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 ".
