1 December 2009 SUBMISSION DEADLINE FOR MIAF10
Tuesday 19 january 2010
oh yessireee... WE WANT YOUR FILMS!!
> download entry form & guidelines
24 November 2009 MIAF10 SNEAK PEEK That's right folks... we've been busy programming our special
sessions for our big 10 year anniversary festival.
> check it out
25 August
2009 an animated evening with clare
kitson.... 2 September, 6pm-8pm @ ACMI Studio One
Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Federation Square
> download flyer - pdf 1.27mb
Clare presents a selected screening from the illustrious
Channel 4 archives followed by a Q&A with Dennis Tupicoff
(Chainsaw, 2008; His Mothers Voice, 1997).
For much of the 1990's Britain regularly walked
off with the world's major animation awards, including the Oscar,
Cartoon d'Or and top festival prizes. Most of the winning films
were commissioned by television channels - and most of these by
Channel 4. Set up in 1981, Channel 4 was state-regulated but funded
by advertising, and operated with a remit to foster innovation.
The battles between art and commerce raged from day one. Clare
Kitson was the first, and only, fill time commissioning editor,
and she likens her role to being on the battlefield. In 2008 she
published "BritishAnimation: The Channel 4 factor" which
offers a lively picture of animation's fluctuating fortunes within
the Channel and, in microcosm, of all arts programming in a commercial
world.
The evening will be a joy for lovers of animation
and food for thought for students of the media. Clare
will be available to sign copies of her book at the end of the
evening.
All tickets $15
To purchase tickets, visit the ACMI box office at Federation Square
or call (03) 8663 2583.
You can pre-purchase tickets using a credit card at: www.acmi.net.au
18
June 2009 article in today's PAPER
Pick up today's The Age newspaper (Melb) or head to their website
for an awesome article on MIAF's technique focus this year, sand
animation - screening Tuesday 23 June @ 8.00pm.
16
June 2009 MIAF catalogue is on the press!
Crazy day getting the catalogue to the printers in time... but
we made it! If you can't decide what to see at MIAF09 next week,
then make sure you grab one on opening night, because there's
articles and mini essays highlighting films & filmmakers,
that you won't find anywhere else! But beware - there are limited
copies - and they sell fast! (By the way, it's a teeny 7 bucks). www.miaf.net/2009/cat.html
14 June
2009 “The Spine” Premieres At Annecy
With the Annecy festival winding down and our special guest Chris
Landreth apparently almost back in Toronto, this seemed like a
good time to drop in on his blog and see how the premiere of his
latest film "The Spine" had gone. www3.nfb.ca/webextension/the-spine
13 June 2009 MIAF09 TRAILER BY JOHN LEWIS
You read it here first! We're very excited to flaunt our brand
new trailer for 2009! The Melbourne International Animation Festival's
technique of focus this year is Sand Animation, and local talent
John Lewis has created a stunning trailer to celebrate this form
of animation. John is one of the country's finest stop motion
animators and was responsible for animating 'Max' (and the rain!)
in the highly acclaimed Adam Elliot feature 'Mary & Max'.
John has released three short films to date, 'The Birdhouse',
'The Boy Who Wanted To Touch The Moon' and 'The Designer' which
won the MIAF07 Audience Vote in the Australian Panorama.
8 June 2009 Rose Bond To Visit MIAF
Thrilled to open an email forwarded to me by our freight handler
saying that Canadian animator and visual installation designer
Rose Bond plans to visit MIAF. Her film “Electroflux”
is screening in Competition Program #6. I first saw it at the
Ottawa festival last September and really locked into the whole
spatial environment that it evoked. It’s actually (and I
think it really helps to know this) a cinematic adaptation of
a much larger piece she was commissioned to create for the Platform
Festival in Portland (Oregon) a few years ago. I had hoped to
meet her at the Holland Festival but just couldn’t find
her when I was there so am pretty pleased that she has decided
to journey to Melbourne for the screening.
23 May 2009 Twit-TWIT-TWITteRINg I have no idea what this really means but
apparently I’m going to be able to tell the world exactly
what I’m thinking so long as it comes in under 140 characters.
We’ll see how it goes... www.twitter.com/animationfest
22 May 2009 MIAF PROGRAMS HIT THE STREET –
go GET ONE! Finally, the MIAF printed program is off the
press and being shuttled around the streets. It’s got all
the info you need. Just get one!! (OK, there’s also a downloadable
PDF version of it on our website if you don’t think you’re
going to be getting outdoors much. www.miaf.net/2009/schedule.html
21 May 2009 Emma Curtis Confirmed As Guest
Just got an email from UK animator Emma Curtis, the maker of “The
Reason I Collect” which is showing in Competition Program
#6. I first saw her film at the London International Animation
Festival and invited it on the spot. It’s pretty wild, perfectly
paced, one of those wonderous stopmotion overloads. She’s
going to be pretty tired when she gets here – her film has
been selected for the very prestigious Edinburgh Film Festival
and she is coming directly from that screening to MIAF. Ah, the
life of a globe trotting animator.
20 May 2009 Priit Parn’s Latest Film Confirmed
It goes without saying that we are huge Estonian animation fans
here. So a new Priit Parn release is always going grab our attention.
I first saw Priit Parn’s latest film “Life Without
Gabriella Ferri” at the Holland festival last November.
It’s a pretty interesting piece. It’s 44 minutes long
though which makes it hard to include in regular competition programs.
But we’ve been able to sort out a special screening spot
for it, I’ve added the short he made last year called “I
Feel A Lifelong Bullet In The Back Of My Head” and ….
VOILA!, we have the best possible outcome – a Priit Parn
Special. The good news is that I just heard back from Joonisfilm
and they have confirmed the invitation.
19 May 2009 Australian International Animation Festival
Is Launched AIAF is the touring version of MIAF, if that
makes any sense. We launch it in Wagga Wagga each year and it’s
always fun. It’s the way a festival should be. We have the
chance to run surprise and impromptu screenings, make the most
of the little opportunities that a festival gathering inevitably
throws up and just get immersed in animation in general. The filmmakers
lunch out at the local winery (http://www.waggawaggawinery.com.au
) is always a highlight. But at the end of the day it’s
about the films. This is often my chance to test drive a lot of
the elements that will make up MIAF. This year, the 101’s
were the real stand out experiences. And also just the amount
of discussion that centred around Chris Landreth’s new film
“The Spine”. Now that AIAF is launched, we can focus
on getting MIAF running and after that we’ll be able to
get AIAF trotting around the country. If you’re interested
in hosting an AIAF screening please contact us – it’s
a festival in a box, all ready to go. The film that really brought
the house down??? No contest…. “Fantasie In Bubblewrap”
by New Yorker Michael Metcalf.
19 May 2009 Finally… The Animation 101’s
Are Locked In We introduced the ‘Animation 101’
series a few years ago as a way to have a more in depth conversation
about specific topics or elements of animation for those that
wanted more. There’s a surprising amount of work involved
in pulling them together but it’s usually a lot of fun.
The 101’s for this year’s festival have been on the
drawing board since January probably. Sorting out the “Great
Moments In History” and the “Narrative In The Age
Of Modern Animation” sessions was pretty easy.
But the final two pieces of the jigsaw dropped
into place when we ‘test drove’ a couple of potential
fantastic 101’s at the launch of our touring festival in
Wagga (www.aiaf.com.au). This turned out to be the absolutely
perfect way to showcase Dennis Tupicoff’s “Chainsaw”
(http://www.chainsawfilm.com ) which we will be able to screen
from a print. And I promise that the rushes for the film that
Jonathan Nix’s is working on will amaze. All of this will
make a LOT more sense if you click this link…
9 May, 2009 DMD Taiwan Delegation To Travel To MIAF Guests are always welcome at MIAF but it’s
a big commitment for almost any filmmaker to travel here. I’ve
just had an email exchange with the people at Yuntech University
in Taiwan and am thrilled to hear that they plan to send a delegation
of 5 students and staff from their DMD course down to MIAF. I
can personally attest to their commitment to animation –
they once flew me to Taiwan as a key note speaker at one of their
conferences a few years ago. Aside from the fact that they are
astonishingly gracious and generous hosts, what they are working
on up there and the resources that are being committed is awe
inspiring. The last delegation they sent to MIAF in (I think)
2006 were a pretty colourful bunch and I’m definitely looking
forward to welcoming this group. I don’t know if it is possible
at this late date but we might try and organise an informal presentation
or screening in the Club – I’ll keep you posted.
6 May 2009 Kids Program Confirmed Susi Allender was one of the original founders
of MIAF. At some point common sense took over and she departed
for a better life, more time with her partner Mark and the to
bring little Maddie into the world. But she has kept a couple
of links to the festival alive. She does the artwork for our posters
and she programs the Kids screenings. Susi is meticulous about
this and takes the time to get to know the films well before she
pulls together the program. But hot off the press, here it is!
It’s probably best suited for about 4-8 year olds I would
guess.
4 May, 2009 International Panorama Programs Moved I just got back from a meeting with the lovely
Miss J down at ACMI. One of the big outcomes was the decision
to move the International Panorama Programs out of the Festival
Club and into their brand new Studio 1 Cinema. Panoramas are a
great way to get a broader range of films into the festival –
films that were overlooked by the jury for one reason or another.
The original idea was to make the Panoramas available in an informal
venue but as the Panoramas came together I just really wanted
to get them into a proper cinema space. So we’ve been able
to find a spare night in Studio 1 and we’re going to run
all four International Panorama programs over the course of the
night. They’re all fairly short and the tickets to each
program will be just $5. In all there’s more than 50 films
on offer and it’ll be a great way to see a lot of really
interesting animation for a song. http://www.miaf.net/2009/panorama.html
2 May 2009 Chris Landreth Confirmed As Special Guest HOT DAMN! For years I’ve been wanting
to bring Chris Landreth to MIAF. He has done more than just about
anybody to define the creative digital animation space and his
film Ryan (http://www.onf-nfb.gc.ca/eng/collection/film/?id=51259
) redefined the way many people thought about digital animating
– not to mention what they thought about how animation could
use uber creatively to make a documentary – not to mention
the Academy Award thing. It’s great timing coz his latest
film “The Spine” will have only screened a very few
times before we run it at MIAF so I feel like I’ve just
organised the icing, the cherry and the chocolate sprinkles for
the MIAF cake before the base is even finished (sorry, it’s
late as I write this and …. well, it’s exciting news).
30 April, 2009 Channel 4 Program Arrives It’s all starting to feel pretty real
now – we just received our first piece of ‘screening
media’. A digibeta compilation of the Channel 4 (UK) 25th
Anniversary Classics Collection just turned up. This is the action
tape we’ll use to project onto that big screen down in ACMI
in June. It’s a fantastic program. It has been put together
by Clare Kitson who for more than a decade was the commissioning
editor of animation at Channel 4. It was her job to decide which
films got made and then get them screened on Channel 4. Amazing!
She’s just released a gorgeous book (“The Channel
4 Factor”) on the whole subject will be available at the
ACMI Bookshop during the festival. It’s truly a program
of classics, chosen by the person who was right in the minute
of it all.
12 April 2009 Australian Panorama Program Confirmed One of the most important programs we put
together is the Australian Panorama. We leave it as long as we
possibly can so we can squeeze in every last entry and we try
and fit in as many films as possible. It’s been a pretty
good year for animating in Australia judging by the entries we
received. There’s even some really strong abstract work
which is unusual. The program shows in MIAF, in our touring festival
AIAF ( www.aiaf.com.au ) and gets a surprisingly number of international
screenings. Plus I send a copy of the program to as many festival
directors as I can. I’m really happy with it this year;
a really great mix of stuff and I have high hopes that we’ll
have a good turn out of animators at the festival.
31 March, 2009 Student Programming Completed What a great weekend. We’ve been doing
a better and better job of programming our student section (“Best
Of The Next: The International Student Animation Festival”).
But this year we went all out and got a stand alone jury of students
to come through with final recommendations. The way it worked
was that I went through all of the entries (about 900 films from
over 60 schools) and came up with the ‘best’ six hours
worth. That six hours was put to a group of more than 30 students
from the BA course in Animation and Visual Effects at the Charles
Sturt University in Wagga Wagga. Watching how seriously these
guys took the task and tabulating the results was pretty encouraging.
They rounded out the day by organising a party complete with bright
pink maracas (sp??) and amazing favourite cartoon character costumes.
I’ll get these up on the website as soon as they have been
confirmed but I can promise four outstanding programs of student
animation.
13 March 2009 Chris Landreth’s Latest Film “The
Spine” confirmed Now we’re getting somewhere. I’ve
been pestering the National Film Board of Canada about this one
for years. I went to the NFB Industry Day in Montreal last September
and pretty much begged to get it – sight unseen. I came
away pretty confident I’d be able to secure it but not as
sure that it would be ready in time. BUT IT IS – IT’S
DONE AND WE’VE GOT IT! Now to keep working on my master
plan to get Chris Landreth out here as a guest.
12 March 2009 Competition Programming Completed I think we’ve finally cracked it. Last
weekend was devoted entirely to finalising just what would play
in competition. It’s a pretty intense process and there
are a LOT of issues to balance out. Some day I’ll write
an essay about it. It’s taken me another two or three days
of hanging out in cafes and the wonderfully inspiring Royal Botanic
Gardens here in Melbourne to come up with tentative screening
orders but I do believe we have a provisional competition line
up. Can’t announce it in detail right now coz there is the
little issue of getting all of these films confirmed but stay
tuned and we’ll have details up on the website as soon as
we possibly can.
26
January 2009 2,000 ENTRIES &
COUNTING! Submissions for MIAF09 have now closed.
A big thank you to everyone who has taken the time to submit their
film(s) for consideration in MIAF09. It's incredibly exciting
to pick up an overflowing tub of animation goodness every day
from the post office and from our friends at Open Channel in the
lead up to the entry deadline. As you can imagine, we're right
in the middle of madly processing submissions (getting all your
details into our database and preparing films for the jury), so
please be patient with us! It's a massive task and it will take
us about another 2 weeks to let you all know that your films have
arrived safely. The jury will make their decisions by the end
of February, and filmmakers will be notified in March.
13
December 2008 WE WANT YOUR FILMS! As we head into the silly season, it's a welcome
reminder that it's also time to download your entry form, pack
up your films and get on down to the post office to be considered
for selection in MIAF09!!!
The deadline
for submissions is FRIDAY
16 JANUARY 2009, so hop
to it!
