Animation shorts inspire audience at the NFB

It wasn’t your average “cartoon show” at the NFB in Toronto this past Friday night. Inspiration and good entertainment is what the audience was filled with after 2 hours of high-quality productions that incorporated a variety of animation techniques. Even though only 4 animations took the awards, all entries impressed the animation industry and general audience in attendance.

And the winners were ….

Best Animation 2D …. “Amma” by Jiin Park
Sheridan Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning in Oakville, Ontario, Canada.

Best Animation 3D …. “Circuit” by Shinji Dawson, Yannick Gillain and Felix Telfer
Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand

Best Animation Stop Motion … “Crossed Sild” by Lea Vidakovic and Ivana Bosnjak
Hogskulen I Volda, Volda, Norway

Best Animation Mixed Media … “Notes From Next Door” by Dave Maggio, Jon Lawitts and Jaime Klein
Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts USA

Congratulations to all of you ! Your Festival Trophy will be mailed to you very soon.

Winning entries can be viewed at Past Shows – 2011

All entries screened will be available for viewing on our site soon.

Post-secondary Event at the NFB Fri. Nov 4th

31 animations have been selected to be showcased this Friday, Nov 4th at the NFB Mediatheque Cinema in Toronto.

Tickets $10. Doors open at 6:00pm. Show begins at 6:30pm.

The 2 hour event will screen some of the best animations in the world in 2D, 3D, Stop motion and Mixed Media from students in the UK, Norway, New Zealand, Germany, and across Canada and the US.

Best Animation in each category, judged by animation industry professionals, will be awarded the Festival Trophy and announced at the event.

A list of the entries that were selected to screen are on The Festival page.

High school Entries Best Ever!

“Best High School showcase ever!” was a common comment from people that have been coming to the event since its inception.
Master of Ceremony, Brent Wilkinson, took to the stage and introduced 8 different categories and 55 screenings at this year’s high school event making for a great day of animation entertainment.
Close to 300 Students from Cawthra Park, Corpus Christi, Fletcher’s Meadow, Gordon Graydon, Humberview and Northview Heights cheered their way through the entire event as one animation after the other played on the large theatre screen at The Royal on College Street in Toronto. A number of entries from West Texas Training Center in San Angelo, Texas, Theodore Roosevelt High School in Los Angeles and Palos Verdes High in California as well added to the International flavour of the showreel.

16 festival trophies were handed out to 1st and 2nd Place winning titles in each category with the Director’s Award this year going to Jacob Whyte from Fenelon Falls S.S, seen below, 3-time 1st Place 2D Digital winner – in 2009 (“Lost”), 2010 (“Whiteout”) and 2011 (“The Audition”).

Guest speaker Jake Fullerton gave us exclusive insights into his work on Gnomeo and Juliet while working at Arc Productions and fielded questions after the show.
Julian Spillane, VP of Game Development at Silicon Knights, was also present and spoke about the Gaming category for next year while inviting students to create games and submit to the festival. “I’m really looking forward to seeing what high school students can come up.” said Julian. “Afterall, they are the future of the game development.”

A fun afternoon was had by all and we’re now looking forward to new entries for next year’s show which promises to be bigger and better although it won’t be easy forgetting about grandma giving a thug the boot and then meeting Santa Claus in jail !

Countdown to High School Event

Less than 48 hours until the High School Event!
Doors open at 9:30 and the show starts at 10.

New Venues announced for 2011 Festival

To celebrate our 5th year, the 2011 TISAF will hold two events.

The High school Event will be held at the Royal Theatre on College St. in Toronto.

Wed. Oct 12, 2011 from 10:0AM – 1:00PM.

Entries in 8 categories from the 2010/11 school year will be screened culminating with the Awards Ceremony for the top entries in each category.

The move to a matinee show on a date after the end of the school year was made for 2 reasons. The entry deadline of June 6th, 2011 gives students the whole year to complete and submit their work. No mad rush in the first week of May as in the past. As well, teachers have the opportunity of bringing their new classes on a field trip to kick-off the new school year. The theatre holds 800 seats and the start and end times give buses a chance to arrive on time and get back to school before the end of the school day.

The Post-secondary Event will be held at the NFB Mediatheque cinema on John St. (at Richmond St.) in Toronto.

Friday November 4th, 2011 from 6:00PM – 8:30PM.

Entries in 4 categories from around the world including many Ontario post-secondary schools will be screened with awards going to the top entry in each category.

More details on the FESTIVAL page.

Entries are In !

Thank you to everyone who sent us their entries from across Canada, the USA, United Kingdom, Norway, New Zealand and India.

Entry confirmation emails are being made to all schools or individuals over the next week.

Check here regularly for other updates and news.

High-school Division … Judging by industry animators and executives will begin later in June.

Post-secondary Division … Screening updates will be posted here and by email.

Final screening list and festival program will be posted later in the summer or early September as we approach the festival date.

Thank you again to everyone … students and teachers. Your interest and talent is greatly appreciated and we’re looking forward to a great festival.

John Bissylas and the Festival Team.

2011 Entry Deadline is Near … Mon. June 6th

Entry deadline for the 2011 TISAF is Mon. June 6th.
All entries need to need postmarked no later than this date and sent on a disk with an entry form to:

TISAF
39 Cayuga Avenue
Mississauga, Ontario
Canada L5G-3T1

Check entry rules and requirements in the Submit link.

Winners job shadow at 9 Story Entertainment

Brenna Baines, Sarah Heathfield and Olivia Laflamme, winners of the 2D Classical category at the 2010 TISAF event spend the morning job-shadowing at 9 Story Entertainment in Toronto.
Mayfield S.S. teacher Peggy Taylor-Reid and her three students thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to visit the studio and shadowing some of the animation staff. Two of the students spent time with animator Tammy Langton and learned first-hand what it’s like to be a professional animator while the third received the expertise of Logan McNeil, one of the Art Directors.

Max the Mutt Workshops for 2 TISAF Winners

Winners in the 2D Narrative category at the 2010 Student Animation Festival, spent two weeks in July in the Learn to Draw class click here at Max the Mutt Animation School in Toronto as their award for winning the top 2 places in their category.

Jacob Whyte from Fenelon Falls S.S. (1st Place, Whiteout) and Alex Woolacoot from Peel Alternative School (2nd Place, BUNN) had the opportunity to work with expert instructors at Max the Mutt. Both students were totally thrilled with the experience which gave them a new perpective into the importance of having good drawing skills to becoming a successful animator.

TISAF Winners job-shadow at Nelvana

Jacob Whyte from Fenelon Falls S.S. and Alex Woolacoot of Peel Alternative School South, 1st and 2nd Place winners respectively in the 2D Narrative category, spent a great day getting tips from the pros at Nelvana’s new studios near the harbourfront in Toronto. Jacob’s entry Whiteout which won him 1st Place for the 2nd year in a row (Lost, 2009) and Alex’s BUNN earned them the trip to the majors for a day.

Jacob Whyte had this to say about his visit …
Seeing first hand Nelvana’s new studio was a great experience. The building itself is a piece of art with every new age, high tech design you would expect from such a new structure. The creativity in the new building reflects the people inside, as looking around I saw no shortage of drawings, animation clips, or scripts being worked on. It was really interesting to see professionals in the field at work; defiantly helps make that decision of if you want to make animation a career (which, in my case, would be a dream come true). All the people we talked to were very laid back and relaxed yet full of initiative. Not only did they talk about their jobs and how they got to where they are, but they were very interested in us, what we were working on and what our plans were, and gave us some great words of wisdom in response. I couldn’t have been happier with the visit, and who knows, maybe with some hard work, perseverance and luck, I could be sitting on one of those desk spaces.