Animation For Adults: The AFA Podcast

Evan Vernon interviews Nelly Michenaud, director of ALMOST THERE. Nelly Michenaud is a French animator based in London. After graduating from Central Saint Martin, she went to the NFTS for an MA in Directing Animation. The world of Nelly intends to surprise and question. She finds inspiration in daily life, remarkable or not, to transform them with humour and thus emphasise the absurdity of life, the core of her inspiration. ALMOST THERE was recently selected as a Winner in the Animation Nights New York 5th ANNY Best of Fest in 2021.

ALMOST THERE

On a train journey without stops or destination, an observer goes to extreme lengths to avoid other passengers, a giant baby runs away from his parents, a romantic woman starts a relationship with a cuckoo, and a naïve boy discovers that some problems can’t be fixed by pictures of unicorns.

Film: https://vimeo.com/498951029

Interview by Evan Vernon

Theme music by Joe Lazenby

You can subscribe to The AFA Podcast on iTunes, Acast, and Stitcher.

Join ANNY  on our Discord Server!

About ANNY: Animation Nights New York is a curated monthly screening event and annual festival first established in NYC in 2015. The event showcases animated short films and virtual reality animation experiences from all around the world and both project submission and admission to monthly screenings of in-competition films are free to the general public. If you would like to submit a VR/AR/Game or short film project, you can find Animation Nights New York on Film Freeway.

ANNY Exchange is our talent connect initiative. We connect animation talent to opportunity using our festival as a vehicle.

ANNY Best of Fest is our annual festival held in mid November.

Evan Vernon interviews Natalia Mirzoyan, director of FIVE MINUTES TO SEA. Natalia Mirzoyan was born in 1982 in Yerevan. She graduated from the Arts school named after H. Danielyan and the Department of Philosophy in Yerevan State University. Natalia attended the faculty of easel graphics in Saint Petersburg Institute of Decorative-Applied Arts. In 2004 she began working in “Petersburg as an animator and director. Her films “My Childhood Mystery Tree” and “Chinti” have participated in many festivals and received prizes from all over the world. FIVE MINUTES TO SEA was recently selected as a Winner in the Animation Nights New York 5th ANNY Best of Fest in 2021.

FIVE MINUTES TO SEA

The mother issues her decree: before you get back in the water, you have to take a break and sit quietly for five minutes. For the little girl, these five minutes are an ocean of boredom that stretches on forever and ever. She starts to watch the other bathers and how they spend their five minutes.

Film: https://vimeo.com/468976307

Social Media Links

https://vimeo.com/nataliamirzoyan (Vimeo)

https://www.instagram.com/nataliamir22/?hl=en (Instagram)

Interview by Evan Vernon

Theme music by Joe Lazenby

You can subscribe to The AFA Podcast on iTunes, Acast, and Stitcher.

Join ANNY  on our Discord Server!

About ANNY: Animation Nights New York is a curated monthly screening event and annual festival first established in NYC in 2015. The event showcases animated short films and virtual reality animation experiences from all around the world and both project submission and admission to monthly screenings of in-competition films are free to the general public. If you would like to submit a VR/AR/Game or short film project, you can find Animation Nights New York on Film Freeway.

ANNY Exchange is our talent connect initiative. We connect animation talent to opportunity using our festival as a vehicle.

ANNY Best of Fest is our annual festival held in mid November.

Welcome back to The AFA Podcast for a very important episode of our interview specials. In this episode, AFA's Evan Vernon spoke with writer, actor and comedian Joey Clift from The Animation Guild to talk about their current efforts to negotiate a fairer deal for animation writers, who are currently paid considerably less than their live-action equivalents for doing the same job. They discuss the #PayAnimationWriters and the wider #NewDeal4Animation social media campaigns which are designed to spread awareness for animation professionals' mistreatment by an industry that they profited greatly from and particularly over the past two years, come to rely on.

If you would like to help, show your support on social media by sharing the hashtags and resharing posts from animation workers and campaigners. Huge thanks to Joey and TAG for talking to us!

If you enjoy the show, why not leave us a review? It can really help  others discover the show. If you have any ideas for future shows,  questions for us to answer or any other enquiries, feel free to email us here. GET EPISODES EARLY AND AD-FREE BY BECOMING A  PATRON

SHOW NOTES:

The Animation Guild

IATSE 

Joey Clift:   

Twitter  Insta

Evan Vernon interviews Signe Baumane, director of MOTHER'S SONG, a 3 minute clip from My Love Affair With Marriage. Much of the work at Signe Baumane Studio in Brooklyn is practical, meaning non-digital. Signe draws most of the animation herself, pencil on paper, Sturgis builds sets out of wood and their Team of artists covers them in paper-mâché and paint. The sets are lit and photographed, the Team pencil shadows the drawings then scans and organizes them into digital files before passing them on to the Latvian Team. MOTHER'S SONG was recently selected as a Winner in the Animation Nights New York 5th ANNY Best of Fest in 2021.

MOTHER'S SONG

On the night of a full moon, Zelma, age 13, discovers blood on her bed sheets. Her mother and three Mythology Sirens rush to educate her about what it means to be a woman.

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/329002938

Interview by Evan Vernon

Theme music by Joe Lazenby

You can subscribe to The AFA Podcast on iTunes, Acast, and Stitcher.

Join ANNY  on our Discord Server!

About ANNY: Animation Nights New York is a curated monthly screening event and annual festival first established in NYC in 2015. The event showcases animated short films and virtual reality animation experiences from all around the world and both project submission and admission to monthly screenings of in-competition films are free to the general public. If you would like to submit a VR/AR/Game or short film project, you can find Animation Nights New York on Film Freeway.

ANNY Exchange is our talent connect initiative. We connect animation talent to opportunity using our festival as a vehicle.

ANNY Best of Fest is our annual festival held in mid November.

Evan Vernon interviews Martina SCARPELLI , director of EGG. Martina is an Italian filmmaker based in Denmark. She works as animation director, creative director and producer pushing provocative stories with sophisticated storytelling that challenges and inspires audiences of today. She has a BA in Fine Art from “Academy of Brera” in Milan, and a BA in Animation from “Experimental Center of Cinematography” in Turin. She is a former alumni of Animation sans frontiers, Anidox:Lab, Anidox:Residency, and former Open Workshop resident. Her short film Egg was awarded with a crystal for first film at Annecy, a Golden Dove at Dok Leipzig, Golden Horseman at Filmfest Dresden, was nominated for best short film at the European Animation Awards 2018 and shortlisted for the 2020 Cesar Award. Her film EGG was recently selected as a Winner in the Animation Nights New York 5th ANNY Best of Fest in 2021.

EGG

A woman is locked in her home with an egg, which she is both attracted to and scared of. She eats the egg, she repents. She kills it. She lets the egg die of hunger.

Film: https://vimeo.com/373368812

Interview by Evan Vernon

Theme music by Joe Lazenby

You can subscribe to The AFA Podcast on iTunes, Acast, and Stitcher.

Join ANNY  on our Discord Server!

About ANNY: Animation Nights New York is a curated monthly screening event and annual festival first established in NYC in 2015. The event showcases animated short films and virtual reality animation experiences from all around the world and both project submission and admission to monthly screenings of in-competition films are free to the general public. If you would like to submit a VR/AR/Game or short film project, you can find Animation Nights New York on Film Freeway.

ANNY Exchange is our talent connect initiative. We connect animation talent to opportunity using our festival as a vehicle.

ANNY Best of Fest is our annual festival held in mid November.

Evan Vernon interviews Paola Cubillos, director of Lines of Oblivion. Paola is an Animation student based in Ghent (BE) specializing in the technique of stop-motion through narrations related to time, memory and atemporal spaces of intimacy. Her film Lines of Oblivion was recently selected as a Winner in the Animation Nights New York 5th ANNY Best of Fest in 2021.

Lines of Oblivion

Lines of Oblivion touches upon the memories that are vanished only in order to survive. The erasure of feelings related to objects and to a space take the shape of a house as refuge where the silence recalls another melody. The rejected memories knock to the doors without giving nor asking for any explanation, they just demand to be bestowed an existence.

Film: https://paolacubillos.myportfolio.com/olvidos

You can subscribe to The AFA Podcast on iTunes, Acast, and Stitcher.

Join ANNY  on our Discord Server!

About ANNY: Animation Nights New York is a curated monthly screening event and annual festival first established in NYC in 2015. The event showcases animated short films and virtual reality animation experiences from all around the world and both project submission and admission to monthly screenings of in-competition films are free to the general public. If you would like to submit a VR/AR/Game or short film project, you can find Animation Nights New York on Film Freeway.

ANNY Exchange is our talent connect initiative. We connect animation talent to opportunity using our festival as a vehicle.

ANNY Best of Fest is our annual festival held in mid November.

Animator Interview #27 featuring Independent Animator Julie Rembauville

Evan Vernon interviews Julie Rembauville, director of SMALL SPARK. Julie was born in Paris in 1982. Julie studied literature and audiovisuals at La Sorbonne University. In 2003, she published her first book for children, Je ne me laisserai pas faire ! (I won’t let them do it !) working with the illustrator Nicolas Bianco-Levrin. Since then, they have worked on films and books. The Machino received the award of the best DVD-book for children in 2006, given by the CIELJ (International Center of Literature for Children)

She’s now working on an animated series project for TV, KROAK, written with Nicolas Bianco-Levrin and produced by Sacrebleu productions. Her film SMALL SPARK was recently selected as a Winner in the Animation Nights New York 5th ANNY Best of Fest in 2021.

SMALL SPARK

A small mouse lives in the middle of books and their epic adventures. When the candle goes out and when the matchbox is empty, it’s her turn to live a dangerous adventure throughout the house, in search of a small spark.

Film: https://vimeo.com/296414113

SHOW NOTES

00:40.000

Animation Nights New York in partnership with Alamo on Demand presented the “5th ANNY Best of Fest” (Program #66 | Season 5 & 6 | Winners) on Saturday, Nov 13 - Saturday Nov 20, 2021

5th ANNY Best of Fest Film Winners Programs 1 & 2: https://www.animationnights.com/screening66-5th-anny-best-of-fest/  

03:22.022

Disney Films & Animals

https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Films_about_animals

06:10.00

https://www.48hourfilm.com/home

Social Media Links

http://www.nicolasbianco.fr/ (Nicolas' Personal Website)

https://www.facebook.com/julie.rembauville (Julie's Facebook)

Prototype: http://www.festival-prototype.com/

Interview by Evan Vernon

Theme music by Joe Lazenby

You can subscribe to The AFA Podcast on iTunes, Acast, and Stitcher.

Evan Vernon interviews Yael Reisfeld, director of ALEF B'TAMUZ. Yael graduated from Bezalel animation department in 2018. Born in Jerusalem 1990, she now works as a freelance animator and video editor in Tel Aviv. Her film ALEF B'TAMUZ was recently selected as a Winner in the Animation Nights New York 5th ANNY Best of Fest in 2021.

ALEF B'TAMUZ

Three destitute pilgrims experience a strange night in the old Jewish cemetery in Zefat, when they are possessed by souls from the 16th century

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/288640149

SHOW NOTES

00:40.000

Animation Nights New York in partnership with Alamo on Demand presented the “5th ANNY Best of Fest” (Program #66 | Season 5 & 6 | Winners) on Saturday, Nov 13 - Saturday Nov 20, 2021

5th ANNY Best of Fest Film Winners Programs 1 & 2: https://www.animationnights.com/screening66-5th-anny-best-of-fest/  

02:01.252

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ren_%26_Stimpy_Show (Ren and Stimpy)

04:17.371

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bezalel_Academy_of_Arts_and_Design (Bezalel Academy of Art and Design)

02:01.252

https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safed_Old_Jewish_Cemetery#:~:text=The%20Safed%20Old%20Jewish%20Cemetery%20is%20one%20of%20the%20oldest,Canaan%20near%20the%20Amud%20River. (Safed Cemetery)

Social Media Links

http://yaelreisfeld.com/ (Personal Website)

https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/645727633 (Showreel)

Interview by Evan Vernon

Theme music by Joe Lazenby

You can subscribe to The AFA Podcast on iTunes, Acast, and Stitcher.

Join ANNY  on our Discord Server!

Evan Vernon interviews Mikkel Odehnalu, director of SO FAR, SO CLOSE. Mikkel is an animator and artist originally from Czech Republic residing in Reykjavík,  Iceland. His film SO FAR, SO CLOSE was recently selected as a Winner in the Animation Nights New York 5th ANNY Best of Fest in 2021.

Far to the north, the first snowstorm is approaching. The heavy sky is being reflected in the water puddles and the wind scatters around the first snowflakes. A white wolf appears in the watery reflection. It seems that his lonesome journey through the northern wasteland cannot even have a good ending. He is plagued by hunger and fatigue. However, fate blows his way, something that is worth fighting for.

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/250336331

Social Media Links

https://mikkelodehnalu.wixsite.com/-mikkelodehnalu (Personal Website)

https://vimeo.com/mikkelodu (Vimeo)

https://www.instagram.com/mikkelodu/ (Instagram)

Interview by Evan Vernon.

Theme music by Joe Lazenby

You can subscribe to The AFA Podcast on iTunes, Acast, and Stitcher.

Join ANNY  on our Discord Server!

About ANNY: Animation Nights New York is a curated monthly screening event and annual festival first established in NYC in 2015. The event showcases animated short films and virtual reality animation experiences from all around the world and both project submission and admission to monthly screenings of in-competition films are free to the general public. If you would like to submit a VR/AR/Game or short film project, you can find Animation Nights New York on Film Freeway.

ANNY Exchange is our talent connect initiative. We connect animation talent to opportunity using our festival as a vehicle.

ANNY Best of Fest is our annual festival held in mid November.

Welcome to another edition of The AFA Podcast Interview series. This time Evan Vernon got to speak to the animation historian and author Mindy Johnson, writer of the book Pencils, Pens and Brushes: A Great Girl's Guide To Disney Animation. Mindy will speak at the Film Forum New York about the contributions of women animators to early Disney Animation. Evan spoke with Mindy about her career and work uncovering these mostly unsung figures.

This episode is brought to you in association with the Animation Is Film Festival. The Animation Is Film Festival is a major animation festival produced by GKIDS in collaboration with Annecy International Animation Film Festival and Variety. It returns this year to bring the best animated films from around the world on October 22-24! Experience exclusive screenings, behind-the-scenes presentations, filmmaker Q&As, and more at the historic TCL Chinese 6 Theatres in Hollywood. Get your tickets at animationisfilm.com.  Save 25% off your tickets using the promo code ANIMATIONFORADULTS"

SHOW NOTES

“PENCILS, PENS AND BRUSHES” Presented by Mindy Johnson: SUNDAY OCTOBER 17 FORUM NYC

Mindy Johnson