ASIFA-Hollywood’s Animation Educators Forum Announces 2021 Faculty Grant Recipients

Grants Support Nine Diverse Faculty Animation Projects

BURBANK, Calif. (August 31, 2021) The International Animated Film Society, ASIFA-Hollywood’s Animation Educators Forum (AEF) has awarded its Fifth Annual Faculty Grants to Ana Mouyis (University of Louisiana at Lafayette), Alexander Sergeant (University of Portsmouth), Mette Peters (University of the Arts Utrecht), Paul Taberham (Arts University Bournemouth), Javad Khajavi (Maynooth University), Timothy Jones (Robert Morris University), Anitha Balachandran (Srishti Manipal Institute of Art, Design and Technology), João Paulo Schlittler (University of São Paulo) and Raquel Coelho (San Jose State University). Total funds distributed to this year’s recipients was $24,880.

The AEF Faculty Grant program is designed to provide support for individuals or groups with reasonable expenditures associated with research, scholarly activity or creative projects in the field of animation and are open to both full- and part-time teachers at accredited post-secondary institutions around the world.

Applicants for this year’s awards came from educators in Brazil, India, Ireland, the UK, the Netherlands and the United States. Proposals covered a variety of original animated projects including short films, experimental animated documentaries, animation website and podcast development, scholarly efforts to honor animation pioneers, expansion of online animation database materials and research travel requests. The AEF Selection Committee thanks all those who applied and encourages those who were not funded during this cycle to apply again next year.

2021 AEF FACULTY GRANT RECIPIENTS:

• Alexander Sergeant, University of Portsmouth, UK, to support his open access digital resource website and podcast project, “Fantasy-Animation.org,” which examines the relationship between fantasy storytelling and animation;
• Ana Mouyis, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Louisiana, for research travel to Cyprus to conduct interviews and continue research on the similarities between the divided communities of Cyprus for her experimental animated documentary;
• Anitha Balachandran, Srishti Manipal Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Bangalore, India, towards her five-minute experimental animated biographical film featuring legendary Indian singer Ustad Abdul Karim Khan;
• Javad Khajavi, Maynooth University, Ireland, to help finance the acquisition of additional properties and rights furthering the development and expansion of the online Animated Calligraphy and Animated Typography Database (ACTD);
• João Paulo Schlittler, University of São Paulo, Brazil, to assist in the continued progress of his animated 2D short film Tabacaria (The Tobacco Shop), an interpretation of Alvaro de Campos poem, employing china ink illustrations created in 1985;
• Mette Peters, University of the Arts Utrecht, Netherlands, to support research and presentations of her project bringing George Debels (1890-1973), Dutch animation pioneer, out of obscurity via public screenings and teaching events;
• Paul Taberham, Arts University Bournemouth, England, to help finance his solo-authored book “Animated Visions: Theory, History and Aesthetics”;
• Raquel Coelho, San Jose State University, California, to assist in completion of pre-production work on her stop motion short film After the Great Collapse, which follows discussions by two women scientists post-pandemic;
• Timothy Jones, Robert Morris University, Pennsylvania, to assist in his project “Reframing Materials Best Practices for Inclusive and Accessible Learning in an Interdisciplinary Animation Lab,” developing materials for animation faculty to create inclusive workshops and curriculum for comprehensive learning experiences.

Today, ASIFA-Hollywood, the largest chapter of the Association Internationale du Film d’Animation (International Animated Film Association), supports a range of animation activities and preservation efforts through its membership. Current initiatives include the Animation Educators Forum, Animation Archive, Animation Aid Foundation, animated film preservation, special events, screenings and the annual Annie Awards™. For more information, please visit: www.asifa-hollywood.org.

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