Call for Submissions: ANIMARKT Pitching, Branch of Polish Event ANIMARKT Stop Motion Forum, Extends 2018 Pitching Submission Deadline

Photo courtesy of Iwona Buchcic.

As of August 1st, 2018, ANIMARKT Pitching – a branch of ANIMARKT Stop Motion Forum, an annual puppet animation-centered conference based in Łódź, Poland, where producers, distributors, representatives of TV broadcasters, animators and other professionals in the stop motion industry share with those who attend the conference their experience and practical knowledge about working in animation industry, including pitching sessions, discussions, presentations, workshops, and individual face-to-face meetings, the first event of its kind in Central and Eastern Europe – has extended its pitching submission deadline for stop motion short film projects to August 5, 2018.

“We are excited by the substantial number of all submissions that have already been submitted. Nevertheless, in order to maximise the opportunity for creators to present themselves and their projects in front of professionals from many countries, we are pleased to extend the deadline for projects of stop motion shorts,” says Agnieszka Kowalewska, programmer of ANIMARKT Stop Motion Forum.

The regulations for pitching are as follows: The film being pitched must be at the development stage. It must not have a final runtime over over 26 minutes, and at least 80 percent of the film should be made with the technique of stop motion puppet animation. Projects may include animated shorts or television special episodes made with the use of puppet technique.

Furthermore, an additional asset of the project must include the artistic input of creators (Animation Director, Storyboard Author, Author of Artistic Designs, Composer, or an animator responsible for the realization of a significant part of the animation) from at least one of the following countries: Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Germany, Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia. However, the event’s organizers welcome creators from all over the world.

The full list of pitching regulations are accessible on www.en.animarkt.pl/pitching. Applications are to be submitted by an online application form at: https://goo.gl/forms/jrbY9FSjEI0fmagJ3 until August 5th, 2018.

ANIMARKT Stop Motion Forum 2017. Photo courtesy of Iwona Buchcic.

From all the applications being sent, the Selection Committee will choose 15 projects which will be presented on October 11th, 2018 as part of Pitching during the ANIMARKT event. The selection committee includes: Agnieszka Niewadził (CeTA, Poland), Nikodem Szlęzak (CeTA, Poland), István Mráz (Mozinet Ltd., Hungary), Michal Podhradský (ASAF, Czech Republic), Andrej Gregorčok (Fest Anča International Animation Festival, Slovakia), Agnieszka Kowalewska-Skowron (MOMAKIN, Poland), and Paulina Zacharek (MOMAKIN, Poland). The pitching jury will be announced later this month.

The person responsible for presentation of the selected project will be provided with a hotel accommodation (7 nights) and a reimbursement of 80% of travel costs (up to EUR 150). Moreover, they will participate in two training sessions. The script session with Wim Vanecker – a producer, screenwriter, director, script consultant, and the project manager of European Short Pitch – will be organized in a form of individual meetings focused on a given participant’s projects. Training sessions with Nancy Denney-Phelps – an animation historian and journalist who cooperates with the prestigious AWN.com publishing group – will have a similar form. Nancy will conduct a training sessions that will aim at improving the participants’ skills connected with presenting projects.

Among the projects presented during the ANIMARKT event, the Pitching’s jury will select two main winners. Information concerning the awarded projects will be announced on October 13th, 2018 during the Closing Gala of the Łódź Animation Festival LAL.KA.

The prizes in the contest are the Audiovisual Technology Center contribution in kind in the amount of: 60.000 PLN (ca €14.000), 40.000 PLN (ca €9.300) and additional awards, such as accreditation to Mifa 2019 and sound post production including studio and sound engineer for 5 days (offered by Playade Sound Studio).

The organizer of ANIMARKT is MOMAKIN (www.momakin.pl) – a multi-tasking unit working for popularizing and propagating animation and supporting creators in Poland
and in international arenas. The partners of ANIMARKT include: Audiovisual Technology Center (CeTA) from Wroclaw which is also the founder of the awards for pitching winners, ASAF (Czech Republic), Mozinet (Hungary), Fest Anča International Animation Festival (Slovakia). ANIMARKT is partially funded by the International Visegrad Fund
and co-financed by the Polish Film Institute.

ANIMARKT Stop Motion Forum 2017. Photo courtesy of Iwona Buchcic.

ANIMARKT Stop Motion Forum – which includes ANIMARKT Pitching – will take place in Łódź, Poland from 8th to 13th October, 2018.

To learn more about ANIMARKT Stop Motion Forum you can visit their website by going here. For additional information concerning ANIMARKT Pitching, please email Iwona Buchcic, ANIMARKT PR and Marketing Manager, at i.buchcic@momakin.pl, or at +48 502 598 925.

You can stay tuned for upcoming interviews and articles by subscribing to Stop Motion Geek via the “subscribe” button at the top right corner of our homepage, by following us on our Facebook @StopMotionGeek, or by following us on our Instagram @stop.motion.geek.blog.

Comments

Aardman Co-Founder David Sproxton's Tips for Success in the Animation Industry, Part 1 (of 3): 3 Pre-Production Tips

Aardman founders David Sproxton (left) and Peter Lord (right) standing in front of Wallace & Gromit set for Variety (Photo by Charlie Gray) “It all started at a kitchen table,” says co-founder of Aardman Animations, David Sproxton, about the beginning of his career in animation, “Pete [Peter Lord] and I met as schoolkids….Pete and I got to be great mates and we started playing and thinking up stories. I was always interested in photography and kind of, I guess, the process thing about films….One day we got out the Bolex, stuck it up on a stand and actually just cut images out of color supplements. We’d obviously watched programs like Vision On , which obviously used a plethora of styles. Cut out is the easiest thing to do. We didn’t really understand cel animation or actually how you drew stuff. We just moved stuff around and did stuff with chalk drawings.” Earlier this year, Aardman, in celebration of the 40th anniversary of their studio, released a ...

Read full article »

Interview with Kangmin Kim, Director of Stop Motion Short Film, "Deer Flower"

Kangmin Kim animating the dream sequence from Deer Flower . Photo courtesy of Kangmin Kim. The experience of childhood is something like existing within a waking dream. In childhood, as in particularly vibrant dreams, the distinct and unique experience presents itself to simply exist in each moment without explanation or reflection – to become fully and wholly enveloped in each and every moment, the option of operating outside of which is somehow nonexistent. In that special time in one’s life, moments simply are . And yet, childhood, like dreams, is a fragile and temporary reality. It’s not until one “wakes” from childhood, by entering adulthood, that one can reflect upon and appreciate the past and, in retrospect, realize just how odd and unusual certain experiences might have actually been. Korean filmmaker and animator Kangmin Kim captures this feeling beautifully in his outstanding short film Deer Flower . Deer Flower tells the semi-autobiographical of auteur Kangmin...

Read full article »

Interview with Samuel Lewis - Animator, Character Designer, and Sculptor on Stop Motion Short Film, "Lost & Found"

Knotjira, a clumsy dinosaur made of wool, as seen in Lost & Found . Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith. “If I had to pick a starting point for my career as a stop motion animator I would have to say it was my obsession as a six year old with a book called ‘Playing with Plasticine’ by Barbara Reid,” Samuel Lewis – a London-based stop motion and 2D animator and director, whose most recent labor of love can be seen in his contribution to the Australian stop motion short film, Lost & Found – tells Stop Motion Geek. Upon reflection, Lewis explains that his love for the medium of stop motion began very early in life, and has merely managed to burn ever brighter in his fervor to master the craft. “I would spend countless hours fixated on sculpting tiny snails, fruit bowls and dinosaurs to the point where I would stay inside on family holidays sculpting a surfer in a beach scene rather than going to the actual beach that was only a short walk away,” Lewis recalls wistfully. “...

Read full article »

Interview with Nadine Buss, Cinematographer on Oscar® Nominated Stop Motion Short Film "Negative Space"

One of the surreal flashback scenes from Negative Space . Source: Vimeo. “These are my guidelines for lighting,” Nadine Buss, the cinematographer of the Oscar®-nominated short film Negative Space , tells Stop Motion Geek, “feel, re-explore sensations,” she says, only to then lightheartedly add, “and remember the lights you saw.” Feel . If Buss’s creative fingerprint on Negative Space could be described in just one word, it would be just that. A beautiful and heart wrenching story, Ru Kuwahata and Max Porter’s Negative Space – a stop motion short film based on a poem of the same title by Ron Koertge – is, in many ways, one story presented as two: One half of the narrative is of a young man – Sam – as he packs a suitcase for travel before then driving to the funeral home where his late father’s viewing is being held. It’s a narrative colored by Buss in the hard, icy light of winter, which contrasts sharply with the sunny, warm light in which the second story is pa...

Read full article »

Interview with Bradley Slabe, Co-Director of Stop Motion Love Story, "Lost & Found" (Part 1/2 of Interview with "Lost & Found" Directors)

Knotjira (foreground) and Knitsune (background) in Lost & Found . Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith. The true essence of art – a reflection of life itself – is very much akin to the Japanese aesthetic of “wabi-sabi”: it’s imperfect, impermanent, and, at times, profoundly...incomplete. It is both at once a fundamental truth, and, curiously, more often than not, a thing incredibly hard to acknowledge, to make peace with. Yet perhaps our resistance is justifiable, for once we admit that the world is full of unknowns – unknowns that aren’t ideal, that aren’t perfect – we are just as soon confronted with the actualization of a deep, intrinsic, and very human fear: the fear of a future full of...unknowns that aren’t ideal, that aren’t perfect. Yet it’s the confrontal of that fear that is the most terrifying reality of all, for the moment we make peace with it we have just as soon have acknowledged that our paths in life aren’t in our own hands, or something we can contro...

Read full article »

"Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2" End Credits

A few nights ago I sat down and watched the sequel to Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs ; correctly titled Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 . And, I must say... it was enjoyable and entertaining. Though the first film was comedic brilliance animated, dubbed, and packed in a box we like to call a movie. Cloudy 2 wasn't any where near as good as the first one but on the other hand the original directors/writers of the first film, Phil Lord and Chris Miller didn't direct the sequel. But they are the creative team behind the recently released The Lego Movie . Which looks great and is getting incredibly positive reviews from the critics. So, i am excited to partake in that movie experience. All the 'end credits' work was done by the amazing people over a Screen Novelties. Lots of cool stuff here in the end credits including grown men in strawberry suits, puppets, and of course, Stop Motion. So grab a snack and enjoy! Link: http:...

Read full article »

King Kong [1933]

Yes, it's back to the olden days, back when the idea of Stop Motion was the brainchild of Willis O' Brien. King Kong , is the most influential movie in history as far as I'm concerned. Willis O' Brien, was born on March 2, 1886 in Oakland, California. He did run away at the age of 13 but, as most do after running away, returned at the age of 17. Now into the Stop Motion aspect of it all. Finding himself with some time to kill one afternoon,

Read full article »

Vincent & Puppet Scales

Tim Burton's Vincent is a masterpiece; the short was animated by the brilliant Stephen Chiodo . I do love that the short was shot in black and white film, ask any true film-lover and

Read full article »

Short Flicks: "A Girl Named Elastika" & PES' "Swan Song"

"She’s young, dreamy and fearless, she drives cars way too fast, she’s also a yamakasi. She likes adventure, fireworks and unrelenting seas. From the day I conceived her, I’ve been a worried father. And a proud one too." Link: http://vimeo.com/gblanchet/elastika A GIRL NAMED ELASTIKA from Guillaume Blanchet I Filmmaker on Vimeo . "A love story by PES. Announcing the new citizenM Hotel in Times Square, New York City." Link: http://youtu.be/F-K-ucVm7NA

Read full article »

Interview with Heather Colbert, Filmmaker Behind The Music Video for Tom Rosenthal’s “How Have You Been?”

Hypnos looking on at the moon. Photo courtesy of Heather Colbert. “After talking with Tom, I just let the track play, while I drew or noted down ideas that came into my head,” Heather Colbert—a Bristol-based animator and filmmaker—tells Stop Motion Geek about the origins of her newest project: creating, almost single-handedly, the music video for English singer-songwriter Tom Rosenthal’s “How Have You Been?”—a haunting and beautiful acapella piece off his latest album, Z-Sides . “He told me the album was about sleep and so the images that came to me were of nocturnal and natural things. I also saw a connection in the beautiful lyrics to a character living with mental health issues, especially in the line ‘I woke up, but it didn’t go away’. So I began to see a creature trying their best to get on with their task, but being hindered by the fear of the world that they inhabit.” Hypnos (left) and Shadow (right) in the film. Photo courtesy of Heather Colbert. The third musi...

Read full article »

Stop Motion Geek

Search This Blog