Animation Calling

After much anticipation, the Ottawa International Animation Festival releases its animated shorts competition as the Festival continues its selections rollout.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

OTTAWA, 13 July 2022 - Receiving 2168 submissions for this year’s Animated Shorts Competition, the Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF) selects 51 animated works for its Official Competition. The Shorts Competition, which includes Student, Narrative, Non-Narrative, and Commissioned categories, will be judged by Marko Tadic, Terril Calder and Jonni Phillips.

This year’s Shorts Competition categories include:

• 14 Student animated shorts
• 18 Narrative animated shorts
• 8 Non-Narrative animated shorts
• 11 Commissioned animated shorts

“Pandemic and Convoys be damned!” says OIAF Artistic Director Chris Robinson. “OIAF 2022 returns to in-person shenanigans with yet another tray of provocative, befuddling, hilarious and heart-swirling animation films that deal with war, female desire, functional and dysfunctional families, backflips and the long-awaited meeting of two great ducks Donald and Daffy.”

The nude stop motion animation of Gina Kamentsky’s Sed Saepe Cadendo is as unforgettable as it is captivating. Peixuan Cheng’s Being Sisyphus for one second a day is an explicit but brutally honest account of living through 2021. Emma Calder’s Beware of Trains explores the current cultural obsession with fear, while Sam Mason’s work for the post-mortem release of Mac Miller’s “Colors and Shapes” takes audiences on a trip alongside a dog modelled off of the late Miller’s very own canine companion. Recent award winners at Annecy and Zagreb, The Garbage Man and Amok, respectively join the competition categories for Narrative and Non-Narrative animated shorts.

The complete Shorts Competition list is available on the OIAF website.

In addition to determining the winner of the Grand Prize and the winners of the Shorts Competition categories, Tadic, Calder and Phillips will select the winners of the OIAF Shorts competition craft prizes for best script, technique, sound, and design.

The OIAF is on the festival qualifying list of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which allows the OIAF Grand Prize winner in the Shorts Competition to bypass the usual qualification process for the Oscars.

All winners receive an award statue designed by Ottawa-based, scrap metal artist Tick Tock Tom. The statues are working phénakisticopes that feature animations by New York artist George Griffin.

About the Ottawa International Animation Festival

The Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF) is one of the world’s leading animation events providing screenings, exhibits, workshops and entertainment since 1976. Attracting artists, producers, students and animation fans from around the globe, the OIAF brings together art and industry to experience world-class animated works. This year’s OIAF runs from September 21 to September 25. Visit the OIAF website for more information about this year’s festival.