Great news! Rebecca Manley and Luca Paulli's Breaking the Mould (2007) completed as part of the University of Wales Newport’s Animator in Residence scheme, where a filmmaker spends one month in the university working with the students, has been shortlisted for DepicT! 2008.
Last month Jonay's graduation film Homeland (2007) was screened at the ICA in London as part of the Open Rehearsal and the Cultural Olympiad launch. Homeland was screened, as Jonay originally intended, with the live original music for prepared piano performed by the composer and Big Bang Lab director Sergio López Figueroa. Homeland has been well received by the festival circuit and has to date been screened at the following festivals:
-St. Petersburg Open Student Film Festival (Russia) : Sept 25-30 -Animasyros Animation Festival (Greece) : Sept 19-21 -Animadrid Animation Festival (Spain): Sept 30th -Balkanima animation festival (Serbia) : Oct 7th -11th -Optica Paris (France) : Oct 4th. -Canarias Mediafest (Spain) : Oct 28th - Nov 1st. London International Animation Festival (UK) Melbourne International Animation Festival (Australia) Animofest Animation Festival (Slovakia) London Spanish Film Festival (UK) Huesca International Shortfilm Festival (Spain) Animated Exeter (UK) Proyectaragon (Spain) Optica Festival (Spain) Finest Films, University of Wales, Newport (UK) Adobe Media Event in London (UK) Scife short film festival (Spain) Black&White short film festival (Portugal) Hebden Bridge Festival (UK) Imaginaria Film Festival (Italy) Asolo Art Film Festival (Italy) VII Muestra de Cortos Aragoneses (Spain)
To keep up to date about Jonay and his film, browse to http://www.thisishomeland.com/. Below is Jonay's latest showreel:
MA graduate Firman Machda's 'Empty Space', Felix Massie's Keith Reynolds and Matthew Walker's 'Operator' will be screened at the Edinburgh Film festival on June 23rd - 29th.
'Empty Space' and Felix Massie's 'Keith Reynolds Can't Make It Tonight' is in Trailblazer screening on the 23rd Operator is in the Maclaren Animation 2 screening.
Multi-award winning Newport graduates Tom Brown and Daniel Gray with their graduation film ‘t.o.m.’ (2006) were interviewed by Mark Kermode on ‘The Culture Show Uncut’ last Friday. The film and interview are available on iPlayer until Friday http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/page/item/b00c6w1q.shtml and slide the time bar to 53m30s.
Tom and Dan to date have received 28 international awards including winning Newport ‘Best Graduation Film 2007’ at Annecy International Animation Festival for the second year running, ‘Best Student Film 2006’ at Norwich International Animation Festival, ‘Cartoon D’or Nomination 2006’ at Encounters International Short Film Festival, ‘Honorable Mention for Short Filmmaking 2007’ at the Sundance Film Festival and most recently, two awards at the British Animation Awards 2008.
Having recently signed with Blacklist and Picasso Pictures for North America and Europe respectively, Holbrook’s Films have just directed their first commercial and are currently developing a script for another short film.
MA graduate Firman Machda's 'Empty Space' and Matthew Walker's 'Operator' will be screened at the Edinburgh Film festival on June 23rd - 29th. Empty Space is in the Trailblazer screening on the 23rd and Operator is in the Maclaren Animation 2 screening.
Ginny and I are proud to say that our little e4 sting has been short listed and may be playing right now on your television. We'd love to have your vote so we can have the chance to make more!
Garth and Ginny's e4 competition sting is being screened as part of pictoplasma's characters in motion festival this year! If your off to Berlin for the festival give us an email so we can meet up for drinks.
Congratulations to both Tom Brown and Daniel Gray on their continued success with their graduation film t.o.m. (2006). Last month they were awarded a prestigious Annecy Crystal for Best Graduation Film at the Annecy International Animation Festival 2007. That now makes Newport the only UK college to win 2 years in a row (last year Matthew Walker celebrated this success with his graduate film Astronauts). A full list of Annecy Prize Winners 2007.
"Annecy is definitely the 'Cannes' of the animation world..."
Adam Elliot, Director of Oscar winning Harvie Krumpet.
Here is a (very) short clip of the tail end of Tom and Dan's acceptance speech:
Further great news, t.o.m. is one of only five European films shortlisted to compete for the Cartoon d'Or 2007, the annual award that recognises the work of new talents in the European animation industry. This accolade, along with the global festival success of t.o.m., further underlines the international success of our graduate films.
What others have to say:
"There seems to be many films in this year's BIFF line-up featuring odd, troubled children and Snow Ben is a perfect example. Another is the animated boy Tom in 't.o.m.' , who takes us through his most bizarre daily routine from waking in the morning to arriving at school. To say anymore of this three-minute short would be to ruin it. It simply left me feeling uncomfortable for both Tom and myself."
Tania Theriault, ROYAL GAZETTE
"The prize of Best Student Film goes to a film that impresses for it's strong design, eccentric humor and highly accomplished storytelling, t. o. m. by Tom Brown and Daniel Gray"
Jury's comments, Norwich Int'l Animation Festival 06
"...a very short, beautifully drawn animation with a really very haunting story, of quite some psychological depth. It's an unusual, indeed singular piece of work that stays in one's memory. The sensitivity of the art work, the strange, vaguely Asperger's syndrome fastidiousness of the voice-over and the quite startling ending suggest a pair of film makers who really have a lot to say for themselves."
Tim Vaughan, Royal Television Society Awards 2006
"Beautifully drawn, it has a somewhat trippy feel"
IMAGINE MAGAZINE
"Want to get out of going to school? Simple. Take all your clothes off!...Okay, it's very odd behavior, but Tom is a lovable character regardless of that high pitch voice that grates away at you. You have to give the unusual plot top marks and the animation is seamless with a hand-painted background look adding to the child-like innocence of the film. It's a film you're not quite sure what to make of. But, if nothing else, its worthy of a watch as you could spend hours trying to imitate Tom's funny voice."
t.o.m. won the Best Undergraduate Animation award at this years' RTS Student Awards ceremony at the Barbican Centre, London last week. Although Newport has dominated the regional RTS Student Award for Best Animation for the last 6 years, this is our first National success!
Tom and Dan were there to collect their awards in person. Also from the International Film School Walesnominated for Best Undergrade Factual was Murray Mints & Paw Prints by Iain Paterson & Kurt Williams.
What the judges had to say:
“… a very short, beautifully drawn animation with a really very haunting story, of quite some psychological depth. It’s an unusual, indeed singular piece of work that stays in one’s memory. The sensitivity of the art work, the strange, vaguely Asperger’s syndrome fastidiousness of the voice-over and the quite startling ending suggest a pair of film makers who really have a lot to say for themselves…”
Mentioned many times on this blog already, two graduates from last year, Dan Gray and Tom Brown, have been enjoying endless success with their multi award-winning graduate film t.o.m.
Here's a trailer...
Awards - UPDATED!
Norwich International Animation Festival 2006: Best Student Film
Encounters Int. Short Film Festival 2006: Cartoon D'or Nomination
Sundance 2007: Honorable Mention for Short Filmmaking,
Ffresh Moving Image Festival 2007: Ffresh Animation
Royal Television Society, Wales Centre Student Television Awards 2006: Undergraduate Animation
Animated Exeter 2007: South West Screen Emerging Talent 2007
Bermuda International Film Festival 2007 Special Jury Mention
Celtic Film Festival 2007: Best Student Animation
Festivals
Norwich International Animation Festival 2006 Bradford Animation Festival 2006 Cardiff Film Festival 2006 Encounters Short Film Festival 2006 7 Inch Cinema Tour 2006 Signals Shorts (Colchester) 2007 Sundance Film Festival 2007 FlatPack Film Festival 2007 Ffresh Moving Image Festival 2007 Animated Exeter 2007 Bermuda International Films Festival 2007 HBO Comedy Film Festival 2007 31st Cleveland International Film Festival San Francisco International Film Festival 2007
Follow the links below for further info on this film, the film-makers themselves and their ongoing success. Well done!
Continuing Newport's international acclaim, the following films have been selected for competition at this years Annecy:
Leigh Hodgkinson for 'Flighty' in Short Films Matt Walker (plus Matt Dabb) for 'The Wrong Trainers' in TV Specials Jem Roberts for 'Islwyn Ogwyn' in Panorama Tom Brown and Dan Gray with 't.o.m.' in Graduate films
For those of you that didn't know, Leigh Hodgkinson was our Animator in Residence last year and, along with a number of eager students, completed 'Flighty' as part of her residency. Matt Dabb graduated last year to secure a position working alongside Matt Walker on one of the episodes for the CBBC Newsround Special 'The Wrong Trainers'. Jem Roberts graduated Newport with his graduation film 'Stuck'.
Considering this year's under-graduates are getting ready to journey to the prestigious Annecy International Animated Film Festival, it seemed only proper to celebrate last years' success, Astronauts. Matthew Walker, who graduated from Newport in 2005, championed an international selection to win Best Graduation Film 2006 at last year's event. Well done Matthew!
Matthew's graduation film has enjoyed a worldwide reception and and has been recognised for its excellence!
Awards
Winner Best Graduation Film at Annecy Animation Festival 2006 Winner Best Animated Short at Melbourne International Animation Festival 2006 Winner Best Student Film at the British Animation Awards 2006 Winner Best Animation at the Ffresh Student Awards 2006 Winner Best First Film at the Castelli Animati Film Festival 2005 Winner Best Screenplay at the Lineout Can Film Festival 2005 Winner Best Film at the Rough Cut Film Festival 2005 South Wales Regional Winner Best Undergraduate Animation at the Royal Television Awards 2005 Honourable Mention for Animation at the Curtas Vila do Conde International Film Festival 2006 Winner Best Film and Best Script at the International Film School Wales (IFSW) Finest Films Awards Short listed for BBC Talent New Animator Award 2005 Runner-up at Rushes Soho Shorts Awards, Animated Shorts Category 2006
"Astronauts (Matthew Walker) has a lovely tactile feel to its CG, like the characters and all their surroundings are made out of foam rubber. Beautifully timed visual and verbal gags, and a neatly understated punchline: it's the sort of comedy short that should get Pixar taking notice."
Rough Cut Film Festival 2005, 11 October, London, UK Animacor 2005, 25 – 30 October, Cordoba, Spain Can Film Festival 2005, 28 – 30 October, Leicester, UK PISAF 2005, 4 – 11 November, Korea Brief Encounters 2005, 23 – 27 November, Bristol, UK Anchorage Film Festival 2005 Bang! Short Film Festival 2005 Cardiff Screen Festival 2005 Animated Exeter 2005, 13 – 26 February, Exeter, UK Con-Can Film Festival (passed for preliminary screening) 2006, 24 February, Japan Annecy 2006, 5 – 9 June, France Hiroshima Animation Festival 2006, 23 – 28 August, Japan DOK Liepzig 2006, Germany Ottawa 2006, Canada CICDAF 2006, China CURTAS Vila do Conde 2006, Portugal Taiwan International Animation Festival 2006, China International Film Festival Catalunya 2006, Spain Showcomotion 2006, UK Signals International Short Film Festival 2006, UK Commonwealth Film Festival 2006, UK Uppsala Kortfilmfestival 2006, Sweden Norwich International Animation Festival 2006, UK International Kurz Film Festival 2006, Germany International Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen 2006, Germany
"…For its understated comedy about human nature – whether it be in the Stone Age or the Space Age: Give him a “push”!"
Castelli Animati Judges response to film, 2005
Matthew Walker is currently working as a Director at ArthurCox in Bristol.
Another graduate film enjoying the festival scene is Morp! by Nick Rodgers and Matthew Tempest. Morp! is currently in competition at Animated Exeter along with 3 other graduate films from University of Wales, Newport. All the best with that!
Unfortunately our "tubed" version has sync issues though a better quality version is available for download at www.morpthefilm.co.uk. Whilst completing this piece, Nick and Matt kept a blog entitled Surreal Friends Blog, an informative insight into the film-making process! Both Nick and Matt are currently employed at Blitz Games.
IFSW swept the boards this year at Ffresh winning the Animation, Fiction, Factual, TV and Best of Festival awards.
Animation was won by Tom Brown and Daniel Gray for t.o.m., they also won the Royal Television Society, Welsh Centre Student Television Award 2006 for Animation at the RTS ceremony held at the Festival every year.
t.o.m. by Tom Brown & Daniel Gray, was shortlisted in the Short Film Category of this years Sundance Film Festival 2007 held in Park City, Utah. More information and bad picture HERE.
With help from the British Council and SSAW we were able to fly out there and enjoy the entire festival, with t.o.m. being screened 6 times in various locations (including Robert Redfords Ranch). The film was viewed by over 3000 people and shown before the feature film 'Expired'.
t.o.m. along with 5 other short films received an 'Honorable Mention in Short Filmmaking'.
Other successes:
Encounters Short Film Festival 2006, Bristol, November 2006
