Philadelphia University To Host Screening of Animated Short Films on November 7

Philadelphia University will host a film screening of the best animated short films of 2011 in The Tuttleman Center auditorium at 2 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 7.

The B.S. in Animation program will host the 13th Annual “Animation Show of Shows,” a traveling exhibition of the year’s top animation shorts.

Curated by AWN.com’s Ron Diamond, the founder of Acme Filmworks, the “Animation Show of Shows” is the result of Diamond’s extensive annual search for the best animated works.

“Diamond attends animation festivals all over the world to assemble the year’s best, most interesting and most thought-provoking animated shorts,” said Geoffrey Beatty, assistant professor of animation. “This may be the only opportunity many people have to see these films.”

One of the films, La Luna by director Enrico Casarosa will be the animated short film that plays before Pixar Animation Studios’ next feature length film, Brave, which will debut next summer. The show gives viewers the rare opportunity to view the film before its nationwide release.

Another film among the selection from former Pixar animator William Joyce, now at Moonbot Studios, is an animated short that was also made into an interactive children’s book for the iPad. Joyce’s The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore is partially inspired by the stories of Hurricane Katrina survivors, as well as the animators’ love of books.

Several other films will be screened, including the best works from animators across the globe with entries from Portugal, Switzerland, Germany, Argentina and Canada.

Inexpensively priced DVDs of past films will also be available for purchase at the event, which is free and open to the public.