If a picture is worth a thousand words then listen on as this collection of photographs provided by DigiPen’s Senior Vice President, Raymond Yan, sets the scene….

The entrance to the Boeing IMAX Theater, where our festival story begins!

Fulltime DigiPen faculty member and ex-Disney background artist, Geraldine Kovats, arrives.

A wide-screen movie display and information boards greet visitors just inside the building.

DigiPen, the festival's principle sponsor, was well represented inside too!

Festival director Ken Rowe announces the start of the festival.

Tony White, the festival founder, welcomes guests too.

Designer, animator and cartoonist Dean Yeagle makes the festival's first keynote presentation.

Then he introduces his curvaceous creation, "Mandy".

Tony tells the fishermen in the audience about the one that got away!

Top Hollywood producer Don Hahn delivers the second keynote presentation.

The third keynote presentation was given by "Mulan" director, Barry Cook.

Barry also explains 'How to tell a powerful story'.

He also discusses things 'Out of the ordinary'.

Rushing over to the Laser Dome building, Tony introduces popular workshop presenter, Michel Gagne.

Michel explains how he animated a comet with a flailing tail on layers.

Later at the awards ceremony, Ken announces the winners.

And Tony demonstrates what its all about... the 'Golden Pencil Awards'.

The 'Animated American' team are delighted to get two!

Tony shows everyone what the 'Roy E. Disney Award' looks like too.

Outside the IMAX, Hummie Mann warms-up the Pontiac Bay Orchestra ready for the Gala Event concert.

They clearly prepare really well!

Foods up! And after two days of hard and dedicated work, Ken enjoys a well-earned feast.

Workshop presenter Peter Moehrle with Geraldine, Barry and Barry's daughter Rebecca, enjoy the eats too!

Soon afterwards the orchestra is in full charge. There's nothing like a well performed cartoon film melody to get the taste buds working!

Conductor Hummie Mann thanks the organizers for this chance for the orchestra to play. (Or was he announcing they were about to play a special request... "The Snowman" suite by Howard Blake?)

As 'The Snowman' plays, Don signs his "The Alchemy of Animation" book for VanArts' Ken Priebe.

Later, Tony poses with Dean.

Then he poses with Don.

Finally he poses with Barry. (Is there no end to this man's versatility... or is it that he's just a flagrant name-dropper?)

Meanwhile Peter Moehrle looks inscrutable as another 2D OR NOT 2D festival draws to an end!

“Animated American” co-director James Baker just sent us this pic from our late-night, after-event celebration at a nearby Tai restaurant with this comment, “We just wanted to thank you and Ken for the Golden Pencil award and putting on a fantastic festival. It was an awesome time and so much
fun! Good luck in the future with the festival, we’re sure it will keep
growing and growing, with all of the love and hard work you put into it!”…

Perhaps you aslo have your own special shots of the event? If so, please send them to festival coordinator Angela Baker (abaker@digipen.edu) and we’ll add them to the gallery too.

Tony White displays a coveted "Golden Pencil Award".

This year’s 2D OR NOT 2D Animation Festival was the first held in downtown Seattle, so we all entered the event with more than a little trepidation that perhaps the gamble would not pay off. We’d held the event for two years at the beautiful Historic Theater in Everett, WA. But although these festivals were a significant success with all those who had attended we couldn’t seem to draw the larger crowds we’d hoped for from the distant suburbs of Seattle. Consequently we decided to bring the event to Seattle this time around and see how things went.

Richard Williams preempted the festival events a few weeks before when speaking to an audience of industry professionals at DigiPen in Redmond!

We needn’t have worried. Not only was the event extremely well received but significant crowds turned out, despite it being our first time at the Boeing IMAX Theater and its companion Laser Dome in Pacific Science Center was a grandiose setting for a more than grandiose event. In truth this festival is made for Seattle and it consequently marked the beginning of a significant animation presence in Washington State’s ‘Emerald City’.

Inside the spacious Boeing IMAX Theater.

Of course any festival is only as good as the films it shows, or the caliber presenters it attracts. This year’s 2D OR NOT 2D festival delivered on both counts. We had record film entries and the quality of the films that had been entered were extremely high. The presenters on show… Dean Yeagle, Peter Moehrle, Daniel Dociu, Michel Gagne, Barry Cook and Don Hahn… were exemplary, representing as they did a broad cross-section of the industry from games to film, from production design & backgrounds to concept art. I believe it would be extremely hard to find this quality of line-up anywhere else in the USA, let alone in the Pacific Northwest!

Even Dean's dragon was there!

The overall spirit of the festival reflects high professionalism and yet is friendly and relaxed. Festival Director, Ken Rowe, and founding partner, Tony White, kicked-off events with a welcome and a smile and a brief explanation of the purpose of the event.

Ken launches the festival.

It was clear that the opening program was destined to set the standard for everything after that. ‘Program 1’ offered some fabulously different and yet appealing films, with the haunting “Our Footsteps in the Leaves” starkly contrasting to what I believe became one of the festival favorites, the insane “Last Time in Clerkenwell”. “Mr. Lux” skillfully took us back in time through the charmed simplicity of a retro UPA style…

The beautifully graphic, "Our Footsteps in the Leaves".

UPA revisited... "Mr. Lux".

…whereas the accomplished “Animated American” pushed the adult intrigues and fecklessness of modern animated Hollywood firmly into our faces. Creepy, but entirely captivating and moving, was the superb “Sebastian’s Voodoo”.

"Animated American"... refreshingly adult in its approach to traditional animation!

Equally mature and equally excellent... "Sebastian's Voodoo".

Bringing calm and yet more than a little raunchiness to the proceedings was Dean Yeagle and his curvaceous cartoon creation, “Mandy”.

Dean reveals 'Mandy'!

Dean revealed the early years of his career, after Tony White has explained in their introduction that they had worked together decades earlier in London… on a 30-second TV commercial production that required hot water boilers to sing and dance like Elvis in a traditional cartoon setting! Clearly though the audience had come to see Mandy in her various coy expressions and Dean of course did not disappoint. The success of Mandy was afterwards underlined by the audience reaction when at the bookstall later, the Mandy books outsold all others!

"Mandy's Shorts"... one of Dean Yeagle's sell-out books!

Program 2 of the “Golden Pencil Award” entries saw an equally liberal mix of styles and ideas. The bizarre “CoCo Nut” charmed, whereas the mercurial “Endless Tunnel” amazed with its technique and driving intensity. Director/animator Tommy Thompson confirmed afterwards that he had needed to hand cut well over a thousand stencils to create this piece… a stunning achievement for this talented and dedicated young student. “Chicken Cowboy” became the unexpected hit with the audience.

Who could prevail over the fearsome chicken?!!!

The bizarre insanity of a reluctant, nervous chicken cleaning-up a rough, tough town of outlaws was hilarious… as indeed was the graphically designed visual gag imagery. “Witherwood” was a strange and haunting piece, whereas “Toumai” stunningly combined excellent composited imagery with a strong message concerning Man’s impact on the beautiful world he inhabits. The Friday evening’s events closed with the appropriately titled final film of the section, “Farewell”.

"Toumai", a masterwork in composited imagination!

The warm and sunny weather that greeted the second day of the festival was a welcome change from the rain and the disastrous flooding that had plagued the Pacific Northwest region the week before. The mood of the day was similarly reflected in the bright and breezy effect of some of the films in Program 3 of award seeking entries. “The Tortoise and the Coyote” skillfully harkened back to traditional times, where a classical storyline was perfectly melded with a classical design style. Fun film! Varied and strangely impactful films of diverse style and imagery followed… “Goldilocks Redirected”, ‘Broken Rainbow” and “Old Timer” reflecting this diversity. The most audibly tenacious film of the group however was the last one… “Apple/Bird & the Bee “Again & Again”. A driving mixture of captured images from the desktop of a digital compositor and editor, this song promo piece was as captivating as its feature singer… with a song that would just not leave your head afterwards, no matter how hard you tried to drive it out with other thoughts!

Traditional values... "The Tortoise and the Coyote".

Peter Moehrle opened up the workshop sessions in the Laser Dome building with a carefully crafted presentation of his top movie design and illustration work. His main approach was to share with the audience his stage-by-stage process of taking a concept from first sketch to final color render. Peter was enthusiastically bombarded with countless Q&A’s after his talk, suggesting the many of the attendees went away with a wealth of knowledge they hadn’t brought with them to the event. Clearly a popular presenter and artist.

One of Peter Moehrle's exquisite examples of background concept art.

Immediately afterwards, back in the IMAX Theater, Don Hahn returned to the festival from his extremely well received keynote presentation the previous year with a smoothly accomplished delivery of short Disney films that are rarely (if ever, in some cases) seen in public.

Don at the IMAX podium.

I guess it was inevitable that the whole event was launched with a welcomed showing of “Steamboat Willie”, the short film that launched a whole golden age of animation back in the 1920’s. Don skillfully painted a picture of a time before “Steamboat Willie” when animation was the real technological breakthrough of the age, and yet when not film had been seen before with sound accompanying it. Most poignant in terms of the festival’s relevance was the fact that precisely 80 years before, to that very day of the festival, “Steamboat Willie” had been screened for the very first time to an excited public in New York City! It was comforting that the festival in some very, very small way became part of animation’s history. In addition to “Steamboat Willie” Don presented two extremely well crafted shorts from the proposed (but never made) Fantasia ~ world music project, in addition to “Destino”, the totally captivating and innovative (for Disney), “Lorenzo” and the far less exposed “Der Fuerher’s Face”.

Donald in "Der Fuerher's Face"... seen as he had never been seen before!

Following the Don Hahn keynote presentation ‘Program 1’ films were screened again, this time with some of the excellent DigiPen student films added at the front to make up for the introduction and welcome time that was required when Program 1 launched the festival events the night before. The films were reprised in this way so that audiences could see all of the films and yet attend three of the four workshops that were being presented at the same time in the Laser Dome.

Speaking of the Laser Dome, Chief Art Director for the “ArenaNet” games studio, Daniel Dociu, presented an endless display of his incredible concept artwork for the exceptional “Guild Wars” video game. Daniel’s technique is to simply have his work continuously showing through a PowerPoint slideshow display, which he talks over the changing imagery, defining and revealing his process as well as his philosophy of building a creative time of the highest caliber. When asked how many high-level and extremely detailed design pieces he was showing during the talk, Daniel said he narrowed it down to about 300 pieces as beyond that it became redundant.

One of Daniel Dociu's amazingly visionary art pieces.

Immediately after his talk, it was announced by Daniel and DigiPen Senior Vice President, Raymond Yan, that Daniel had agreed to do a serious of advanced ‘continuing education’ classes at the DigiPen art campus in the New Year, focusing on the formative creative process that leads-up to the completion of a successful piece of concept art.

Back in the IMAX Theater, the ‘Program 2’ collection of films were screened during Daniel’s workshop. Again these were received well by the appreciative crowd. “Cowboy Chicken” was once again the hit of the section!

Later, the seemingly inexhaustible Don Hahn was now in the Laser Dome presenting his fabulous “The Alchemy of Animation” workshop. Based on his new book of the same name, Don’s lecture meticulously went through the stage-by-stage process of animated production, using exquisite examples from many of the great films he and the Disney studio had produced over the years.

"The Alchemy of Animation"... from whence it came.

Anyone who had any interest in making animated movies could not fail to be both inspired and well-tutored in the art at its very highest level of expression. After the event, Don generously agreed to sign copies of his book to all those who had eagerly purchased them from the festival bookstore.

Once more back in the IMAX Theater, Tony White introduced the final keynote speaker of the event, Barry Cook.

Barry tells his bicycle story!

Tony declared in his introduction that the great thing about organizing a festival is that you get to see the films you want to see and hear the top-drawer presenters that you want to hear! He confirmed that Barry Cook was no exception to his personal ‘wish list’. Barry Cook’s presentation was launched with the immaculate, whirlwind Roger Rabbit short film that he had directed, “Trail Mix Up”. This was a perfect warm-up piece. Barry then went through the process of filmic storytelling and related it to personal experiences and events in his life. (Get him to tell the ‘bicycle’ story if you get to meet him!) He then showed examples of the some of the more beautiful sequences from “Mulan”, which he also directed. Barry’s gentle charm and distinct knowledge of the director’s art bodes well for the project he is currently developing for the Laika studio down in Portland, OR at the present time.

Beautiful imagery graces Barry Cook's, "Mulan".

To say the Michel Gagne is a ‘one-off’ is an understatement. Making his second visit to the festival, Michel gave us an exclusive, first-ever look at work-in-progress from his independent game project currently in production… “Insanely Twisted Puppet Planet”.

A tantalizing glimpse of Gagne!

He explained that some of his team were reluctant for him to show anything from the game, which will still not be launched sometime in 2010. However, from the audience’s perspective it was all well worth the risk! The game perfectly captures Michel’s uniquely personal style and with its strange and absorbing game-play should be a big hit when it eventually comes out. However, Michel was not content to just give the festival the exclusive peak at his game. He also confided afterwards that he wanted to give something more to the workshop audience than just previously unseen animation. Consequently he stayed up till 5.00 am that day to create tutorial on the techniques he uses to create his special brand of design and animation. He admitted that this was the first time he had ever taught in public before!

The awards announcements and presentation are mentioned elsewhere, so there is not need to do so again here.

The filmed and screened moment when Richard Williams received his "Roy E. Disney Award".

Suffice it to say it was a proud moment for the festival… for here at last was a chance to celebrate and honor the art of animation, which is part of the Animaticus Foundation mission. It was particularly rewarding to be able to present the ‘Best 2D Animation Production’ Golden Pencil Award to “Animated American” directors James Baker and Joe Haidar, who had traveled all the way north from LA just for the festival. Word is that they are now working on a feature-length movie script, based on the concept of the short. We can only wish them all the very best of luck with it. It promises to be quite a feature film if “Animated American” is anything to go by!

James & Joe recieve their Golden Pencil Awards from Ken & Tony.

With the main festival events successfully completed… and everyone perhaps a little ‘animated-out’… it was time to relax and unwind in the less pressured social setting of the ‘Gala Event’. The performance of the “Pontiac Bay Orchestra”, led my Hollywood composer Hummie Mann, proved a delightful distraction.

Hummie conducts the Pontiac Bay Orchestra.

The Pontiac Bay Orchestra perfectly reflects the mission of the Animaticus Foundation… i.e. to provide a mentoring experience, where talented young musicians play side-by-side with seasoned professionals to create wonderful music from both classic and media sources. Their ‘movie theme’ concert had been a huge success some time before in the Seattle region and so they had been commissioned to present a medley of animated classic film themes for the gathered guests and attendees at the festival. It was a huge success! The Gala was also a time were everyone could mix and chat and maybe get an autograph or two… or even a future job networking opportunity. The plan worked well. Everyone seemingly had a great time and left happy and smiling and hugging one another after the event, promising to come back next year.

Ticket holders not only had free access to the Pacific Science Center... but they could event see the natural cartoon fantasy of the butterfly house too!

Now the festival is finally over and the dust is beginning to settle, thoughts must go out for next year’s event. Great things had been accomplished this time around and yet some lessons had been learned. The main thing was that now, at last, Seattle has a major animation festival presence in its midst and this is something that surely has to be built upon. This and the need for a film animation production presence… where talented student graduates can apprentice under master animator professionals on real ground-breaking projects… will be the next priority for the Animaticus Foundation. We nevertheless wish to thank all those who have materially contributed to this fabulous event in 2008… or indeed those who came for nothing else than just to see the great films and presenters. We will do our utmost to ensure that this is a regular event for the future and that it will grow and grow in the minds of the animation community around the world.

"Animaticus Foundation" ~ Keeping the Magic Alive!

And just in from VanArts’ Ken Priebe… “I’ve posted a report on the festival on me BLOG… Thanks again for having us, and for putting on another great show! Hope to see you again soon, Ken.”

The 2D OR NOT 2D Animation Festival offers three awards… a “Merit Award” (for films of outstanding quality that do not quite make a full Golden Pencil Award), a “Golden Pencil Award” (for films that are considered the best in their class, i.e. ‘best film’ or ‘best animation in a film’) and the “Roy E. Disney Award” (a non-competitive award for the person or organization it is considered has made an outstanding contribution to the animated artform). As is recorded previously, the 2008 ‘Roy E. Disney Award’ winner was Richard Williams. The other award winners were as follows…

MERIT AWARDS:

STUDENT FILMS

Our Footsteps in the Leaves (9m, United Kingdom)

Dir. by Benjamin Sanders

Token Hunchback (6m, U S A)

Dir. by Tim Reckart

Carried Away (4m, U S A)

Dir. by Zach Parrish

Chicken Cowboy (6m, U S A)

Dir. by Stephen Neary

DIGITAL MEDIA

Stonecreek Studio (30sec, USA)

Dir. Jason Jenkins

GOLDEN PENCIL AWARDS:

BEST ANIMATION IN A STUDENT FILM:

CoCo Nut (5m, U S A)

Dir. by jiunnfu su

Abridged (4m, U S A)

Dir. by Arjun Rihan

BEST STUDENT FILM:

Sebastian’s Voodoo (4m, U S A)

Dir. by Joaquin Baldwin

BEST ALL-STYLE FILM:

Toumai (4m, U S A)

Dir. by Carlos Stevens

BEST DIGITAL MEDIA PRODUCTION:

Apple/Bird & the Bee “Again & Again” (3m, U S A)

Dir. by Dennis Liu

BEST ANIMATION IN A 2D ANIMATED FILM:

Mr. Lux (4m, U S A)

Dir. by Michael Jantze

BEST 2D ANIMATED FILM:

Animated American (15m, U S A)

Dir. by James Baker, Joe Haidar

The festival wishes to congratulate all filmmakers who entered this year’s event… not only those who won an award, or even who’s films were screened… but all those who simply made a film and entered it into our festival! To create a completed animated film is a significant achievement for any artist and so in even doing this we offer you our heartiest congratulations. This year we had a record number of entries and an exception collection of finalist films. We hope therefore that many filmmakers will be inspired by what they witnessed at this year’s event and will return next year, or soon after, with a new production that can amaze and dazzle us as many of this year’s entries did.

The Animaticus Foundation traditionally presents the annual ‘Roy E. Disney Award’ to the person or organization it feels has most contributed to the animated artform. The award itself is always announced at the climax of the concluding awards ceremony at the “2D OR NOT 2D Animation Festival”. It can now be announced that this year’s recipient was RICHARD WILLIAMS. However, as he could not be at the festival for the official announcement, the presentation was made prior to the event at the DigiPen Institute of Technology campus in Redmond, WA on October 29th, 2008 prior to a masterclass that Richard Williams was about to conduct there. The presentation was made by the president of the Animaticus Foundation, Tony White.

With tired and aching feet (from so much rushing from IMAX Theater to the Laser Dome Theater at Seattle’s Pacific Science Center!) I look back now on the past two days of the 3rd annual “2D OR NOT TO 2D Animation Festival” with a significant amount of pride and certain sense of awe about what has just occurred. It was fabulous!

Things went better than I dare expect, with good crowds seemingly genuinely appreciative and respectful of what they had just witnessed. Our fabulous presenters… both keynote and workshop… rose to the occasion and there is little doubt that anyone who was able to witness each speech and each workshop could hardly fail to have learned the process and techniques at the highest possible level. The films were definitely loved in so many cases with so many people coming up to me to share their appreciation of them afterwards. (There will of course be a full and detailed account of the full festival events on this site very soon now.)

Now with the dust settling and all the boxes of equipment and related artifacts still needing to be unloaded from our cars the morning after, I just want to say to all those contributing to the festival… as well as all those attending… “Bravo! Bravo!! Bravo!!!” You have truly made this year’s event a true high spot of my life and I genuinely value every moment on it. If we can but bottle and distribute the magical elixir of commitment, passion and exceptional knowledge that was generated over the past two days at the Pacific Science Center, then the future of animation is indeed in good hands. As I alluded to during my closing remarks at the last awards screening session, perhaps just one of you in our audience is THE person to take animation… specifically traditional 2D animation… forward to its next incarnation and thereby herald a new renaissance of incredible animated movie-making for our world. If this is so, then we have indeed all done our job well!

I finally wish yet again to thank all those who have helped make this year’s festival what it was. To the unflappable Ken Rowe, I thank you one more time for being a fine Festival Director. To Claude Comair’s DigiPen Institute of Technology and especially Mr. Raymond Yan, I say a HUGE thank you… for without you this year’s event would certainly never have happened in the way it did. I thank also the staff and the management at the Pacific Science Center and its Boeing IMAX Theater for making it a venue to remember. I thank all the speakers… Peter Moehrle, Dean Yeagle, Daniel Dociu, Michel Gagne, Barry Cook and Don Hahn… for gracing our stages and sharing with us with your incredible talent, knowledge and experience. To PlexiPixel’s Vicky, Matt and Kristi for providing us with such a wonderful website for the entire event. Thanks also to Sheila, Hummie and all the musicians in the Pontiac Bay Orchestra for rounding off our event with all the stirring and classic music from animation’s past. I especially thank all those dedicated and passionate filmmakers who insanely sacrifice whole periods of their lives just to share with us their animated skill and vision. Next, I cannot but fail to send my heartfelt thanks and gratitude to Joel, Saille, Ryal, Tai, Ang and all the other helpers (especially the team from AI Seattle) who gave their seemingly inexhaustible time, energy and commitment to the event… as well as all those who helped get word of the festival out there prior to the event. (Not forgetting Lawrence Schwedler for enabling me to record our 60-second commercial track… effectively my first experience behind the mic as a voice-over artist… and Jim Johnson for filming our festival promo piece!) And finally to our intrepid audiences who braved the aftermath of the floods, election-lag and an ailing economy to support us and show so much appreciation for what we had achieved. I thank you all (as well as any I have sadly forgotten in my comatose aftermath of this whirlwind event) from the bottom of my heart, for providing us all with such a wonderful life experience.

Please ‘watch this space’ for further details (and pics) of the event, to be posted over the following days. (And if anyone has any really unique pictures of the event you want to share with us all, please send them to our event coordinator, Angela Baker, at abaker@digipen.edu and we’ll endeavor to place them on this site if at all possible.) Ultimately we intend to create a DVD of the festival and its events that we can make available to all who are interested. So if this interests you too, please forward your email address to Angela Baker and we’ll add it to our mailing list… so we can let you know about any other exciting events in relation to the Animaticus Foundation and the “2D OR NOT 2D Animation Festival” in the future.

Again… thanks everyone. I salute you all!

Tony. :^{)}=-

Well here we are. The first day of the festival… it starts at 8.00 pm tonight!

I hope you can make it? Everything is really shaping-up really well. The speakers are in town and the films are looking great. All it needs now if for you to be there to stomp and shout your approval!

(Note: There will be a table at the event, selling festival T-shirts, buttons and signed DVDs of Tony White’s “Endangered Species” film. All these proceeds will go to the Animaticus Foundation coffers. Some speakers, such as Dean Yeagle, Michel Gagne and Don Hahn (book signing) will be selling books and other things through our table too. But please be prepared… we DO NOT have a credit card payment system in place, so all purchases have to be done through CASH or CHECK!)

Anyway, hope you can make it? It’s going to be one heck of an event!

To further support the Animaticus Foundation mission to bring animation to the people of Seattle through the 2008 “2D OR NOT 2D Animation Festival”, the DigiPen Institute of Technology has made the incredible gesture of subsidizing all existing ticket prices so that the event will be cheaper and more readily accessed by all in these economically challenging times. The Animaticus Foundation wishes to thank DigiPen for this wonderful gesture… and hope that you can now take advantage of these generous discounts! Existing ticket holders can have the difference in pricing redeemed by contacting the Animaticus Foundation, care of Angela Baker, at abaker@digipen.edu or 425-629-5055.

Click HERE or see the details below for the new ticket prices.

Individual Event Pricing

Friday 8.00 pm – 11.00 pm
Opening, Festival Films 01 -Best of the festival entries, Dean Yeagle, My Life With Mandy, Festival Films 02 – best of the festival entries.
Adult: $20 (was $30), PacSci Member: $12 (was $18), Student: $12 (was $18)

Saturday 11.00 am ~ 2.00 pm
Festival Films 03 -Best of the festival entries, Don Hahn – Disney short films, Festival Films 01 (Reprise)
Adult: $20 (was $30), PacSci Member: $12 (was $18), Student: $12 (was $18)

Saturday 03.00 pm ~ 6.00 pm
Festival Films 02 (reprise), Barry Cook, Festival Films 03 (reprise)
Adult: $20 (was $30), PacSci Member: $12 (was $18), Student: $12 (was $18)

Saturday 11:00 am ~ 12:00 pm
WORKSHOP 01: Peter Moehrle & Geraldine Kovats “Recreating the Ice Age… and other animated movie art.”
Adult: $25 (was $30), Student: $15 (was $20)

Saturday 1:00 pm ~ 2:00 pm
WORKSHOP 02: Daniel Dociu (ArenaNet) –“‘The Making of Guild Wars”
Adult: $25 (was $30), Student: $15 (was $20)

Saturday 3:00 pm ~ 4:00 pm
Workshop 03: DON HAHN ~ “The Alchemy of Animation”
Award-winning Disney Producer shows the process of animated production… featuring top Disney and Tim Burton film material.
Adult: $25 (was $30), Student: $15 (was $20)

Saturday 5:00 pm ~ 6:00 pm
WORKSHOP 04: Michel Gagne ~ ‘Insanely Twisted Puppet Planet’
Adult: $25 (was $30), Student: $16 (was $20)

Saturday 7.00 pm ~ 11.00 pm
Awards Presentation -‘Golden Pencil’ Awards + ‘Roy E. Disney Award’. Gala Event – Relaxed meet ‘n greet with lectures, visitor and invited guests + Pontiac Bay Orchestra with Hummie Mann.
Adult: $40 (was $65), Student: $25 (was $40)

Combo Pricing

GRAND COMBO
3 screenings, Awards and Gala
Adult: $75 (was $127), Student: $45 (was $75)

STUDENT COMBO
3 screenings – student only
Student: $30 (was $45)

FAN COMBO
3 screenings – non-student
Adult: $70 (was $80)

SATURDAY ONLY COMBO
Festival Films 03 -Best of the festival entries, Don Hahn – Disney short films, Festival Films 01 (Reprise) AND Festival Films 02 (reprise), Barry Cook, Festival Films 03 (reprise)
Adult: $45 (was $55)

Just for fun you might like to hear our radio ad thats hitting the airwaves via THE END 107.7 and KUBE 93 FM in the greater Seattle region right now.

Click HERE to check out our MP3 version. (And please be patient while it loads… its the 60-second version!)

"ANIMATED AMERICAN" ~ 15 minutes of really cool, live-action/animation mastery. A definite 'not to miss' for any animator... especially a traditional 2D animator. Sexy too!

Below is a screening list of what films will be seen when. Most of these excellent, juried film selections will be competing for the festival’s “Golden Pencil Award“, although one or two are screened out of competition as we wanted to present some productions we thought were either exceptional or else which supported a local filmmaker.

"ABRIDGED" ~ the strange (yet endearing) love affair between the two stanchions of the 'Golden Gate Bridge'!

FYI: Each of these programs will be screened twice, spanning the Friday night and Saturday. In this way visitors to the festival can see all of the films and attend three of the four workshops occurring at the same time on Saturday. If you should wish to attend all of the workshops however, you will be obliged to miss one of the film programs listed below.

"TOUMAI" combines all styles and techniques superbly, to evoke an imaginary world impossible to see in anything but animation!

PROGRAM 01:

My Little World (2.4 min, USA) Dir. Mike Nguyen.

Abridged (4m, USA) Dir. Arjun Rihan.

Our Footsteps in the Leaves (9m, UK) Dir. Benjamin Sanders.

Sebastian’s Voodoo (4m, USA) Dir. Joaquin Baldwin.

"MR. LUX" ~ this charming UPA retro-style piece is a gentle joy to behold!

Token Hunchback (6m, USA) Dir. Tim Reckart.

Mr. Lux (4m, USA) Dir. Michael Jantze.

Animated American ( 15m, USA) Dir. James Baker/Joe Haidar.

Last Time in Clerkenwell (4m, UK) Dir. Alex Budovsky.

(Total Running Time: 48.5 mins.)

(Note: “Program 01″ has a shorter running time that the other two programs as it will include festival opening announcements and introductions the first time around. However, on its Saturday reprise showing, this section will also include some exceptional DigiPen student films too!)

For the traditional purists... "THE TORTOISE & COYOTE" is an excellent example of the animated storyteller's art!

PROGRAM 02:

Stonecreek Studio (30secs, USA) Dir. Jason Jenkins.

Bertha & Bruno (7m, UK) Dir. Michael Rokes.

Chemistry, (4m, USA) Dir. Hiroki Sato.

CoCo Nut (5m, USA) Dir. Jiunnfu Su.

Endless Tunnel (5m, USA) Dir. Tommy Thompson.

Izanami & ixanagi (2m, USA) Dir. Allie Takahashi.

Wacky and strange... "COCO NUT" pits two extremely different colleagues against a somewhat sneaky and scheming sea foe!

The Cave: An Adaption of Plato’s Allegory in Clay (3m, USA) Dir. Michael Ramsey.

Written by Gandhi (1m, USA) Dir. Joseph Spaid.

Chicken Cowboy (6m, USA) Dir. Stephen Neary.

Witherwood (8m, USA) Dir. Matthew Garneau.

Toumai (4m, USA) Dir. Carlos Stevens.

The Owl House (8m, UK) Dir. Jessica Cope.

Arjuna (3m, USA) Dir. Arjun Rihan.

Farewell (2m, USA) Dir. Seojin Lee.

(Total Running Time: 58.5 mns.)

Dark, brooding and intensely fascinating... "SEBASTIAN'S VOODOO" wonderfully adds an air of the disturbingly mysterious to the proceedings!

PROGRAM 03:

HEY! Let’s Get ‘Em”Bowler Cap Chaps For Hire! (2m, USA) Dir. William Cass.

The Tortoise and Coyote (3m, USA) Dir. Len Simon.

Max’s Words (10m, USA) Dir. Galen Fott/Jerry Hunt.

Goldilocks, Redirected (2m, USA) Dir. Laura Beth Albright.

Carried Away (4m, USA) Dir. Zach Parrish.

Levity (3m, USA) Dir. Gus Trauth.

You want wacky??? "CHICKEN COWBOY" gives you wacky!!!

Broken Rainbow (9m, USA) Dir. Chia-Chien Mai.

Inside the Box (4m, USA) Dir. John Doublestein.

Lupo Dentro (5m, Italy) Dir. Gabriele Diaferia.

Old Timer (4m, USA) Dir. Maya Lior.

A Christmas Carl (4m, Canada) Dir. Michael Patrick O’Hara.

Apple/Bird & the Bee “Again & Again” (3m, USA) Dir. Dennis Liu.

(Total Running Time: 57 min.)

Delicately haunting and yet wistfully compelling... this beautifully imaged film, "OUR FOOTSTEPS IN THE LEAVES" is a triumph of the illustrative animator's art!

Barry Cook was born and raised in Nashville, TN, USA. He began making films at the age of ten on the family super 8 camera. He won two prizes in the local PBS-sponsored Young Filmmakers Festival with “The Vampire” and “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” at the age of twelve. During summers, he and his brother would work at Opryland USA, drawing caricatures of the guests.

"Mulan" ~ the great stylistic breakthrough movie for Disney!

At the age of eighteen, Barry moved to California to pursue his career in motion pictures. He studied at Columbia College, where he spent time helping colleagues with their student films. He served as an intern at Hanna Barbera. He joined Disney in 1981 to work on “Tron“. He has worked as an animator on many Disney films, including “Oliver & Company” and “Captain EO“. He has worked at Disney for seventeen years, and “Mulan” was his directing debut.

Storyboard frame ~ 'Angel and Crow'.

Although Barry cannot present the current material he is producing at the LAIKA studio in Oregon, he will take the audience through much of the work he had done both within and without of Disney, especially from the director’s perspective of ‘telling stories”. Examples of Barry’s last development project for Disney can actually be found in their new book “Disney Lost and Found: Exploring the Hidden Artwork from Never-Produced Animation”.