The Future Perfect Project, a nonprofit arts initiative, has announced the multi-media project “How Life Is: Queer Youth Animated,” a 10-episode short film series to celebrate Pride Month 2021.
The films cover the challenges that LGBTQIA+ youth, 13-22, navigate such as coming out, blended families, relationships, peer acceptance, homophobia, parity, and more.
The first episodes of Season 1 will kick off on The Future Perfect Project’s YouTube and IGTV. New episodes will be released in pairs on Tuesdays throughout June.
About The Future Perfect Project
The Future Perfect Project believes that the artistic expression of young people is a declaration of a better future for us all. By making safe spaces for LGBTQ+ Youth & Allies to express themselves through the arts, connect with one another, and amplify their voices, FPP is creating a future where every young person feels safe, seen, and celebrated in their home and community.
Last week’s special ASIFA-Hollywood online Q&A was with “Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous” executive producers Scott Kreamer and Aaron Hammersley, CG animation director Dan Godinez and art directors Christophe Vacher and JP Balmet, moderated by Aubry Mintz. If you missed it, the Q&A is now available on the ASIFA-Hollywood YouTube channel.
About Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous
“Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous,” an animated action-adventure series, will debut globally on Netflix in 2020 as part of an ongoing multi-year agreement with Netflix to produce original animated kids and family programming. Set within the same timeline as the 2015 blockbuster film, Jurassic World, the Netflix original series is inspired by the multi-billion-dollar franchise from Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment.
“Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous” follows a group of six teenagers chosen for a once-in-a-lifetime experience at a new adventure camp on the opposite side of Isla Nublar. But when dinosaurs wreak havoc across the island, the campers are stranded. Unable to reach the outside world, they’ll need to go from strangers to friends to family if they’re going to survive.
Scott Kreamer (Pinky Malinky) and Lane Lueras (Kung Fu Panda: The Paws of Destiny) serve as showrunners and executive producers. The series is executive produced by Steven Spielberg, Frank Marshall, and Colin Trevorrow. Zack Stentz serves as consulting producer.
June 29, 2020 would have been Ray Harryhausen’s 100th birthday. Ray Harryhausen (1920-2013) was the artist and designer behind such film fantasy milestones as The 7th Voyage of Sinbad and Jason and the Argonauts, and this legendary stop-motion animator influenced generations of filmmakers, visual effects artists, and animators.
In honor of Ray Harryhausen’s 100th birthday, the Rafael Film Center director of programming, Richard Peterson got together with Oscar-winners Craig Barron, Ben Burtt, Dennis Muren, and Phil Tippett, to discuss Ray’s influence and legacy, including plenty of film clips and insights into the master’s work.
The discussion can be found at California Film Institute’s Vimeo page.
Legendary Disney directors Ron Clements and John Musker (The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Hercules, The Princess and the Frog, Moana) join ASIFA-Hollywood at Annecy online to discuss their careers and their views on the animation industry.
At this past Annecy, ASIFA-Hollywood hosted an informal Masterclass conversation with John Musker and Ron Clements. The conversation including anecdotes about their development as animation writers/directors, their history at the Walt Disney Studios, their animated features, and their views on the current animation scene, as well as projections on the future of the industry.
Last week’s special ASIFA-Hollywood online Q&A was with Jungle Beat: The Movie Founder/Executive Producer Phil Cunningham, Writer/Director Brent Dawes, Producer Rita Mbanga, and Producer Tim Keller. If you missed it, the Q&A is now available below and on our YouTube channel.
Video from the 2017 UCLA Festival of Preservation Event: “Classic Animated Shorts from Paramount” screening at the Billy Wilder Theater.
UCLA Film & Television Archive head of preservation Scott MacQueen, ASIFA-Hollywood president Jerry Beck and executive director Frank Gladstone discuss the animated shorts RAGGEDY ANN AND ANDY, THE RAVEN and DINAH, recently restored with funds provided by ASIFA-Hollywood in collaboration with the Archive.
About the UCLA Film & Television Archive
The UCLA Film & Television Archive is an internationally renowned visual arts organization focused on the preservation, study, and appreciation of film and television, based at the University of California, Los Angeles. It holds more than 220,000 film and television titles and 27 million feet of newsreel footage, a collection second only to the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. It has more media materials than any other university in the world.
Also a nonprofit exhibition venue, the archive screens over 400 films and videos a year, primarily at the Billy Wilder Theater, located inside the Hammer Museum in Westwood, California. (Formerly, it screened films at the James Bridges Theater on the UCLA campus). The archive is funded by UCLA, public and private interests, and the entertainment industry. It is a member of the International Federation of Film Archives.
ASIFA-Hollywood became a headlining participant at last month’s San Diego Comic-Con with a panel discussion that included a lively panel on the state of the animation industry. The panel included Rick Farmiloe, Careen Ingel, Camille Kanengiser, Peter Ramsey and Marlon West.
The panel included moderator Frank Gladstone, who led a spirited discussion on current trends of animation, as well as how the industry is changing due to animation being produced in many different countries and emerging technologies. The panelists discussed how animators fit into current business models of animation studios and the ever-changing landscape of motion pictures, television, and new media.
A special thank you to Danny Young for filming the panel.
If you missed the Annie Awards online streaming, there’s no need to worry. You can now watch the Annie Awards show in it’s entirety on ASIFA-Hollywood’s YouTube channel!
Last Thursday, Ron Diamond hosted his annual Animation Show of Shows at DreamWorks Animation to a packed house of animators, and moderated a short Q&A with four of the filmmakers.
With puppets in hand and ready to share their experiences, the Q&A included John Lewis (Australia), Janette Goodey (New Zealand, but currently working in Australia), Isabelle Favez (Switzerland) and Nina Gantz (Netherlands).
(L to R): John Lewis, Janette Goodey, Ron Diamond, Isabelle Favez and Nina Gantz
The session was only 4 minutes, but immediately afterwards the discussion was continued in the lobby of DreamWorks’ Campanile Theater to give attendees an opportunity to view the puppets up close and in a more intimate setting. To the delight of the crowds, the filmmakers discussed the challenges of making independent short films, how they balanced their time in the studio with their personal lives, and how they were able to channel their passions into film making.
What’s in The Animation Show of Shows
Slightly different from the theatrical release now playing around the country, this industry screening was a bit more adult than the theatrical version. Additional films you will not see in theaters are Edmond by Nina Gantz (UK/The Netherlands), Yul and the Snake by Gabriel Harel (France) and Sanjay’s Super Team by Sanjay Patel (USA).
The theatrical version included the following shorts that are currently being screened across the US. In “The Story of Percival Pilts,” Janette Goodey and John Lewis capture the awkward balances of a stilt-walker via stop-motion animation. Lynn Tomlinson’s “The Ballad of Holland Island House” features beautiful visuals of a building foundering in the waves of the Chesapeake Bay. In “Stripy” from Iran, brothers Babak Nekooei and Behnoud Nekooei show a quietly rebellious worker decorating his assembly line products with scarlet calligraphic lines, upsetting the order of a gray, rectilinear factory. “We Can’t Live Without Cosmos” by Konstantin Bronzit, is a story about two cosmonauts n the old Soviet Union and how their life-long friendship endures through the riggers of training for flight. “Love in the Time of March Madness” by Americans Melissa Johnson and Robertino Zambrano, follows the travails of a 6-foot-4 female basketball player.
The Animation Show of Shows is a traveling selection of the year’s best animated short films, curated and presented by Acme Filmworks founder, Ron Diamond. It began in 1998 with the aim of showing the most original, funny, intelligent short animated films from all over the world and presenting them at the major animation studios in order to inspire their animators and directors.
On September 25, 2015, Sony Animation screened “Hotel Transylvania 2” for ASIFA-Hollywood at the TLC Chinese Theaters during it’s opening weekend.
Kept as a surprise for the audience, the filmmakers were present at the screening and at the conclusion of the film, they were brought out for a lively discussion with the audience. Due to the film’s box office success during that weekend, it was an added bonus for attendees to discuss the film making process with the director and key members of the production.
Hotel Transylvania 2 panel (L to R): Frank Gladstone, Michael Kurinsky, Genndy Tartakovsky, Michelle Murdocca, Karl Herbst and Alan Hawkins.
This video includes the Q&A with the filmmakers which followed the screening. The panel included Genndy Tartakovsky (director), Michelle Murdocca (producer), Michael Kurinsky (production designer), Karl Herbst (visual effects supervisor), Alan Hawkins (sr. animation supervisor) and Frank Gladstone (moderator).
Hotel Transylvania 2 takes place seven years after the first film, with the hotel now open to human guests. Mavis and Johnnyare now married and have a young son named Dennis, whose lack of any vampire abilities worries his grandfather Dracula. When Mavis and Johnny go on a visit to Johnny’s parents, Dracula calls his friends to help him make Dennis turn into a vampire. However, an unexpected visit from Dracula’s old-school human-hating father, Vlad, soon turns things upside-down.
Voices for the film include Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez, Kevin James, Steve Buscemi, David Spade, Fran Drescher, Molly Shannon, with Keegan-Michael Key replacing CeeLo Green as Murray. New additions to the cast include Mel Brooks as Count Dracula’s father, Vlad; Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally as Jonathan’s parents, Mike and Linda; and Asher Blinkoff as Mavis and Johnny’s half-human/half-vampire son, Dennis.
