Ottawa ’08 Film Selections

Selections were announced this week for the 2008 Ottawa International Animation Festival (September 17-21). Four features and 101 short films are in competition this year, and as usual, I think it’s one of the stronger film line-ups of any animated film festival. The features screening in Ottawa are the French anthology Fear(s) of the Dark, Nina Paley’s Sita Sings the Blues, Bill Plympton’s Idiots and Angels and Ari Folman’s Waltz with Bashir. The short film category offers recent works by Bruce Bickford, Theodore Ushev, Run Wrake, Smith & Foulkes, Koji Yamamura and Don Hertzfeldt. The TV portion of Ottawa’s competition includes Superjail, the Upstate Four pilot by the Krause brothers, and lots of Yo Gabba Gabba! shorts. Solid choices all around.