and two separate jury meetings, this year's Computer Animation Festival jury was one of the most comprehensive in the Festival's history,” says Samuel Lord Black, co-chair of the Computer Animation Festival Jury. “The varied expertise we received from our jury ensures that this year's festival is well-balanced, exciting, and a great snapshot of the industry's finest material.”

Since 1999, the SIGGRAPH Computer Animation Festival has been an official qualifying festival for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Best Animated Short Film award. New this year is the addition of the Computer Animation Festival award presentations, where winners will be revealed during the event. The expanded festival will also offer an array of activities over a five-day period, including competition and showcase screenings at Los Angeles' famed Nokia Theater.

SIGGRAPH 2008 is expected to attract an estimated 30,000 computer graphics and interactive technology professionals from six continents to Los Angeles. Taking place Monday, Aug. 11 through Friday, August 15 at the Los Angeles Convention Center, the 35th annual includes a three-day exhibition of products and services from the computer graphics and interactive marketplace. Registration is open to the public. For complete details on this year's Computer Animation Festival, go to www.siggraph.org/s2008/submissions/juried/caf. The nominees for this year's Computer Animation Festival Awards are listed below.

Best in Show Nominees

Bolides
Supinfocom, France
An imaginative student film becoems a chaotic, hilarious wheelchair race through a retirement home.

Carbon Footprint
William Rockall, Jellyfish Pictures, U.K.
Using computer graphics, Jellyfish drives home the point of global responsibility, presenting the decomposition of a single soda can over half a century, in a single seamless shot.

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa
DreamWorks Animation, U.S.
A glimpse at the upcoming sequel provides a whole new perspective on flying with animals.

Oktapodi
Julien Bocabeille, Francois-Xavier Chanioux, Olivier Delabarre, Thierry Marchand, Quentin Marmier, Emud Mokhberi, Gobelins l'ecole de l'image, France
Third year students directed this animated short about two octopi and their comical escape from the grasps of a stubborn restaurant cook.

The Chemical Brothers “The Salmon Dance”
Framestore CFC, U.K.
Music combines with humorous animation to provide a new perspective on aquaria as a tank filled with more than 300 hand-animated, rapping, beatboxing and dancing fish comes to life.

Best Student Piece Nominees

893
Supinfocom, France
Story and style come together in this tale of honor, tradition and imagination.

Al Dente
Supinfocom, France
Combine opera, pasta and a knife-wielding chef and the result is another delicious animated short from this prolific school.

Baerenbraut
Derek Roczen, Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg, Institute of Animation, Visual Effects and Digital Postproduction, Germany
This tale of disproportionate love shows how relationships can change over time. The 2D animation illustrates a complicated subject and a complex relationship using the most limited of color palettes.

Blind Spot
Johanna Bessiere, Nicolas Chauvelot, Olivier Clert, Cecile Dubois Herry, Yvon Jardel, Simon Rouby, Gobelins l'ecole de l'image, France
Peripheral vision is everything in this animated short about a nearsighted grandmother, a clumsy robber and a surveillance camera that doesn't quite tell the story of what's really going on in the convenience store.

Mauvais Role
Alan Barbier, Camille Campion, Dorian Fevrier, Frederic Fourier, Frederic Lafay, Min Ma, Jean-Francois Macem, Emanuel Reperant, Jeremie Rousseau, Olivier Sicot, Supinfocom, France
This short explores the joys of getting whatever you want, as long as you know what it is. Watch as a monster constantly cast in video games finds his perfect job in a game you'd never choose him for.

Jury Award Nominees

Chump and Clump
Michael Herm, Stephan Sacher, Germany
This short shows us just how distracting your friends can be, and just how they can lead you to miss your bus. Repeatedly.

Mauvais Role
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Oktapodi
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Our Wonderful Nature
Tomer Eshed, HFF Potsdam, Germany
This documentary uses time stretching, film camera work and creative sound design to tell the story of water shrews in the wild.

The Plush Life
Timothy Heath, U.S.
This film, rendered entirely with NVIDIA's Gelato, shows us what happens when you pick at something that just shouldn't be picked at.

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