March 24, 2023
The 93rd Academy Awards are now less than a week away, taking place on Sunday, April 25. Depending on when you’re reading this, your Oscar ballot may have already been turned in before the April 20 deadline. Or maybe you’re not an Academy member quite yet but, as a member of the film (or television) industry, you’re just interested in what your colleagues and collaborators have been up to during […]
The 48th Annual Annie Awards, held by ASIFA-Hollyood and partially sponsored by the Animation Guild (IATSE Local 839) to honor the best in animation for 2020, were announced via a virtual ceremony on Friday, April 16, beginning at 6pm PST. Disney-Pixar‘s Soul and Cartoon Saloon/Apple Original Films/GKIDS‘ Wolfwalkers led the nominations with ten apiece, but the Annie winners were handed out after almost two weeks of Soul winning a number of other technical guild and society awards, including winning five VES […]
Every year, Walt Disney Studios dominates the Academy Awards in the category of Animated Feature Film. The company is expected to produce high-quality animation time and time again due to their extensive track record. Disney consistently elevates the world of animated filmmaking with fresh ideas and emotionally-driven storytelling. As Disney continues to create magic, we still hope that one of these other animated feature nominees have a chance to upset […]
CG animation production company Mindshow has raised an additional $10M in funding and has announced Sharon Bordas as its new President along with other new executive hires. SWaN & Legend Venture Partners leads the list of investors contributing to Mindshow’s investment in the company’s proprietary CG animation technology that merges cutting edge video game technology, visual effects and machine learning. The money will also allow the company to expand its content pipeline and bring animation projects to […]
Here at Below the Line, we’re always looking to shine the spotlight on bright new talent, so when we were told about Aron Fromm’s animated short, Sessions with Stan, which literally takes a recording of the late Stan Lee and animates it quite vibrantly using 2D animation, we knew that we should speak with Fromm. Fromm actually used to be Lee’s sound engineer, which is how he had said recording, but […]
The nominations for the 48th Annual Annie Awards, held by ASIFA-Hollyood and partially sponsored by the Animation Guild (IATSE Local 839), have been announced, honoring the best in animation for 2020, This year’s Annie Awards will be held virtually on April 16 at 6pm PST, and you can get more information about the ceremony here. The nominations were led by two specific animated features, Disney-Pixar‘s Soul and Cartoon Saloon/Apple Original Films/GKIDS‘ Wolfwalkers with ten nominations apiece. Interestingly, Pixar has […]
For our next to last Animated Short Spotlight, we’re back at Netflix for If Anything Happens I Love You, an incredibly powerful and moving film by Will McCormack and Michael Govier, possibly the unlikeliest pair of collaborators you’re likely to meet when it comes to the world of animation. Granted, McCormack had worked with his writing partner Rashida Jones on a fairly recent Pixar film after that same duo wrote […]
The third in our series of spotlight on some of last year’ Animated Shorts that should be watched before Oscars and Annie Awards nominations is Taylor Meacham’s To: Gerard, a gorgeously emotional wordless film made with DreamWorks Animation that can now be seen for free on the Comcast streamer Peacock. The Gerard of the title is an older man working in the back area of a mailroom who has long […]
This is the second installment of Below the Line’s look at some of the animated shorts in play for this year’s animation and Academy Awards, the second short being Netflix’s Cops and Robbers, co-directed by Arnon Manor and Timothy Ware-Hill, produced by Lawrence Bender and exec. produced by Jada Pinkett Smith. It’s based on a poem written by Ware-Hill after watching a video showing the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, a […]
With the Oscars drawing ever closer – despite being later than ever – we’re going to try to cover a lot of the artisans and crafts in the mix. One thing we haven’t been covering nearly as much in recent months is animation, so in order to rectify that, this will begin our series of interviews with animators who have made significant animated shorts worth watching. In this case, it’s […]