The Ottawa 2007 International Animation Festival, planned for September 19-23, has announced its slate of special screenings and retrospectives. Among the highlights: a 4-part tribute to UPA, the mid-century design geniuses responsible for Gerald McBoingBoing, The Tell-Tale Heart, Rooty Toot Toot, and the Mr. Magoo shorts; retrospectives devoted to Joanna Quinn and Janet Perlman; a program called “Poetry in Motion,” featuring animation inspired by classic poetry; “Saul Steinberg and Animation,” a showcase of films influenced by the famed New Yorker cartoonist; and a memorial tribute to animator Helen Hill, who was tragically killed earlier this year in New Orleans.

The festival has also put out a call for entries. There’s no entry fee and deadline to enter films is June 1, 2007. Entry forms and submission details are available here. Festival artistic director Chris Robinson notes that, “This year we’re putting some emphasis on reaching out to the gaming, mobile, wireless and interactive world. With more and more animation being made for non-traditional distribution platforms, it’s important that the OIAF celebrate the work being done in these new forms, so we’ve expanded our New Media Competition to include mobile content and interactive educational and gaming animation as well as shorts made for the Internet.â€?

2007 festival poster by Oscar Grillo

“The Ancient Book of Myth and War” opens at Gallery Nucleus (30 West Main St., Alhambra, CA) this Saturday, March 24, from 7-11pm. The show of paintings, illustrations and prints based on classic myths and legends features work by four exceptionally talented animation development artists currently working at Pixar: Don Shank, Scott Morse, Lou Romano and Nate Wragg.

With their already crazed animation dayjobs, I have no idea how they find the time to create so much amazing art, but if the show isn’t enough, the work is also being collected into an 80-page hardcover book. A limited number of copies will premiere at the show this Saturday and the book can currently be pre-ordered on Amazon. This Sunday afternoon, there’s also an (almost sold-out) four-hour workshop/painting demo with the quartet. Details for that event are available here.

Stay tuned to the Brew for more details about the book and a contest you won’t want to miss.

The official competition selections have been announced for the world’s longest-running animation festival, the Annecy International Animated Film Festival, which takes place this year from June 11-16.

224 films were selected from 1826 entries. The breakdown is:
* 51 short films in competition,
* 51 short films in panorama,
* 51 graduation films,
* 71 TV and commissioned films (34 TV series, 9 TV specials, 20 commercials, 6 music videos and 2 educational films)

If you have the opportunity to attend this festival, don’t miss the chance. It’s an experience you won’t forget.

Cartoonist extraordinaire Jim Smith (Ren & Stimpy, Samurai Jack, The Ripping Friends) will be performing a “farewell concert” with the band Freehead on Saturday, March 31, from 4pm until whenever at Safari Sam’s (5214 W. Sunset Blvd, Hollywood, CA). The concert is for a good cause: to raise money for Freehead band member Richie Hass who is currently fighting multiple myeloma, a type of cancer that affects plasma cells. Lots of other bands are also performing that evening, and Jim Smith notes on his blog that he will “draw and sign anything that holds still long enough.”

What do Brad Bird, Bill Plympton, Mel Blanc, Pinto Colvig, Carl Barks, Matt Groening, Basil Wolverton and Will Vinton have in common?

They all came from Oregon. Film historian Dennis Nyback has been running an animation festival there all month long, highlighting these local talents as well as the entire history of animation. There are incredible shows all week, leading to grand finale on Thursday March 15th at Portland’s historic Hollywood Theatre. The program that night will include classic shorts in 35mm by Jan Svankmajer, John Hubley, Mike Judge, Marv Newland, Will Vinton, Bill Plympton, John Lasseter (pictured above left), Barry Purves (above right) and, believe it or not, Paul J. Smith (center image).

The show starts at 7:15 PM. Admission: $6.00. Tickets can be purchased online at hollywoodtheatre.org

Once again, Brewmaster Jerry Beck will open his big mouth and blab about classic cartoons on radio this Saturday afternoon, March 10th.

I’ll be on in the second hour (2pm Eastern, 1pm Central, 11am Pacific) on Movie Talk with Dave DuBos. It originates out of BizTalk 990 AM in New Orleans, and you can listen to a live stream on your computer.

Quentin Tarantino is curating a two month retrospective of grindhouse movies at the New Beverly Cinema in Hollywood. He’s using his personal collection of 35mm prints to program a 52-film homage to drive-in cinema and downtown exploitation films. Of interest to Brew readers is the Friday-Saturday March 23rd-24th triple bill. That day he’ll be unspooling Ralph Bakshi’s original Coonskin (1975) along with the X-rated animated Tarzan spoof, Shame Of The Jungle (1975) and the live action comedy anthology Tunnel Vision (1976, which has a short animated segment). This festival is tied into Tarantion’s latest feature Grindhouse. The complete schedule of films is posted on the New Beverly’s website.

Roughly a month from now, on Saturday March 31st, the American Cinematheque and The Japan Foundation are presenting a double bill of two new animated features at the Egyptian Theatre on Hollywood Blvd.

Aachi & Ssipak from Korea will screen at 11am. According to a synopsis found on koreanfilm.org the film is “about a futuristic world powered entirely by human feces. With the government anxious to control this sole, important source of energy, they install special sensors on its citizens’ anuses to monitor production, while controlling the populace by distributing addictive popsicles.” Sounds good to me. Watch the very cool first five minutes here. I can’t wait to see this on the big screen.

A reception with food and drink follows at 12:30pm and a second film, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, the new feature from the Japan’s Madhouse studio, will screen at 1:30pm.

After the second film will be a panel discussion with the filmmakers (the directors of both films are scheduled to attend) moderated by producer Ken Duer (The Animatrix). This entire event is FREE! You must RSVP at www.jflalc.org and pick up your tickets at the door on the day of the show.