Thorvald is finally officially finished and ready to meet the world! I am sending him to festivals and will be making a trailer that I will hopefully post here very soon. In the meantime, I am already in preproduction on my next short (details to be revealed later) and am actually developing a festival of my own. I'm hoping to hear from all of the brilliant stop motion animators out there! I will be creating a full website for the festival with all relevant details but for now, here is my preliminary announcement:
Would you be interested in submitting your
animated short to a festival that spans two continents, and will screen your
work to a diverse international audience in two of the most beautiful and
culturally rich cities in the world?
I am an independent stop motion animator
and PhD Film Studies student based in Edinburgh, Scotland, and I am currently
organizing a new festival for animated short films (with an emphasis on stop
motion). The films selected by the festival will screen in two cities:
Edinburgh, Scotland and Luxor, Egypt.
With such high-profile events as the
Edinburgh International Film Festival and the Fringe, Edinburgh is already a
major international cultural centre attracting audiences from around the world.
The current plan is to synchronize the Edinburgh section of the festival with
the end of the Fringe.
Home to such famous ancient monuments as
Tomb of Tutankhamun Luxor, Egypt has long been recognized for its remarkable
historical value and hosts millions of tourists from all over the world every
year. Now however, with the successful African Film Festival organized by the
local government and the newly launched Luxor Egyptian and European Film
Festival, Luxor is emerging as a modern cultural landmark as well.
The goal of this festival is to stimulate
an exchange of ideas and visions between emerging Egyptian and international
filmmakers. This would be the only stop motion animation themed festival in
Edinburgh and the first international animation festival in Egypt.
I am of course especially interested in
stop motion films, and hope that such mythologically and historically rich
screening locations as Edinburgh and Luxor may encourage submissions in the
following directions:
Mythology
Folktales
Legends
Fantasy
Gothic
Silent Film
Expressionism
Symbolism
Ancient/Medieval Period Film
I am still in the early planning stages,
but I am already in touch with the Filmhouse in Edinburgh and the new Governor
of Luxor about my ideas for the festival. What I need now is to hear from you –
the international animation community. I need to gauge how much interest I can
raise and how many submissions I can encourage now and whether it will be
possible for me to launch the festival as soon as next summer.
I look forward to hearing from anyone who
wants to get more information or has a film that they might like to submit!
You can email me at festival@yorwickcastle.com or leave a comment here on the blog.
