 Love the diversity of films we'll be showing. This one is 'Peak Phosphorus' by Michael Mehring. Here's some information to whet your appetite...
The film: 'Before we run out of gas, we will have no more phosphor for industrial agriculture. No fertilizer no crops! And in 300 years meatware is history...' The filmmaker: 1997-2001 producer and co-founder of the music collective Metropolitan Bass Scientists. 2007-2009 production/direction of three webisodes 'Bundeswars', comedy/animation. Since 2010 producer for image films at Rascor International Ltd. 2014 Producer/Writer/VFX Supervisor for Alekto (award winning Sci-Fi short).
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 The show's finally taking shape now. Above is a list of the films we'll be screening ahead of our big Awards/Movie session in the 7.00pm evening ~ although not necessarily in the order you'll see them in. Session 'A' is a 90-minute long screening of many of the longer films entered and accepted for this year's event. Sessions 'B' & 'C' will feature shorter films, both concluding with a 40-minute workshop presentation by festival guests Lawrence Ruelos and Dean Yeagle. And let's not forget the active Vendor Hall that runs from 12 noon till 6.00pm while all this is going on! What more could you want for a great day in the latter, darker days of winter?
Hope to see you there to support our art & animation talents from Seattle and around the world! :)  Dean Yeagle and I just came up with the final, final festival poster. Its off to the printers tomorrow, so anyone who wants to post it up anywhere public in the Seattle region for us should get in touch with me (using the 'Contact' page on this website) and we'll try to arrange something. Great to get this settled at last! :)
 As we're all about supporting the humble pencil (as well as traditional, hand-crafted 2D animation in America) we've decided to give away a FREE bumper sticker to the first 50 visitors to our Vendor Hall during the event. So make sure you get yours by arriving early, although we'll definitely be selling more after that. (With all the proceeds going towards our above-stated missions of course!) :)
 The still above (and below) are from the film 'STARS' by animator Han Zhang.
The film: Grandpa and grandson street sellers sell stars in a town near the shore. One night, they run out of the stars. The filmmaker: Han Zhang was born and raised in Shenzhen, China. He started to learn drawing since high school. He finished his BFA in China Academy of Art as a 2D animator, and MFA in Academy of Art university in traditional animation major. As an animator, Han likes exploring different visual style to make his film looks pretty. He also enjoys developing the character’s performance to tell stories. He hopes he can create more unique animated films in the future and keep pleasing audiences. Directing a feature film is his biggest dream. Han Zhang's film 'STARS' will be shown during our first screening session on the day.  Ramping up for the big day at SIFF in Seattle on Saturday 25th! Almost two-thirds of the screener film copies are now in and we're excited by the originality and diversity of the all the animation we'll be screening. We'll start editing the final program contents over the next week or so, and of course we'll share any little topics of interest that might occur as we approach the big day. By the way... thanks for all the messages of support and encouragement! You can be rest assured that we're doing everything we can to make this a great and varied experience for everyone who joins us. :)
Most of the time we never get to meet the filmmakers who contribute to our festival. Therefore is nice to put a face to the name of Elen Nikkol, who's film 'Little Bird' can be seen during our 3rd screening session of the day. :)  The film: The animation movie "Little Bird" is about the longing for the outside world of a little girl, trapped by the fears of her mother. The filmmaker: Elena Nikolova was born in 1990, Plovdiv, Bulgaria. In her early life, Elena attended piano lessons for eight years with the intention of becoming professional pianist, but refused to continue her musical education. At the age of 14 years, she found sanctuary in drawing. Still not being an option for career, she entered a comprehensive high school in Plovdiv with science studies instead. Elena graduated from “St. Kliment Ohridski” high school in 2009, and moved to Sofia to study “Animation cinema” at New Bulgarian University. Her debut short animation movie “Little Bird” was finished in 2016 and with it, she graduated with Bachelor degree in Animation. At the age of 17 years, Nikolova became the creator of “Aniplay”, the only theatrical Cosplay event in Bulgaria, organizing it personally for several years. Despite being a director, Elena took part in competitions during other cosplay related events, winning several prizes such as Best female actor (Audience award) 2008 and 2011, Best group performance (Jury award) 2010 and 2011. Up to date Elena still writes scenographies and trains young people the art of acting. In 2016 she won the prestige award for the Best script. Elena has also experienced all kinds of various job placements such as bartender in 2010 (Sofia), henna tattoo artist in 2012 (USA), professional piercing artist in 2013 (Sofia), before starting working as 2D animator for Tabtale (Game Company, Israel) in 2014. She is currently still working there as the Lead animator for the Bulgarian branch. In 2015 was released the trailer of the first Bulgarian project for action and fantasy animation TV series, The Golden Apple (Studio Zmei, Sofia) based on Balkan mythology and culture. In her free time, Elena is working as part of the team behind it, specializing in effects animation.  One of the most poignant images from last year's event was this photo taken by vendor Morgan Krepki, featuring another vendor, Jim Bradrick, showing a young fan how traditional, hand-drawn animation is done. The shot is totally symbolic of what DRAWTASTICON is about - i.e. supporting traditional 2D animation, sharing the knowledge and techniques of its past with the bright young talents of the future. Bravo Jim... and Morgan! :)
 We just downloaded the film 'Halcyon Days of Youth' from filmmaker Dong Chang. This particular film is to be shown during our second screening session of the day. Running an animation festival is a multi-faceted event. First you announce the event on a platform like FilmFreeway then you hope/wait for lots of great entries to come in. We were very blessed with some fine films this year but when you first view them there's a certain amount of trepidation as you never know what's out there until you see it. Most of all you have to judge if you feel the films you're viewing are right for your particular kind of event, as no two festivals are alike and therefore their value systems can be very different. As a filmmaker it definitely hurts to have your film rejected, especially when other film festivals have willingly accepted it! Acceptance of a film, or rejection, is not personal in many cases however - although some films we see do leave a lot to be desired. However, you have to review each film in its entirety before deciding whether or not you will accept it or not. Eventually, when you announce your nominations you next have to ask the filmmakers for a 'screener' version of their film, meaning it has to be of the highest quality for projection in a theater. In the old days when film was actually 'film' all entries would have to be mailed in tough metal cans and viewed in a cinema environment. Today of course the marvels of digital technology mean that you can get anything downloaded in an instant from anywhere around the world. And so it was with 'Halcyon Days of Youth' just now for us. However, even then you have to check each downloaded film to make sure there are no glitches or anything unforseen occurring with it before the big day. Normally all is good and you can simply check the film off on your list of 'received' entries. The biggest challenge of all however is actually getting some filmmakers to send you their screener copies in the first place! In the past we've sent out many emails to animators in the far flung corners of the world, hoping to get their screener copy on board before its too late. Of course getting it in just before the actual event doesn't work either, as prior to that all the chosen entries have to be duly edited onto one master program screener disk long before the day comes. So this latter stage of the proceedings is a little nail biting to say the least - until of course you have all the selected film screeners in on time as planned. So far we have over half the entries in for this years event but I'm sure our nails will be bitten down to the skin by the time the last one comes in. Even so, its still worth it, as there's nothing better than sharing some amazing work with our enthusiastic audiences when the time comes! And thus may it ever be! :) Well here we go animation fans! The the venue's booked, the online box-office is 'live', the films are in, the vendor tables are now (almost fully) booked and our workshop speakers confirmed! DRAWTASTICON is GO! Now we've just got to make sure we get people to know about it and hope the weather's kind to us on the day. Like packing to leave for a vacation there is inevitably that 'Now, what did I forget?' moment. But... so far, so good. Let's get this show on the road! Oh, I did almost forget to mention... Festival website: www.drawtastic.org Online ticket office: www.siff.net/cinema/visiting-programs/drawtasticon  |
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