Monthly screening event Animation Nights New York, founded by Yvonne Grzenkowicz in 2015, is gearing up for its fourth annual ANNY Best of Fest. Presented in partnership with Anderson Contemporary, the two-day event will feature screenings, fine art exhibits, an XR showcase, VR workshop, professional panels and industry events on October 5 & 6 at 180 Maiden Lane in New York City’s Seaport District.
ANNY’s team of industry jurors selected 20 films from the 165 in-competition films screened this season to create the 2019 film program.
The selected films are:
- Ashes. Luciana Digiglio. Argentina, 03:54.
- Blazing Fire. Alexandre Nart, Médéric Prevost, Maxime Lacombe, Aurel Coudert, Roch Tastet. France, 04:07.
- Days. Sofia El Khyari. United Kingdom, 03:38.
- Fishes, Swimmers, Boats. Dmitry Geller, Andrey Koulev. China, 09:57.
- Freedom From Fear. John Morena. United States, 00:49.
- Hounds. Ido Shapira, Amit Cohen. Israel, 05:47.
- Idle, Torrent. Alex Moy. United States, 02:31.
- Keep Your Hair On, Oliver. Armelle Mercat. France, 11:30.
- Lonely Lucia. Hannah Sotelo. Mexico, 08:11.
- Motion Pictures. Matthew Incontri. United States, 09:41.
- My Little Goat. Tomoki Misato. Japan, 10:13.
- Rhizoma. Santiago Pérez Rodríguez. Belgium, 03:00.
- See Spot Squeal. Rachel Seropian. United States, 00:00.
- Snow White Cologne. Amanda Eliasson. United Kingdom, 06:20.
- Sweet Night. Lia Bertels. Belgium, 13:46.
- The Egg Job. Guilherme Krolow. Brazil, 05:00.
- The Fox. Sadegh Javadi Nikjeh. Iran, Islamic Republic of, 09:45.
- The Stained Club. Mélanie Lopez, Simon Boucly, Marie Ciesielski, Alice Jaunet, Chan Stéphie Peang, Béatrice Viguier. France, 06:39.
- Travelogue Tel Aviv. Samuel Patthey. Switzerland, 06:00.
- Twin Islands. Manon Sailly, Charlotte Sarfati, Christine Jaudoin, Lara Cochetel, Raphaël Huot, Fanny Teisson. France, 07:18.
Additional Screenings will include The Animation Showcase Oscar Predictive Program, La Noria by Carlos Baena, Augenblick 20th Anniversary Showcase, Cartoons on Film (Tommy Stathes early animation archives showcase) and more.
The international jury includes actor, author & teacher Ed Hooks (Acting for Animators); Waltraud Grausgruberv (director & co-founder, Tricky Women Festival, Vienna); film/media curator, lecturer & writer Sally Berger (Fellow at NYU’s Center for Media, Culture and History; Visiting Asst. Professor at Haverford College); artist Jill Johnston (SUNY Fredonia); animator John Dilworth (Courage the Cowardly Dog, Stretch Films); writer Lesley Chow (Bright Lights Film Journal); Gareb Shamus (founder of Wizard Entertainment, co-founder & CEO ACE Comic Con); and illustrator/animator Olesya Shchukina (Estrella Production; co-founder ko-ko-ko).
The certain prize winners will be determined by Blue Sky Studios Head of Characters Sabine Heller (Grand Prize Judge), immersive media expert James Pallot of Emblematic Group (VR 360 & Room Scale Grand Prize), Iron Mule Festival’s Jay Stern (Iron Mule Comedy Award), and the editors and co-owners of podcast/blog Animation for Adults, Chris Perkins and Rachael Ward (Animation for Adults Award).
2019 Prize Sponsors include Animation Magazine, ArtiVive, GKIDS, Kdan Mobile, Key Quest Publishing, Wacom and Toon Boom.
The ANNY Best of Fest Virtual Reality & Augmented Reality Showcase will showcase both in-competition and invitational projects including work by Penrose Studios, Baobab Studios, Cartoon Network, NYU Future Lab / Parallux, Pink Kong Studios, Simpals, Lucid Realities, EpicScapes, Joren Vandenbroucke, Polyarc, Ollie VR, The Glimpse Group, RLab, Studio Soup, Diversion Cinema, Augmented Pictures, Lava Machine, Michelle & Uri Kranot, and many more, as well as game demos from IGDA NY.
Outside the screenings, visitors can check out the fourth Art in Motion exhibit curated by Anderson Contemporary, featuring both traditional and interactive work.
Professional Panels and Industry Round-Tables will include discussions on Hiring and Recruiting, Animation in Emerging Technology, Distribution Solutions, Collaborative Platforms, Experiential Marketing, Women in the Workplace, Real-Time Projects, Animation Workflow Pipeline, The Importance of Story, Animation in Games, Non-Linear Storytelling, Animation Tools in Development, Animation in Documentary, and Visual Effects. These discussions will feature representatives from top studios, including Pocket Studio, BRIC, Flickerlab, Nice Shoes, VES, Stealth Startup, RLab, IGDA NY, Sesame Workshop, Hifi3D, Transistor Studios, Polyarc, Penrose Studios, BEL, KéexFrame, Augenblick, Titmouse and Nickelodeon.
Industry events include a VR Workshop Presentation from HTC Vive. Plus, several Networking Musical Chairs Events and Industry Round-Tables via ANNY Exchange.
Visit www.animationnights.com for more information.
