ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Educators Forum present the first ever Student Annie Award at the 2010 Student Animation Film Festival

ASIFA-Hollywood’s Animator Educators Forum hosted its second Student Animation Festival at California State University Long Beach on Saturday, November 6, 2010.

This year’s festival made history with the winning filmmaker receiving ASIFA-Hollywood’s first annual Student Annie Award! This free event provided an opportunity for students who are enrolled in academic programs to be recognized for their work by the Hollywood animation community.

The winners were announced at the festival with the first place prize presented by Director, Steve Hickner of DreamWorks and Antran Manoogian, President of ASIFA-Hollywood. The winners were as follows: First place, Best Animated Short was honored to California Institute of the Arts student Kirsten Lepore for “Bottle.” She received the Student Annie Award, $1,500 cash prize from Autodesk, a VIP tour of DreamWorks along with a selection of books, software and DVD’s from our sponsors! Second Place was awarded to University of California Los Angeles student Po-Chou Chi, who received the Silver Award for “The Lighthouse.” Third Place was a tie between University of California Los Angeles student Erik Oh, for “Heart” and National Film and Television student Elena Pomares for “The Henhouse,” who both received the Bronze Award.

Honorable Mention Awards went to Ringling College of Art and Design student Kendra Vander Vliet, for “Nuri” and Communication University of China student Zhiyong Li, for “Kung Fu Bunny 3.”

In addition to the competition portion of the event, students participated in a demo reel and portfolio review that offered insightful portfolio critiques by some of Hollywood’s top industry professionals in the animation community. Q & A presentations with industry professionals Andreas Deja and Ron Diamond offered insightful information on opportunities in the animation industry along with the history of their successful careers.

Sponsors included: ACME Filmworks, Autodesk, Animation Magazine, California State University Long Beach, DreamWorks Animation, DigiCel Flipbook, Focal Press, Journey Ed, Nickelodeon, Stash Media, Corel and Wacom.


History:
The Animation Educators Forum is dedicated to the preservation and promotion of animation through education. In 2008, a group of Southern California educators founded the Animation Educators Forum in order to begin dialogue and share information with all those who teach animation. Our members, with diverse backgrounds in both the animation and instructional fields, are focused on extending their knowledge and experience to others within the burgeoning animation community.
With the generous support of ASIFA-Hollywood, the AEF has launched the Student Annie Awards, a collection and screening of animation educators' personal films titled “Those Who Teach- Do,” as well as an online magazine and faculty and student resources.
ASIFA ("Association Internationale du Film D'Animation") was founded by 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, worldwide.
ASIFA-Hollywood, the association's largest chapter, was established nearly forty years ago as a 501(c)(3) California non-profit organization, and is self-sustaining through membership dues and the proceeds from various projects and events.

For more information about ASIFA-Hollywood’s Animation Educators Forum please visit "http://animationeducatorsforum.org/". You can also visit our blog at "http://animationeducatorsforum.blogspot.com/" or send an email to "info@animationeducatorsforum.org".


PRESS CONTACT: Veronica Esquivel
"vesquivel@aii.edu" or "info@animationeducatorsforum.org ".

Fun Fotos From the Fantastic Festival!

Winners of the Student Animation Festival

The ASIFA-Hollywood AEF Student Animation Festival, which was held on 11/6/10, was a tremendous success! Students received wonderful feedback from the Portfolio Review, the audience enjoyed viewing the top 25 nominees and we had two great speakers: Andreas Deja and Ron Diamond!
We had over 80 entries and the quality was so fantastic that instead of having five awards, we had six! Yes, there was a tie for the Bronze Award!
Here are the winners of the Festival…

The First Student Annie Award – “BOTTLE” –Kirsten Lepore – California Institute of the arts



Silver Award – “THE LIGHTHOUSE” – Po-Chou Chi – University of California Los Angeles




Bronze Award (tie) – “HEART” – Erick Oh – University of California Los Angeles




Bronze Award (tie) – “THE HENHOUSE” – Elena Pomares – National Film and Television School



Honorable Mention – “NURI” – Kendra Vander Vliet – Ringling College of Art and Design



Honorable Mention – “KUNG FU BUNNY 3” – Zhiyong Li – Communication University of China

Map to the Student Animation Festival at CSULB

ANNOUNCING THE NOMINATED FILMS FOR THE ASIFA-HOLLYWOOD AEF STUDENT ANIMATION FESTIVAL

Title	Student	School
Follow the Rabbit	Poon, Jessica	CalArts
Thembi's Diary	Kim, Jisoo	CalArts
Bottle	Lepore, Kirsten	CalArts
Topi	Rihan, Arjun	USC
A Tall Tale	Biggs, Brittany	USC
Heart	Oh, Erik	UCLA
Kidnap	Luo, Sijia	UCLA
The Lighthouse	Chi, Po-Chou	UCLA
Stix	Ruiz Reyes, Felipe	UT (Dallas)
No Robots	Knoll, Kimberly	SJSU
Flip	Hackett, Jill	RINGLING
Dilla	Forty Fingers	RINGLING
No Soliciting	Sayre, Bohdon	RINGLING
Departure of Love	Bors, Jennifer	RINGLING
Good Bot, Bad Bot	Ng, Marcus	RINGLING
Nuri	Vander Vliet, Kendra	RINGLING
The Henhouse	Pomares, Elena	NFTS
Today Only	Jackman, Toby	NFTS
Snowflakes and Carrots	Leriche-Gionet, Samantha	Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema
El Diablo	Ellsworth, Matt	Academy of Art University, Corte Medera
Bridge	Tey, Ting Chian	Academy of Art University, Corte Medera
Sharfik	Gazizova, Karina	LCAD
Night Light	Carlson, Curtis	LCAD
Distance	Gu, Di	UNIVERSITY OF CHINA
Kung Fu Bunny 3	Li, Zhiyong	UNIVERSITY OF CHINA
Eclipse	Koren, Liat	Rhode Island School of Design

Student Animation Festival Deadline Extended

The AEF Student Animation Festival deadline has been extended to Friday, October 1st.

For more info, go to:
http://www.withoutabox.com/03film/03t_fin/03t_fin_fest_01over.php?festival_id=9694

To submit a film, click on “entry form” on the Student Animation Festival page.

The AEF at SIGGRAPH

REMINDER ALERT!!

Don’t forget that the deadline for the AEF Student Animation Film Festival is September 1st!

For more info, go to:
http://www.withoutabox.com/03film/03t_fin/03t_fin_fest_01over.php?festival_id=9694

To submit a film, click on “entry form” on the Student Animation Festival page. Hurry! The clock’s a tickin’!

The ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Educator's Forum Asks the Question: Is It Important to Teach Traditional Skills in a Digital Age?

TUESDAY, 27 JULY | 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM | LA CONVENTION CENTER | SIGGRAPH | ROOM 301 B

This discussion is for people who are interested in animation education and would like to be part of our discussion on teaching animation (and animation-related topics) in the digital age