January 27-28 @ 5th Avenue Cinema

Portland Animation Now!
short films from 20+ Portland animators

Dates: Jan 27 and 28 @ 7pm
Runtime: 90min
Venue: 5th Avenue Cinema
Address: 510 SW Hall St, Portland, OR 97201
Tickets: $8 cash or check only

Amazing short films from Portland’s powerhouse animation scene! Highlights include…

Eyeliner by Joanna Priestley (dubbed “the queen of independent animation” by Bill Plympton): A playful exploration of the organic geometry and archetypes of the human face. Ursula 1000 – Rocket by Eric Kilkenny: A love story told as a fever dream involving stolen works of art, dualistic robot terminators, and a giant floating head who seriously needs his moustache trimmed. Ruby Rocket, Private Detective by Sam Niemann & Stacey Hallal: It had been a long night and Ruby Rocket, Private Detective needed a stiff one—then HE walked in. Missionary by Mike A. Smith: Geopolitical allegory as cartoon slapstick, featuring eggs and fearsome hand-on-stick technology. Old-Time Film by Barbara Tetenbaum & Marilyn Zornado: Handset type, printer’s ornaments and antique engraving come to life in the first film created entirely through letterpress printing. Operation: Fish by Jeff Riley: After a series of goldfish abductions, a secret agent is dispatched to bring the fishnappers to justice, and possibly save the world!

Portland Animation Now! is being presented as part of Fertile Ground, a city-wide festival of over 100 new Portland-generated arts events.

Buying a festival pass will get you into ALL Fertile Ground shows for a single, low price of $50. When you check out, you’ll be asked to select the company that should be credited with your pass sale. Please select “NW Animation Festival” from the pull-down menu. That’s the only way we get reimbursed for all-festival passholders.

…See you at the show!

The 2012 Entry Form has been available online since mid-October. However, we’re a bit behind schedule promoting the call for submissions.

To give more filmmakers a chance to take advantage of our lowest entry fee, we’re bumping the Early deadline back from Dec 1 to Dec 15. All other deadlines will remain the same.

We are now accepting submissions for the 2012 Northwest Animation Festival.

For our second full-scale festival, we are expanding filmmakers’ options. To enter, we need to receive three things from you: the film, your info, and payment. Now, each of these items can be sent either by mail or electronically.

We hope this expansion will especially help filmmakers outside of the USA. We understand that foreign currency money orders can be very expensive, and that international shipping is occasionally unreliable.

We continue our commitment to keeping entry fees affordable, and well below the average for other festivals. Being filmmakers ourselves, we’ve tried to match prices with what we’re comfortable paying ourselves—while also ensuring financial well-being for the event.

We see too many discs arrive damaged or unusable. We urge filmmakers to take the Submission Guidelines seriously. Submitting materials electronically is strongly encouraged.

Please send the highest resolution file you’ve got. The festival is not able to process Blu-ray submissions as of yet, but may have capability in the near future. We’d like to upgrade to Blu-Ray projection as soon as possible.

We look forward to seeing your work!

Here’s an in-depth review of the Sept 10 “Best of the Fest” show. (Originally posted by fest director Sven Bonnichsen on the Scarlet Star Studios blog.)

The “Best of the Fest” show brought in a good-sized crowd and got rave reviews!

With 78 films at the inaugural fest back in June, it seemed to me that we had enough material to do a “best of” show, which might draw in a different audience. This was an opportunity to try out a higher stakes venue and learn its quirks — without having to simultaneously pull together an entirely new program.

We were well-prepared by event day, and things went off quite smoothly. A minor snafu at the very beginning: the restaurant I’d told my staff to meet at now closes at 5pm. Oh well — we sent folks over to the Plan B restaurant for food. The process of re-organizing, though, meant that I didn’t really get to see the marquee with my own eyes before we headed in. I’m sad I missed that experience.

As is often the case at the Hollywood, the line for tickets stretched down the block. Still, even though I knew it was likely, it was thrilling to see so many people eager to get inside.

When we were at 5th Avenue Cinema three months ago, NWAF was the only show playing in its auditorium. That really allowed event staff time to take ownership of the space. At the Hollywood, there was another show prior to us that didn’t get out until 6:30. From an organizer’s point of view, it was a very different feeling waiting to be let in. Not bad — but I do look forward to a future when we’ll be able to occupy the theatre entirely.

We had three tables set up in the lobby. One was an info table for the NW Animation Fest. The other two were for local animation organizations: ASIFA-Portland and Cascade ACM SIGGRAPH. Thanks to Gretchin, Rob Bekuhrs, and AJ DeFlaminis for chatting folks up!

There was less ephemera to produce this time around. There were name badges for filmmakers, programs for the audience, and a 24″x36″ poster to put by the front doors… But no signage for the walls or specially branded tickets. Ticketing all went through the Hollywood’s box office, which simplified things for us greatly. (And, boy, do I dig getting a prompt and well-organized financial statement at the end of things! Kudos to the Hollywood’s business manager, Cailin Bell!)

As soon as the show prior to us let out, I went into the auditorium with our projectionist and did a final tech check… Then that magic moment, when the doors swing open, and the audience finds its seats! Thanks to Dielle Alexandre, Jeff Mulcaster, Nicklas Nall, and Temris Ridge for handing out programs.

An interesting thing I’ve noticed: It’s really hard to take photos from the rear of a theatre that make the screen look as big as it actually is. When you think about it, it’s a trick of forced perspective. Because the seating slopes downward, your mind tries to compare the size of the screen to the seats in the foreground and gets fooled.

Because there were still people waiting in line outside, we wound up delaying the start of the show by a full 15 minutes. That threw timing off and had me worried. But, by keeping questions-and-answers with the filmmakers short, we were able to make up for the delay and end the evening right on time at 11pm, as promised.

The DVD compilations I made for the show were flawless. Everything was sized to use as much of the screen as possible. The aspect ratios were correct. Image quality was as good as the original files. Transitions between films were seamless. Sound levels were equalized.

Despite all that effort, I made one dumb move. Though the sound levels were equalized, I failed to set the auditorium’s sound system to the proper level during our tech check. The first few films were too loud, to the point of distortion. Fortunately, all I had to do was go up to the booth and get our projectionist, Matthew Combs, to turn the volume down. Lesson learned for next year!

After the first block of films, I had all the attending filmmakers come up for Q&A. In attendance: Adam Fisher, Dean Holmes, Eric Kilkenny, Kartika Mediani, Sam Niemann, Barbara Tetenbaum, and Marilyn Zornado.

BLOCK 1 (90min)
1. Ursula 1000 – Rocket ….. by Eric Kilkenny
2. Timber ….. by Adam Fisher
3. Heart ….. by Erick Oh
4. Spirit of the Bluebird ….. by Jesse Gouchey & Xstine Cook
5. Chicxulub ….. by Christopher Purdin
6. Gerald’s Last Day ….. by Justin & Shel Rasch
7. Ruby Rocket, Private Detective ….. by Sam Niemann & Stacey Hallal
8. The Necessities of Life ….. by Gerald Guthrie
9. Zero ….. by Christopher & Christine Kezelos
10. Cheez…z ….. by Arut Tantasirin
11. Operation: Fish ….. by Jeff Riley
12. Breath ….. by Kartika Mediani
13. The Nose ….. by Neil Burns & Dean Holmes
14. Old-Time Film ….. by Barbara Tetenbaum & Marilyn Zornado

Dean Holmes talked about how he and Neil Burns had been working on a stop-motion TV show in Canada that was put on hiatus. During the break, they were given permission to use the studio to work on “The Nose.” The TV show wound up not being renewed — so they were able to use the facilities for almost a full year!

Marilyn Zornado and Barbara Tetenbaum’s “Old-Time Film” is thought to be the first animation made using traditional letterpress printing. I’ve been told that it’s making something of a splash in the printer’s community. For the fest, the two brought along a box full of flipbooks made from the film’s prints, which the audience got to examine and play with in the lobby during intermission.

An important part of growing a festival is learning about your audience and what works for them. At intermission we handed out surveys. As an incentive, the first people turning them in got NWAF lapel buttons (the last of the batch we made back in June). We had a great response rate: almost half of everyone attending filled out a survey.

‎56 attendees handed in surveys. 36 wrote comments. Response was astonishingly consistent… See for yourself!

Frequency of adjectives used to describe “Best of the NW Animation Festival 2011”:
• great: 10
• awesome: 8
• good: 6
• wonderful: 5
• love: 3
• amazing: 2
• excellent: 2
• fun: 2
• nice: 2
• fantastic: 1
• incredible: 1

Oh, and the number of exclamation marks? Thirty-three.

(Punctuation matters!)

I really wanted people to stay for both block 1 and block 2, to see all the marvelous films. As encouragement, I set ticket prices at $8 for one or $10 for both. It would have been simpler to have only one price for the whole evening, and I was worried about creating confusion. But, at intermission, another 15 people arrived just for the 9pm show. I think the gamble paid off.

Has everyone had a chance to use the restrooms? Get more popcorn at the concessions counter? OK, I’m ringing a hand-held bell in the lobby. Back to your seats, so we can move on to block 2!

BLOCK 2 (97min)
1. Medusa ….. by Nick DiLiberto
2. The Quiet Life ….. by Timothy Hittle
3. Just Can’t Trust a Drunk Ninja ….. by Greg Doble
4. Ruby Rocket, Private Detective Web Series ….. by Niemann & Hallal
5. Slow Joe ….. by Philip Gray & Stephen Boot
6. The Lighthouse ….. by Po Chou Chi
7. The Box Game ….. by The Box Game Collective
8. Transformations on Bartok ….. by Stephen Campbell
9. Missionary ….. by Mike A. Smith
10. In the Fall of Gravity ….. by Ron Cole
11. Good Bot Bad Bot ….. by Marcus Ng & Nick Matthews
12. Something Left, Something Taken ….. by Max Porter & Ru Kuwahata
13. Landscape with Duck ….. by Patrick Neary
14. 24 Frames ….. by Brad Pattullo

Attending filmmakers for block 2: Lisa Brackney, Patrick Neary, Sam Niemann, Mike A. Smith, Becky Steele, and Danie West. Sam had “Ruby Rocket, Private Detective” episodes in both blocks. Becky, Danie, and Lisa formally represented “The Box Game” — but we got a number of the other students who worked on that film up on stage, too.

For the Q&A sessions, there just wasn’t enough time to allow interaction with the audience. Instead, I posed a very open-ended question and let each filmmaker have a turn responding. I phrased it something like this:

What was the inspiration behind your film, or what made you want to make it? Or, tell us an anecdote from the process of making it… Something that went horribly wrong, or fantastically right. Entertain us!

(A little awkward, but it did the job.)

As the festival director, I watch the festival from an odd vantage point. While the audience lines up, I’m introducing my volunteers to the Hollywood’s staff. While the event staff welcomes people into the lobby, I’m in the auditorium doing tech checks. When everyone gets seated, I’m up on the stage blinded by lights, talking into darkness. When the films begin, I’m far in the back of the audience in an aisle seat so I can run to the projection booth if there’s a problem. When the filmmakers are answering questions, I’m at the side of the stage maintaining a poise of respectful interest…

It’s disorienting. I’m extremely pleased that everyone who attended seems to have been blown away. Yet, I sort of feel like I wasn’t able to attend the same show that they saw. After it was all over, I had a bit of post-partum depression. At a visceral level, I couldn’t understand where the event I’d put so much work into had disappeared to. Getting to see the photos a few days later helped enormously, making it all seem real again. Huge thanks to Carly J. Cais for being our event photographer!

All told, 120 people bought tickets. 105 for the first show, 75 for the second. 60 stayed for both blocks. Additionally, we had 24 filmmakers/guests and 8 event staff. A pretty good number of warm bodies, really, for a first-year festival.

As the evening came to a close, I invited everyone to join us for an informal post-show gathering at the Moon and Sixpence, a British pub. Being 11pm by that point, few joined us — mostly just the event staff. Your loss… Best. Pasties. Ever.

Finally we come to the big question… Was the event successful enough to justify doing another festival?

YES.

We were in a huge auditorium and news coverage was disappointing. Yet, we still managed to break even, and have gotten tremendously positive feedback from everyone who attended. We are definitely doing another full-scale festival next year — and we’re doing it at the Hollywood. The dates have been set!

Let’s end this review where the “Best of the Fest” began — with this introduction I wrote for the program:

FROM THE FESTIVAL DIRECTOR
Beyond Hollywood and Cartoon Network, there is an amazing world of animation you’ve never seen.

Independent animators produce hundreds of short films each year that are in turn hilarious, heart-warming, and profound. Sadly, without million-dollar advertising budgets, you probably won’t ever hear about these gems. Through the newly-formed Northwest Animation Festival, I want to help change this.

Here’s the dream: I want Portland to host the biggest animation festival west of the Mississippi. Instead of a dozen or so films, give me an abundant feast of 100+ each year. Let there be a mix of new work both from masters of the art and from remarkable amateurs. An event that inspires and brings together a community of artists.

It’s a lot to wish for. But we’ve made an excellent start.

The inaugural NW Animation Fest took place in June. Three days of films packed the house at 5th Ave Cinema. “I gained a newfound respect for the art of animation—and if they keep things going, this festival has a future ahead of it,” wrote Cecilia D’Anastasio for the Portland Mercury.

“It was a life changing experience!” animator John Divide told me, having flown all the way from England to see his film’s screening.

This is the impact a film festival can make, and why it’s important to give indie animation a platform.

Tonight’s “Best of the Fest” show gives you a taste of the finest treats from our first event. It’s also meant to be a teaser for things to come. I’m very proud to announce dates for our next full-scale fest: please join us on May 18-19 for the 2012 NW Animation Festival — here at the historic Hollywood Theatre!

Now, let’s watch some films!

— Sven Bonnichsen

We’ve just posted a new teaser video for the Sept 10 Best of the Fest show! …Please share!

Here’s an in-depth review of the first NW Animation Festival. (Originally posted by fest director Sven Bonnichsen on the Scarlet Star Studios blog, July 7.)

The inaugural Northwest Animation Festival took place just over a month ago. This was by far the most ambitious event I’ve ever organized: 78 films from nine countries, shown over the course of three days.

The 5th Ave Cinema was an excellent first venue. We had 100 seats, low rental fees, and full control of projection from a kiosk at the front of the room.

A majority of tickets were purchased in advance. Our Will Call table was set up just in front of the doors to Auditorium 2. The line for tickets stretched down the hall, but moved quickly once we opened the doors.

An important part of running an event smoothly is having enough volunteers. Depending on the night, we had up to eight positions:

• managing the line (jokingly dubbed “the bouncer”)
• tickets – both Will Call and General Admission
• giving filmmakers their name badges
• auditorium door – handing out programs, making sure door closes quietly
• usher – with flashlight for late seating
• photographer
• projectionist
• emcee

A huge THANK YOU to everyone who helped out: Jeff & Dielle Alexandre, Carly Hirano, Gretchin Lair, Jessica Lockwood, Nick Nall, Temris & Matt Ridge, and Rebekah Villon.

A lot of effort went into making the event’s ephemera beautiful. The festival’s logo went on our programs, tickets, filmmaker name badges, buttons, and some of the signage. Wherever we needed signs, I was sure to use the festival’s font: century gothic.

Gretchin generously took on a last-minute project at my request, producing a batch of 50 buttons as a special freebie for filmmakers and volunteers. Thanks to Bridget Benton of Eyes Aflame for lending us the button-making machine.

What makes a film festival different from just going out to see a movie at the cineplex? People. It begins with your interaction with the event staff, from ticket table to usher to emcee… And then during the show, it’s getting to do Q&A with the filmmakers. It’s a very different, more social experience when you know that the people who made the films are seated all around you in the audience. At the end of every film, the audience applauded. I didn’t know to expect that — but it was awesome!

Coming into the auditorium, I wanted people to feel like they were entering a special, magical space. Lights were dimmed, the festival logo was on screen, and pre-show music set the mood (Cirque du Soleil.)

As people found their seats, I was delighted to say hello to many friends and acquaintances who’d made it out for the show. One of my few regrets is that I was unable to personally give all the filmmakers a proper greeting. Having spent so much time with their artistic works, I’d developed a fondness for these people I’d never met.

The job of an emcee is to shape expectations. Why are we here today? How should we judge the films we’re watching? When do we start, take breaks, and end? Where can we congregate after the show? And when’s the next festival going to be?

People just need to know what’s going to happen. Focus on that, and you’ve got a good chance of avoiding Interminable Opening Speech Syndrome.

There IS a place for talking at length about the big vision, though: the director’s statement in the program. Here’s what I said in mine:

FROM THE FESTIVAL DIRECTOR
I’m an animator myself. I love this magical art. So what do I want from an animation festival?

I want an abundant FEAST. Not just a dozen films — a hundred films!

I want to inspire fellow artists to make new work. The festival should stimulate imaginations — and give a concrete answer to that awful question, “What do I do with my film once it’s done?”

I want to help artists grow. I envision every animator being on a path to creating the best work of their life. Something profound or beautiful or funny or moving. Not everyone who submitted this year could be in the fest, but my hope is that everyone who stays on the path eventually WILL be shown.

Portland is an animation town. There is a family of artists here. The festival should be our annual family reunion, where we watch new talents gradually develop into masters.

It’s important to showcase the breadth of what’s being done with animation. There needs to be a place for people who still draw toons with pencil and paper; people who make vectors, layers, and Bézier curves in a computer; people who pose puppets one frame at a time; people who are making up entirely new ways to bring the still image to life.

Some films should be works of genius that just blow you away. But I also want to give screen time to the ones that make you say, “What a neat idea — maybe even I could do that!”

It’s OK if not every film in the program is your cup of tea. I’m confident that there will be something here for everyone. Hopefully you’ll get to experience a little bit of the delight that I’ve had while sifting through submissions… Discovering a collection of gems that dazzle.

— Sven Bonnichsen

I was surprised at how different the feel of the crowd was each night. Friday night people had a hard time getting settled down; some were arriving up to a half-hour late. Saturday, everything when remarkably smoothly, and people seemed to arrive ready to be absorbed in the films. Sunday I thought the room felt just a bit lethargic.

After each block of films, I’d invite all the filmmakers whose films had just screened to come up and answer questions from the audience. Gretchin coached me to say something like “So, what did you think?” immediately after the end of the films, to get a reaction from the crowd and warm them up. Justin Rasch helped me better understand the need to start the Q&A with some questions of my own, giving the audience a little time to start formulating what they might be curious about.

It’s a special experience to be the filmmaker taking questions. None of your answers feel entirely adequate. You’re hoping that the next question is directed to you — and simultaneously that the next question is NOT for you. You’re standing beside these other filmmakers whose works just blew your mind… But for all the clumsiness, there’s a rush of adrenalin from being in the spotlight. And even though all that you’ve done is stand up at the front of the room, somehow that actually does make you an authority — and everyone in the audience contributes their suspension of disbelief toward making that role a shared reality.

The festival was broken into 8 blocks of films. On Friday and Sunday I scheduled two 1-hour blocks, followed by a half-hour featurette. On Saturday I showed two 75min blocks. From the feedback I heard, both ways provided adequate time for stretching and using the restroom. The 75min blocks were significantly more difficult for me to assemble, though.

There’s an art to creating a good line-up of films. I used three tools:

• photos of the films, which I could slide around on a big folding table

• a spreadsheet, which could automatically calculate the length of each block
• video clips in iTunes, which allowed me to hear soundtracks in sequence

I tried to put the very strongest films at the beginning and end of blocks. I tried to make sure there were short “palette cleansers” between longer films. I did a lot of color-coding in the spreadsheet, noting which films were light and funny, dark and gothic, or impenetrably abstract. I had further color tags to indicate whether a film was 2D, CG, stopmo, or hybrid/exotic.

Basically, assembling a program of films is like creating a giant mix tape. Variety is crucial, and you have to pay a lot of attention to the highs and lows of mood/energy. The temptation to put all the dark, bleak films on one day must be resisted! Or, by the same token, the urge to group all environmental films on one day. Avoid theme!

Despite juggling all those factors — strength, length, animation method, happy/sad, energy level — problematic similarities would still emerge. For instance, four films made conspicuous use of butterflies. Three featured skeletons. Two films had almost identical guitar riffs. The first shorts block had an overabundance of films where the predominant color was either white or muted/desaturated hues…

You do your best. I was very pleased to hear folks saying that the program seemed well-balanced. When it works, you don’t even mind watching the films that “aren’t your thing,” because you trust that something else that you will like is only a film or two away.

Depending on how many filmmakers were present for a particular block, I’d facilitate 5-7 questions, then go to intermission. People milled in the lobby and hallway.

We brought along a chime that was Gretchin’s signature “time’s up” sound back when she was running Artist’s Way classes. Ringing it was en elegant way to let folks know when it was time to return to their seats.

Another nifty thing about 5th Ave Cinema is that for an additional fee, you can provide free popcorn for your entire audience. Gretchin was marvelous, and donated popcorn to the festival. Because I was wearing my Festival Director hat, it was only slightly strange to be thanking Scarlet Star Studios for the generosity.

During the films, all the volunteers got to come into the auditorium and watch the program. Really, though, we could almost have had someone staffing the ticket table during the whole show. One night we had someone purchase a ticket for just the last half hour. Apparently they weren’t very impressed with the John Wayne film in Auditorium 1, and wandered over to see what we had to offer.

Both ASIFA-Portland and Cascade ACM SIGGRAPH were very helpful in getting word out about the festival. I’m embarrassed that I forgot to give either one time for promoting their group from the stage until the last day. It also took until Sunday to figure out where we could put an info table that wouldn’t block traffic… And to start encouraging people to sign up for the email list to be notified about the next NWAF event.

I hope to foster community among animators, and for NWAF to become a valued community gathering. There’s room for improvement.

Several people traveled from out of state for the festival:

• Michael P. Glover – Milton the Demon Boy ….. New York
• Dayan Paul – Courageous Crustaceans ….. Nevada
• Curtis Randloph – Moon Diary ….. Washington
• Carly White – Pink Spray Paint ….. California
• Maureen Zent – Bostle Sleench ….. Georgia

And the winner for our imaginary “traveled furthest to be here” award?

• John Davide – Hope ….. England!

I was careful to let everyone know what we could and couldn’t offer at our first festival — and still they came! It was a shock (albeit a pleasant one) when the first person let me know that they’d bought plane tickets. Suddenly the event became so much more real… Other people believed in it enough to make a journey!

Most of the filmmakers currently living in Portland were able to come at least for their own film. Attendees included:

• Art Institute of Portland students – The Box Game
• Christina Beard – Maurauder’s Mistake
• Jesse Brennan – Coffee Critics
• Andrew Brown – The Old Man and the Butterfly
• Matthew Dan – Chef Antonio
• Fashionbuddha – Phlush PSA
• Adam Fisher – Mashed, Timber
• Michael Graham – Colorless
• Troy Hileman – Inritus
• Dean Holmes – The Nose
• Eric Kilkenny – Ursula 1000 – Rocket
• Patrick Neary – Landscape with Duck
• Sam Niemann – Ruby Rocket, Private Detective
• Christopher Purdin – Chixulub
• Justin Rasch – Gerald’s Last Day
• Jeff Riley – Operation: Fish
• Mike A. Smith – Missionary
• Barbara Tetenbaum – Old-Time Film
• Cassandra Worthington – Button Song
• Marilyn Zornado – Old-Time Film
25. students who worked on The Box Game, Teresa Drilling (their teacher), Curtis Randolph

It was a very special pleasure to show The Box Game, which was created by more than 30 students at the Art Institute of Portland. It’s an extremely well-crafted and delightful short. It deserves to be seen on a big screen — and I’m glad I could give its makers the opportunity to see it this way.

26. Curtis Randolph discusses Moon Diary, the festival’s closing film

I’m very pleased about the relationship growing between NWAF and the Art Institute. Several films came from the school: The Box Game, Button Song, Colorless, Inritus, The Old Man and the Butterfly… And both Marilyn Zornado and Teresa Drilling (teachers at the school) made it a homework assignment for their classes to attend the fest!

27. McMenamins Market Street Pub

Each day of the fest, everyone in the audience was invited to walk a few blocks over to the McMenamins Market Street Pub. I had reservations — but our group was late to arrive on Friday, which made things awkward. Saturday and Sunday I wised up and sent an NWAF volunteer (Jeff) over to McMenamins to hold onto our table. By introducing him earlier in the evening, everyone knew who to look for when they arrived at the pub. This worked very well, and we wound up easily filling 20 seats.

28. John Davide and myself

Probably my happiest story from the festival is about John Davide from England. As the pub was closing, he came up and thanked me profusely. In his words, the festival was a “life-changing experience.” Regardless of whether his film was best in show — just to have someone believe in his work enough to put it up on the screen meant the world.

He stayed at a hostel on Hawthorne Street. After telling other guests about his film, the hostel manager took people’s names down on a napkin and organized buying festival tickets for everyone!

John felt such warmth — talking with Jeff Alexandre, Matt Dan, myself, and others — he’s seriously looking into moving to Portland… Perhaps to take some classes at the Art Institute. “London has lost its soul,” he says — but in Portland, there’s tremendous cultural support for creatives. I wish you the best, John!

29. Sven & Gretchin

Lastly, THANK YOU to Gretchin for supporting this mad endeavor. Behind the scenes, she was making buttons, folding programs, making the special treat of popcorn happen. She lent me her computer for a few days while I was encoding the festival’s eight DVDs. Anything I could ask for, she fulfilled.

Beyond the tangibles, though, she was nothing but supportive during the months when I had to quit doing anything but festival work… When she’d go to bed, and wake up to find me still sitting, typing in the same chair. Without her belief in me, this wouldn’t be possible.

30. marquee

Would I do all again? …YES.

The “Best of the NW Animation Fest” show is scheduled for September 10 at the Hollywood Theatre. It’s a gorgeous 450-seat auditorium — and if all goes well this fall, it’s where we’ll do the 2012 festival next spring.

We’re boiling three days of films down to a one-night-only “Best of the Fest” show. The screening will take place in the magnificent Hollywood Theater‘s main auditorium on Sept 10 at 7:00pm.

Miss the first NW Animation Festival? Here’s your chance to see the cream of the crop.

Due to a mind-boggling amount of last-minute interest in the festival, we will keep online ticket sales open longer than originally planned:

• 3-day passes and Friday passes can be purchased online up until 3:00pm on Friday
• Saturday passes can be purchased online up until 3:00pm on Saturday
• Sunday passes can be purchased online up until 11:00am on Sunday

“Let’s see how many people visited the site today… 780?! Uh…”

We know what it feels like to be little birds lifting a whale…

If you get this pop reference, then you should be following @NWAnimationFest on Twitter! Just visit our page and click that candy-like “follow” button: https://twitter.com/#!/NWAnimationFest

Do you check your FaceBook feed before you eat breakfast? Now NWAF has its own FaceBook page: www.facebook.com/nwanimationfest. Follow us to find out our latest news—while your coffee’s still percolating.