De Riz ou d’Arménie. Best Short 2011.

The VIEWFest, Digital Movie Festival is scheduled for 12 – 14 October 2012 in Turin, Italy. During the festival the VIEW Awards 2012 will take place. The contest plans to widen its scope with new themes, new subjects and include digital work from both students and non-students.

The deadline for entries is 15 September 2012. Works by students will be especially welcome, since VIEW prides itself on being the place to express and discover new digital talent.

The 14th edition, HIROSHIMA 2012 will be held from August 23rd to 27th, 2012.

The Hiroshima International Animation Festival is a biennial manifestation held in Hiroshima City in August, endorsed by Association Internationale du Film d’Animation (ASIFA). Under the spirit of LOVE & PEACE, the festival has been dedicating to the advancement of visual media art culture in general, by promoting international cross-cultural exchanges through the development of animation art.

IdeasTap competition winner Smile by Chloe Rodham.

The London Barbican teamed up with IdeasTap, the creative network and funding body for emerging arts talent, to launch a new competition which showcases and celebrates the best new British animators of this generation.

LIAF 2011 hits the screen with 10 days of the best new animation combined with diverse collection of themed, retrospective and special programmes. From August 26 – September 4 at the Barbican, the Horse Hospital and the Rio Cinema, LIAF will undoubtedly become the centre of the international animation universe. You’ll see a comprehensive line-up from award winners, outstanding industry veterans, inspiring independents, stupendous studios and those wonderful newcomers exploring their talent on screen for the very first time.

VIEW Conference is Italy’s most important event on Computer Graphics, Interactive Techniques, Digital Cinema, 3D Animation, Gaming and VFX. This year the dates are 25 – 28 Oct 2011. VIEW Conference is followed by the VIEWFest Digital Movie Festival.

Nokia and Aardman Animations have set another Guinness World Record for the ‘World’s Largest Stop-motion Animation Set’ with their follow up short film: Gulp, shot entirely on the Nokia N8, after having set a record for the ‘Smallest Stop-motion Animated Character’ last summer with Dot.

As part of Nokia ’s on-going campaign to bring amazing, authentic uses of mobile technology to life, Nokia has partnered with Aardman Animations and Wieden + Kennedy once again to create Gulp, a new animation filmed on the Nokia N8.

FLIP International Animation Festival will return to the Light House Media Centre, Wolverhampton, UK in October 2011. The organisers are inviting animators from all around the world to submit films of up to 15 minutes in length.

Captain Iron Ears’ Pirate Ship. © Tate Movie Project 2011.

The Tate Movie Project’s The Itch of the Golden Nit was premiered in Leicester Square, London, on 29 June 2011 and will be shown at regional galleries over the summer. The film is the first of its kind – an animation made by children ranging from 5 to 13 years old. Thousands of drawings, sound effects and story ideas by children from across the UK make up the action-packed, half hour animation as part of the Cultural Olympiad.

Le Chat du Rabbin

There were 223 films in competition and 7,000 accredited visitors at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in July 2011. British animators gained two awards; Grant Orchard got the Junior Jury Award for a short film for A Morning Stroll and Mikey Please got a Special Distinction in the graduation films section for The Eagleman Stag.

A message from Academy Award winning animator Nick Park:

Hello there,

Wrong Trousers Day is organised by Wallace & Gromit’s Children’s Foundation of which I am a trustee and is inspired by Aardman’s award-winning film ‘The Wrong Trousers’.

Money raised helps sick children in hospitals and hospices across the UK.

This year’s Wrong Trousers Day is on Friday 24th June, when we hope to see as many people as possible going to school or work in their ‘wrong trousers’. Everyone who takes part pays £1 for the right to be ‘wrong’ for the day and has a really fun time.