Ottawa (Day Four)

Second last day of the festival! It's been awesome so far!



First thing I was able to catch was (most of) the Kids Competition (Shorts). Bora Moon's film, "Special Delivery" is pretty great.



The Teletoon award winners were also announced today. 1st prize in the high school division was Aven Fisher's stop motion flick about a Chameleon, "Herbert". Continuing Education went to Nathan Boey's "Family Picture", and Most Promising Student went to Trevor Jimenez's Key Lime Pie. For those wanting to know about Sheridan winners, James Higuchi's "Babushki" won third place in the Con. Ed, and Brandon Scott's "Cruel Fauna" won third place in Most Promising Student. I don't remember all the rest of the winners, but congrats to all who got in! Here is the full list of screening.



Short Competition 4 was probably the weakest of the pack, but still featured some great films. Matthew Walker's funny situational comedy "John and Karen", Ariel Belinco & Michael Faust's "Beton", Marc Craste's "National Lottery", and Jean-Loup Felicioli & Alain Gagnol's "Mauvais Temps" were the notable films.



I also attended the "Blogging and Animation" panel consisting of Jerry Beck, Jeff Hasulo, Michael Barrier, and Mark Mayerson, and discussed motivations for posting, the volatility of the medium, its benefits and shortcomings, among many other things. Quite the intelligent panel.



The international showcase is always a packed powerhouse, and this year was no exception. Standouts were Stefan Eling's "Cyber", Rune Christensen's "Down the Road", Arnaud Demuynck's "Breakout", Anna Solanas and Marc Riba's "Violeta", Grzegorz Jonkajtys's "Ark", and of course, Disney's Goofy short, "How to Hook Up Your Home Theater". Disney's new foray in 2D looked great and packed lots of gags - I just wish it were longer!

Anyways, looking forward to the last day here in Ottawa!