Animation Nights New York Announces 4th Annual Best Of Fest
Animation Nights New York in partnership with Anderson Contemporary presents the 4th Annual ANNY Best of Fest!
Saturday & Sunday October 5-6, 2019 12pm-10pm 180 Maiden Lane Seaport District, NYC
Animation Nights New York (ANNY) is a monthly curated animation screening event and annual festival held in New York City. We show animated short films from all around the world. Animation Nights New York was founded by Yvonne Grzenkowicz on September 9, 2015. Our premiere “NY Independents” screening was held a 207a Front St (next to Cannon’s Walk) in the South Street Seaport.
ANNY Best of Fest is our TWO DAY annual festival & conference featuring Animation Screenings, Fine Art Exhibits, an XR showcase, VR Workshop Presentations, Professional Panels, and Industry Events.
ANNY Exchange connects talent to (XR & traditional) projects via both in-person and online events.
ANNY Cannes Program is offered as an additional opportunity for our animation directors. We invite individuals from our international film teams to join us at the cannes film festival. 20 animated short films are selected for exhibition as part of the animation nights new york cannes program. Films are part of a special screening in the marché du film in palais. Filmmakers receive badges for the festival and participate in networking events.
Anderson Contemporary was founded by Ronni Anderson in 2015. Outside traditional art districts, Anderson is carving a niche in the trending FiDi-Seaport neighborhood with her fine art gallery located in the expansive lobby space of 180 Maiden Lane.
Festival Details
Animation Screenings
2019 ANNY Best of Fest Animated Films Our industry jurors selected 20 films from the 165 in-competition films screened this season. Our prestigious panel of jurors this year include:
● Ed Hooks (Acting for Animators) - Ed Hooks is a multi-faceted theatrical professional, respected as an actor, author and acting teacher. He has taught professional-level workshops and scene study in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago. His stage, film and television credits include more than 100 roles. Ed pioneered Acting for Animators in 1998 while working with the animators at PDI/DreamWorks in northern California. Since then he has presented his masterclass at most major animation studios and game companies internationally. Ed's book Acting for Animators, now in its 3rd edition, is a required text for animators in training everywhere.
● Waltraud Grausgruberv (Tricky Women Festival, Vienna) - Waltraud Grausgruber is festival director and co-founder of the Tricky Women Festival in Vienna, Austria. Tricky Women is the first and only festival of animated film that is dedicated exclusively to animation by women. Waltraud Grausgruber studied theatre, film and media studies at the University of Vienna and tourism at the University of Economics of Vienna. She wrote her master‘s thesis about African cinema, did research in France, Senegal and Burkina Faso, conceptualised film festivals and curated international film programmes. Together with Birgitt Wagner, she got the Outstanding Artists Award of the Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, Arts and Culture in 2010. As festival director she published books on Art and Film, among others ‘Tricky Women – Animations Film Kunst von Frauen’ (Women in Animation), Schüren Verlag, and ‘Mörderinnen’ (Killing Women in Film), Elephantenpress.
● Sally Berger (Formerly MOMA, Now NYU and Haverford College) - Sally Berger is a film and media curator, lecturer, and writer whose work focuses on the relationships between experimental film and media installation; nonfiction and fiction film; and documentary film and art. She is currently a Fellow at the Center for Media, Culture and History at New York University and a Visiting Assistant Professor at Haverford College. At the Museum of Modern Art, where she worked from 1986 – 2016, she was a Curatorial Assistant and Assistant Curator in the Department of Film, and Director/co-founder of Documentary Fortnight, an international festival of nonfiction film featuring contemporary trends in nonfiction film/media. A participating curator in annual series at the Museum such as Modern Mondays, Media Scope, and Video Viewpoints, Berger invited artists representing various film and media discourses such as Akosua Adoma Owusu, Eric Baudelaire, Ximena Cuevas, Sharon Hayes, and Alfredo Jaar, and proposed contemporary and historical art acquisitions and restorations including the work of Skip Blumberg, James Longley, Anri Sala, Carolee Schneeman, and Yvonne Rainer. Berger has organized retrospectives of film directors Roddy Bogawa, Harun Farocki, Su Friedrich, Mahamat Saleh Haroun, Naomi Kawase, Kim Longinotto, Alanis Obomsawin, Lourdes Portillo, Sally Potter, and Vittorio De Seta, and media art installation shows of Magdalena Campos Pons, Patty Chang and David Kelley, Seoungho Cho, and Mary Lucier. Her thematic exhibitions have explored indigenous media, Chinese documentary film, women in film, and groundbreaking media art organizations. Her installation and theater exhibition “Maya Deren’s Legacy: Women and Experimental Film,” was accompanied by an essay on Maya Deren for the book Modern Women: Women Artists at The Museum of Modern Art. Berger was Executive Director of The Flaherty Seminars from 1989 – 1994. She received an M.A. from New York University, Tisch School of the Arts in Cinema Studies and a B.A. from Fordham University at Lincoln Center in Media Studies.
● Waltraud Grausgruberv (Tricky Women Festival, Vienna) - Waltraud Grausgruber is festival director and co-founder of the Tricky Women Festival in Vienna, Austria. Tricky Women is the first and only festival of animated film that is dedicated exclusively to animation by women. Waltraud Grausgruber studied theatre, film and media studies at the University of Vienna and tourism at the University of Economics of Vienna. She wrote her master‘s thesis about African cinema, did research in France, Senegal and Burkina Faso, conceptualised film festivals and curated international film programmes. Together with Birgitt Wagner, she got the Outstanding Artists Award of the Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, Arts and Culture in 2010. As festival director she published books on Art and Film, among others ‘Tricky Women – Animations Film Kunst von Frauen’ (Women in Animation), Schüren Verlag, and ‘Mörderinnen’ (Killing Women in Film), Elephantenpress.
● Sally Berger (Formerly MOMA, Now NYU and Haverford College) - Sally Berger is a film and media curator, lecturer, and writer whose work focuses on the relationships between experimental film and media installation; nonfiction and fiction film; and documentary film and art. She is currently a Fellow at the Center for Media, Culture and History at New York University and a Visiting Assistant Professor at Haverford College. At the Museum of Modern Art, where she worked from 1986 – 2016, she was a Curatorial Assistant and Assistant Curator in the Department of Film, and Director/co-founder of Documentary Fortnight, an international festival of nonfiction film featuring contemporary trends in nonfiction film/media. A participating curator in annual series at the Museum such as Modern Mondays, Media Scope, and Video Viewpoints, Berger invited artists representing various film and media discourses such as Akosua Adoma Owusu, Eric Baudelaire, Ximena Cuevas, Sharon Hayes, and Alfredo Jaar, and proposed contemporary and historical art acquisitions and restorations including the work of Skip Blumberg, James Longley, Anri Sala, Carolee Schneeman, and Yvonne Rainer. Berger has organized retrospectives of film directors Roddy Bogawa, Harun Farocki, Su Friedrich, Mahamat Saleh Haroun, Naomi Kawase, Kim Longinotto, Alanis Obomsawin, Lourdes Portillo, Sally Potter, and Vittorio De Seta, and media art installation shows of Magdalena Campos Pons, Patty Chang and David Kelley, Seoungho Cho, and Mary Lucier. Her thematic exhibitions have explored indigenous media, Chinese documentary film, women in film, and groundbreaking media art organizations. Her installation and theater exhibition “Maya Deren’s Legacy: Women and Experimental Film,” was accompanied by an essay on Maya Deren for the book Modern Women: Women Artists at The Museum of Modern Art. Berger was Executive Director of The Flaherty Seminars from 1989 – 1994. She received an M.A. from New York University, Tisch School of the Arts in Cinema Studies and a B.A. from Fordham University at Lincoln Center in Media Studies.
● Jill Johnston (SUNY Fredoni) - Jill Johnston is an artist from New York State. She received her Masters of Fine Art in Cinematography from the University of South Florida in Tampa with a Minor in Photography. Her artwork explores the narrative format through animation, drawing, painting, film making, and photography. A recipient of a Finishing Funds Grant from the New York Arts Council, a Mary land Area Media Arts Fellowship, several SUNY grants, and animation awards, her work has screened at international exhibitions in Australia, Croatia, Denmark, England, France, Ger many, Greece, Italy, Japan, Korea, Turkey, and New Zealand, as well as numerous national exhibitions.
● John Dilworth (Stretch Films) - John Russell Dilworth is an American animator, actor, director, writer, producer and the creator of the animated television series Courage the Cowardly Dog. His work has mainly appeared on CBS, Showtime, HBO, FOX, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon and MTV, among others.
● John Dilworth (Stretch Films) - John Russell Dilworth is an American animator, actor, director, writer, producer and the creator of the animated television series Courage the Cowardly Dog. His work has mainly appeared on CBS, Showtime, HBO, FOX, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon and MTV, among others.
● Lesley Chow (Bright Lights) - Lesley Chow is an Australian writer on film and music. She was president of the film critics' jury at Toronto in 2018, and has also been on the jury at Venice, Berlin, Karlovy Vary and Istanbul. She is associate editor of Bright Lights Film Journal and writes on music for The Quietus, as well as publishing in the Times Literary Supplement, Salon, Senses of Cinema, Cineaste, Photofile, Pop Matters and CNN.
● Gareb Shamus (Ace Comic Con) - Gareb Shamus is the founder and former chairman and CEO of Wizard Entertainment and the co-founder and current CEO of ACE Comic Con.
● Olesya Shchukina (Estrella Production, Paris) - Olesya Shchukina (Олеся Щукина) is an illustrator and animation filmmaker from St. Petersburg, Russia living in Paris, France. She is also a co-founder of ko-ko-ko.
2019 ANNY Best of Fest Grand Prize Winners and Special Prize Winners will be announced during the festival.
● Gareb Shamus (Ace Comic Con) - Gareb Shamus is the founder and former chairman and CEO of Wizard Entertainment and the co-founder and current CEO of ACE Comic Con.
● Olesya Shchukina (Estrella Production, Paris) - Olesya Shchukina (Олеся Щукина) is an illustrator and animation filmmaker from St. Petersburg, Russia living in Paris, France. She is also a co-founder of ko-ko-ko.
2019 ANNY Best of Fest Grand Prize Winners and Special Prize Winners will be announced during the festival.
2019 ANNY Best of Fest Grand Prize Winner Judge
● Sabine Heller ( Blue Sky ) - New Head of Characters at Blue Sky Studios overseeing the Characters Department and the creation of all character assets from start to finish, including but not limited to the following aspects of character creation: sculpting, modeling, rigging, fur, materials, garment building and simulation setup. Ensuring that the assets meet the creative and technical artists to achieve the artistic goals of the characters in the films, constantly striving to develop, maintain and improve the character creation look, technology and workflow.
2019 ANNY Best of Fest Grand Prize Winner (VR 360 & Room Scale) Judge
● James Pallot ( Emblematic Group ) - Expert in immersive media, including virtual and augmented reality; ASME award-winning editor and creative strategist.
● Jay Stern ( Iron Mule Festival ) - Jay is a member of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab and a founder of the World Wide Lab, an international festival of director-driven work developed at the Watermill Center, which had its inaugural presentation in New York City in the summer of 2012. Jay is also a founder, producer, and co-host of the Iron Mule Short Comedy Screening Series, which has been screening monthly since April, 2002.
2019 ANNY Best of Fest Iron Mule Comedy Award Judge
● Jay Stern ( Iron Mule Festival ) - Jay is a member of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab and a founder of the World Wide Lab, an international festival of director-driven work developed at the Watermill Center, which had its inaugural presentation in New York City in the summer of 2012. Jay is also a founder, producer, and co-host of the Iron Mule Short Comedy Screening Series, which has been screening monthly since April, 2002.
2019 ANNY Best of Fest Animation for Adults Award
● Chris Perkins ( Animation for Adults ) - Founder, UK Editor and Co-Owner of Animation for Adults, a UK/US podcast and blog. Writer for MyM, NerdSpan, and many more.
● Rachael Ward ( Animation for Adults ) - US Editor and Co-Owner of Animation for Adults, a UK/US podcast and blog.
2019 Prize Sponsors include Animation Magazine, ArtiVive, GKIDS, Kdan Mobile, Key Quest Publishing, Wacom, and Toon Boom.
2019 Prize Sponsors include Animation Magazine, ArtiVive, GKIDS, Kdan Mobile, Key Quest Publishing, Wacom, and Toon Boom.
2019 ANNY Best of Fest Short Film Program
● Ashes. Luciana Digiglio. Argentina, 03:54.
● BLAZING FIRE. Alexandre NART, Médéric PREVOST, Maxime LACOMBE, Aurel COUDERT, Roch TASTET. France, 04:07.
● Days - مایأ. SOFIA EL KHYARI. United Kingdom, 03:38.
● Fishes, Swimmers, Boats. Dmitry Geller, Andrey Koulev. China, 09:57.
● Freedom From Fear. John Morena. United States, 00:49.
● Hounds. Ido Shapira, Amit Cohen. Israel, 05:47.
● Idle, Torrent. Alex Moy. United States, 02:31.
● Keep Your Hair On, Oliver. Armelle MERCAT. France, 11:30.
● LONELY LUCIA. Hannah Sotelo. Mexico, 08:11.
● Motion Pictures. Matthew Incontri. United States, 09:41.
● My Little Goat. Tomoki Misato. Japan, 10:13.
● Rhizoma. Santiago Pérez Rodríguez. Belgium, 03:00.
● See Spot Squeal. Rachel Seropian. United States, 00:00.
● Snow White Cologne. Amanda Eliasson. United Kingdom, 06:20.
● Sweet Night. LIA BERTELS. Belgium, 13:46.
● The Egg Job. Guilherme Krolow. Brazil, 05:00.
● The Fox. Sadegh Javadi Nikjeh. Iran, Islamic Republic of, 09:45
● The Stained Club. Mélanie Lopez, Simon Boucly, Marie Ciesielski, Alice Jaunet, Chan Stéphie Peang, Béatrice Viguier. France, 06:39.
● Travelogue Tel Aviv. Samuel Patthey. Switzerland, 06:00.
● Twin Islands. Manon Sailly, Charlotte Sarfati, Christine Jaudoin, Lara Cochetel, Raphaël Huot, Fanny Teisson. France, 07:18.
Additional Screenings will include
● The Animation Showcase Oscar Predictive Program
● La Noria by Carlos Baena
● Augenblick 20th Anniversary Showcase
● Cartoons on Film (Tommy Stathes early animation archives showcase.)
● And more...
Fine Art Exhibits Anderson Contemporary is curating the fourth edition of Art in Motion which will feature both traditional and interactive work.
Virtual Reality Animation Showcase Our Virtual Reality & Augmented Reality Showcase will showcase both in-competition and invitational projects including work by Penrose Studios , Baobab Studios , Cartoon Network , NYU Future Lab / Parallux , Pink Kong Studios , Simpals , Lucid Realities , EpicScapes , Joren Vandenbroucke , Polyarc , Ollie VR , The Glimpse Group , RLab , Studio Soup , Diversion Cinema , Augmented Pictures , Lava Machine , Michelle & Uri Kranot , and many more! We will also feature Game Demos from IGDA NY.
Professional Panels & Industry Events Professional Panels and Industry Round-Tables will include discussions on Hiring and Recruiting, Animation in Emerging Technology, Distribution Solutions, Collaborative Platforms, Experiential Marketing, Women in the Workplace, Realtime Projects, Animation Workflow Pipeline, The Importance of Story, Animation in Games, Non-Linear Storytelling, Animation Tools in Development, Animation in Documentary, and Visual Effects. Participants will include representatives from Pocket Studio , BRIC , Flickerlab , Nice Shoes , VES , Stealth Startup , RLab , IGDA NY , Sesame Workshop , Hifi3D , Transistor Studios , Polyarc , Penrose Studios , BEL , KéexFrame , Augenblick , Titmouse , Nickelodeon , and many more!
Industry events include a VR Workshop Presentation from HTC Vive. We are also hosting several Networking Musical Chairs Events and Industry Round-Tables via ANNY Exchange.
180 Maiden Lane This beautiful 26,000 sq ft atrium space is home to Anderson Contemporary Gallery. The main floor also includes a modern Juice Bar & Café (Apogee Events / Chefscape). The North Lawn Plaza features a 40-foot projection screen, a 20-foot stage and over 5,000 square feet of green lawn space.
Attendees will enjoy the onsite Café in addition to a fantastic Food Program of Chefscape Stations.
EVENT DETAILS:
Saturday & Sunday, October 5-6, 2019, 12pm-10pm — 180 Maiden Lane, Seaport District, New York, NY 10038
Are there ID requirements or an age limit to enter the event? No.
RSVP & INDUSTRY BADGES:
All events on the Main Floor are open to the public (Enthusiast Package). Enthusiast Package RSVP includes access to Animation Screening Events, Special Panels, and Fine Art Exhibits. Industry Badges are available for purchase (Industry Package) and allow exclusive access to the Virtual Reality Animation Showcase, VR Presentations, Professional Panels, and Industry Events. (Industry Package also includes a tote bag, while supplies last!)
( Enthusiast Package - FREE, and Industry Package - $30 for a TWO DAY Industry Badge) will be available online beginning Sept 1. Donations will also be accepted to support the continued efforts of ANNY to promote independent animation.
Register for the Enthusiast Package for Main Floor Screening Events & Fine Art Exhibits : Eventbrite
Purchase INDUSTRY BADGES for the XR Showcase and Professional Panels: Eventbrite
We hope to see you there!
Thank you to our Vector Level Sponsors: Howard Hughes Corporation, K.C.’s Corner, and Apogee Events / ChefScape.
Thank you to our festival partner, Anderson Contemporary. Thank you to 180 Maiden Lane. Thank you to our wildly talented filmmakers. Thank you to the incredible ANNY Team.
Thank you to our festival partner, Anderson Contemporary. Thank you to 180 Maiden Lane. Thank you to our wildly talented filmmakers. Thank you to the incredible ANNY Team.
