Ottawa 05 Preview

The Ottawa International Animation Festival (September 21-25, 2005) has issued a call for entries for its 2005 edition. Entry forms are available at the FESTIVAL WEBSITE. The deadline is June 1 so there’s still plenty of time to enter. The competition categories are very similar to last year’s festival, but one particularly interesting twist is the creation of a Children’s Films competition that will be judged by a jury of local children. Festival director Chris Robinson explains the idea behind this category: “Every year there is controversy over the choices for Films and TV shows for Children. After the last Festival a posse of kids approached the OIAF organizers to complain about the ‘utter incompetence’ of the jury decisions. So this year, instead of just giving them a free t-shirt and sending them on their way, we decided to give the kids an opportunity to put their words into action.”

In addition to the competition and non-competitive Showcase screenings, OIAF 05 special screenings include Drawing in Pink: A Tribute to The Pink Panther (curated by Cartoon Brew’s very own Jerry Beck), The Best of Pee-Wee’s Playhouse Animation, Slovak Animation, a retrospective of award winning Italian Animator, Guianluigi Toccafondo, and DIY: Canadian Independent Animation.

Here’s an exclusive preview of this year’s Ottawa poster, designed by Gary Panter: