If you couldn’t join us in Ottawa this week, you might consider hanging out in San Francisco in mid-November. The San Francisco Film Society will present its fifth annual San Francisco International Animation Festival (SFIAF) November 11—14 at Landmark’s Embarcadero Center Cinema. Highlights of this year’s event include Miyazaki protégé Sunao Katabuchi’s new feature Mai Mai Miracle, the North American Premiere of Jackboots In Whitehall, a screening of Brent Green’s Gravity Was Everywhere Back Then and a shorts program of The Best of Annecy. The complete schedule is posted here.


The 2nd Los Angeles Animation Festival will take place Friday December 3rd through Tuesday December 6th at Cinefamily’s Silent Movie Theater on Fairfax Ave. in West Hollywood. This year events include an afternoon screening and interview with Pixar’s Teddy Newton (Day & Night) and two special programs from renowned writer/director/animator Will Vinton — one a program of his short films, specials and commercials and the other, a twenty-fifth anniversary screening of his feature The Adventures of Mark Twain (1986). In addition the festival will feature screenings of several international features including Chinese independent feature Piercing 4 and the Japanese feature Redline. There will also be panels, contest screenings, parties and awards. The festival is the brainchild of animation director Miles Flanagan and animation producer John Andrews (MTV, Klasky Csupo). Details and deadlines for entry in the festival’s three unique competitions are available on the festival website. Tickets and passes will be available in November at Cinefamily.org.


Opposite the LA Animation Fest on December 3rd through 5th, and on Dec. 11th and Dec. 13th, the UCLA Film and Television Archive at the Hammer Museum in Westwood will hold A Celebration of French Animation. This will include several double bill screenings of contemporary animated features from France, including Chomet’s The Illusionist (2010) and The Tripletts of Belleville (2003), Rene Laloux’s Fantastic Planet (1973), Micel Ocelot’s Kirikou and the Wild Beasts (2005) and Azur and Asmur (2008) and Jacques-Remy Girerd’s Raining Cats and Dogs (2003). For more information, check the UCLA Archive website.

Jerry Beck

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