| VSFF - Animation Category |
 This year, the Vancouver Short Film Festival (VSFF) is making some changes. Its name for one. Formerly known as the Vancouver Student Film Festival, the festival is now expanding to include a category for professional filmmakers to showcase their work. By doing so, VSFF hopes to further achieve its mandate of promoting the BC film industry by building ties between emerging and established filmmakers. More important though, is being able to provide an arena to celebrate BC’s talented local artists who are unsure of how to get their work seen. VSFF is also hopeful that a professional category will bring more industry support and appeal to the short medium.
The VSFF has seen a number of animated films receive significant exposure and recognition over the last three years. Festival Director Sandra Garcia believes animated films reflect the innovations that are emerging in new media today. “The industry has come a long way from illustration-based animation to full 3D stories,” she says. “Some of the best visuals and composition come from animated films.” It comes to no surprise to Garcia that three of the five top films in 2008 were animated. “We find that the animated films have a more flexible range of story and visuals,” she explains, with the only limit being the creator’s imagination. Just ask Jeff Simpson of Emily Carr University, whose film, 8, featuring prehistoric creatures, was awarded one of the top five films of the year.
With the festival getting bigger each year, and the inclusion of a professional category, Garcia hopes to see an increase in the number of animations submitted, especially by those working in the animation or new media industries. Given the high quality of student films in past years, she believes it will be interesting to see how students and professionals measure up in this genre. Due to the increasing animation and gaming industry in Vancouver, as well as the popularity of successful animated box-office hits such as Pixar’s newly released Up, the animation genre remains strong and a big contender at the festival. This year the Vancouver Short Film Festival will take place October 23-24 at the Vancity Theatre. Friday October 23 will feature a student night, followed by a daytime panel forum on Saturday the 24th, a World’s Best Shorts screening composed of some of the best award-winning short films around the world, the BC professional shorts screening, and finally the festival after party and awards ceremony.
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