Annecy International Animated Film Festival 2016

Hey all, happy summer!
The International Animated Film Festival took place last week in Annecy, and yours truly got to attend!! (You can check out my blog post from the 2014 festival here).

The big difference for me this year was that my new cell plan allows me to use data abroad at no additional cost, so I was online and able to use the festival's official app to book screenings and keep track of my schedule throughout the day -- I absolutely loved it.  I spent barely any time in lines, wondering if I would get into a screening.  If I heard about something interesting while I was out, I could check and book a seat right then and there.

I spent most of the week hanging out with Boulet, Cy, and Erwann Surcouf. Boulet reviewed the festival with comics in 2014 and 2015, and this year Cy and Erwann were splitting review duties (Cy's comics are on her site, and you can read Erwann's in his twitter feed).

It was AWESOME to hear people talking after the Disney panel on Friday!  Brand-new animation was screened from Moana (titled "Vaiana" in a lot of European countries), as well as the new short film Inner Workings, which will screen before Moana in theaters this November.  Leo Matsuda's artwork is SO funny and charming; I was really happy to see his art style translated into a distinct look for the short and to see some creative integration of 2D animation in a 3D film.

Check out the beautiful new Moana/Vaiana poster released at the festival!

I loved having "Walt Disney Animation Studios" written on my badge (!!), but I was at the festival of my own volition, as a fan.  I wasn't working and I was free to walk around and do whatever I felt like. :)

One of my missions for the week was to pick up a BUNCH of new French comics.  I finally got my own copies of Fanfare and Transat by Aude Picault, and about a dozen other books. ^^ I spent a lot of time at BD Fugue and Momie/9eme Quai.

One thing the festival impressed upon me was the lack of non-commercial animation coming out of the US.  We don't seem to have the funding/grants/residencies/support for independent animation that a lot of other countries have.  There were strong American feature films, TV episodes, and commercial shorts at the festival, but very little experimental stuff from the US (The Dancing Line by Shelley Dodson was one fun exception).

Now I'm going to take the rest of this post to share links to the animations I thought were original or I really liked from the festival. I hope you find them interesting and inspiring! Some of these don't have links, or they only link to a trailer...because a lot of them are not online yet. :-/ You may be able to find them in a few months or next year if you search for them.

Here is the "Partners" trailer film which opened every screening:

And here are the 5 Gobelins films that also screened before screenings.  The theme of the 2016 festival was "France", so these shorts are particularly French-themed!  If I understood correctly, next year's festival will be about "China", so we have that to look forward to. :)

From special event screenings:
La Tortue rouge
Nerdland

Short films from the closing ceremony:
The Inspector and the Umbrella
Hootchu
Machine by Anna Vasof:

Remote by Andrew Lavery and Mathew Rees:


Shorts in competition:
Peripheria (This was my favorite film from the festival!)
Vaysha, l'aveugle
Stems by Ainslie Henderson
Il etait 3 fois
Decorado
La Soupe au caillou
Before Love
'n Gewone blou Maandagoggend
Le Bruit du gris
Babustempelstrasse
Mamie by Janice Nadeau
The Dancing Line by Shelley Dodson
Beer by Nerdo
Piano by Kaspar Jancis
Gaidot Jauno gadu
Waves '98
La Chambre vide
Linnugripp
A Coat Made Dark

Out of competition short films:
Ono by Genadzi Buto
Corpus by Marc Hericher
Trial & Error by Antje Heyn
Jailbreak by Aaron Sorenson (another favorite!)
Le futur sera chauve
Loss by YiZhao
Branded Dreams by Studio Smack
Three Little Ninjas Delivery Service
The Crossing by Marieka Walsh
Tres moscas a medida
Dota by Petra Zlonoga

Films for Television:
Les Animaux domestiques"Le Chien"

Commercial films:
Dan Deacon When I Was Done Dying
A.A. World Services, Inc. "Doors"
The Ethical Dilemma of Self-driving Cars
The New York Times "Modern Love - A Kiss Deferred"
Private Parts by Anna Ginsburg
Run the Jewels "Meowpurrdy"
James "To My Surprise" (another favorite!)
Barriers "Girl Effect"
A Self Compassion Exercise
De Staat "Witch Doctor"

Aaaand a few things I didn't see myself, but really want to see based on what I heard:
La Jeune Fille sans mains
Window Horses
Ma vie de Courgette
Moms on Fire

How to make long-distance relationships work

I try to keep things pretty highbrow around here. 
This comic features the lovely and talented Erika Moen and Ananth Panagariya!  Read all of their stuff if you haven't already; it is stellar. :3

Issue #3 of Tally Marks (my Eurotrip sketchbook series) comes out on October 1, and you can pre-order it now!  This issue covers Christmas and New Years in London, plus my trip to Picardy.  Coats and fur hats abound.  Here are a few previews:

I tabled at Rose City Comic Con this past weekend in Portland, and it was great!  In my head it was all a big post-Europe welcome-back party for me so I could see everyone and catch up all at once. :) I sold out of Husbands and a bunch of my prints, and got down to my last copies of Between Gears and A Boy & A Girl.  I am trying to minimize my boxes for my next move, and I may be selling off my remaining books in the near future with incentives like free watercolor sketches inside or free prints.  Stay tuned for that.

Rendez-Vous de la Bande Dessinee d'Amiens

June 7-8 I was a guest at Rendez-Vous de la BD d'Amiens, a large festival in Amiens, France, an hour north of Paris.  My friend Nico lives in Amiens, and he told me great things about the festival for years.  I was really looking forward to seeing it, and looking forward to returning to Amiens in June to see the difference from my visit in January.

The convention treated artists SO well.  I got a taste of the French convention model at St-Malo, Angouleme, and Bulles de Neige, but this was really special.  I felt pampered and informed from arrival to departure, ate fantastic food, and had plenty of time to meet the other guests and enjoy the city...it was amazing.  The festival volunteers and employees were phenomenal.

The city was gorgeous!  It was sunny and hot, tourist season was starting, and people were milling around the streets of downtown.  I got to visit the Cathedral with a group from the festival, and a couple of our dinners were on the river in areas I hadn't made it out to yet.  Each evening after the festival we had snacks and drinks on a big terrace of the university looking out over the old town and canals.

At the festival I adopted the French dédicace model of signing books for free with nice, 20-ish minute drawings, and letting the festival handle sales for me at their big bookstore at the entrance.  It was nice not having to sell my own work like I do in the US, where I have to be constantly engaging multiple people and dropping other conversations when someone wants to make a purchase.  I had a decent line of people patiently waiting for that time with me, and we sold out of books on Saturday!

Some engineering students were exhibiting 3D scanning and printing technology at the festival, and asked to scan my head and shoulders so they could make a bust from them!  I sat in a swivel chair and one person pointed the handheld scanner at me, while another slowly spun the chair around in a circle.  I tried not to move, but my eyes looked at different things as I spun, so the color version of the 3D image was hilariously cross-eyed.  But I was AMAZED at the accuracy of the scan, how quick it was, and what it could mean for product design, digital animation...you name it!

Result: mini me!

 

24 Hour Comic

I participated in les 24 heures de la BD (24 hour comic day) last Tuesday-Wednesday at the maison des auteurs in Angouleme!  What an honor.  The idea is to marathon-draw for 24 straight hours and finish a 24-page comic on a surprise theme.  Artists from all over the world participate, and upload their creations to share.
Here's a 5-part video report on this year's event at the Angouleme location:
(Wow, that is my Level Eleven Stressface)

This year's surprise twist rule was especially difficult.  Every artist had to base their comic images off of 90 recent photos from Boulet's Instagram account. (You can see the photos in order here)

+Boulet rose to the challenge and finished another amazing 24 hour comic.

+Ken Niimura (artist of I Kill Giants, which is one of the best books ever) did something clever - he used the photos as a graytone in his panels, and improvised a story around what they suggested.

Some other comics that I liked:
+Alexandre Fontaine Rousseau and Vincent Giard
+Berquin Gregoire
+Ferrand Julie
+Giulia Jones
+Javi de Castro
+Jerome Jouvray
+Loren Bes
+Pare-Sorel Julien
+Secheresse Loic
+Zviane

+I....took a loose approach.  I used all of the photos for my panels (in order!), but I tried to force them to conform to the story I was coming up with, and sometimes I resorted to some real stretches for "using the photo".  We were told we could use an element for the photo, or just the composition...but often I used dialogue in my panels to make PUNS about the photos, so...you tell me whether or not that's within the rules.  I was also told I could add panels, which I sometimes needed to do between photos.  I must have been stress-blacking-out while Matt Madden announced in English that the cover and back cover needed to be based on the photos as well, because I didn't realize that until I saw the video reportage two days later, haha.  I'm not proud of this comic itself, but I am SO proud I completed 24 hour comic day!  And it was reeeeally fun.  I would absolutely do it again, especially at a big event like the one put on by the maison des auteurs.

MEANWHILE IN THE USA: February 1 was Hourly Comic Day, which is different in that you draw one short comic every hour you're awake about what you did in the past hour.  Highlights for me included the crossover comics of soon-to-be-weds Madeleine Flores and J. Smith.  Also these ridiculously polished comics from Diana Huh.