ALKHOBAR, 8 May 2007 — A little more than a century ago, the first animated film was exhibited by Charles-Emile Reynaud, at Musee Grevin in Paris in 1892. The first animation on standard picture film, created in 1906, is attributed to J. Stuart Blackton. To produce “Humorous Phases of Funny Faces,” Blackton drew comical faces on a blackboard and filmed them. He would stop the film, erase one face to draw another, and then film the newly drawn face. Animation has come a long way since then.
The Association for Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group on Graphics and Interactive Techniques (SIGGRAPH) has announced the Computer Animation Festival’s Best of Show Award, Jury Honor, and Award of Excellence winners for SIGGRAPH 2007, the 34th International Conference and Exhibition on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques, being held Aug. 5-9, 2007 in San Diego, California.
The Computer Animation Festival jury selected the three award winners from a record-breaking 905 entries for exemplary use of computer-generated imagery, animation and storytelling. For the first time in the history of SIGGRAPH, two of the award-winning films are student entries. Groundbreaking films presented at the SIGGRAPH Computer Animation Festival have amazed audiences for three decades and this year 134 pieces have been selected for the Computer Animation Festival.
“This year’s winners are perfect examples of how computer graphics is enabling small, independent groups to create films with vast landscapes, complex characters and amazing visuals,” commented Paul Debevec, the SIGGRAPH 2007 Computer Animation Festival Chair from the University of Southern California’s Institute for Creative Technologies. “Just as computer graphics blurs the line between real and virtual, each of these films in its unique way explores what is tangible and what is imaginary and whether that difference is important.”
According to Debevec, 2007 marks just the second time that filmmakers were able to submit high definition video to the selection jury, which greatly increased the jury’s ability to appreciate the intricacy of each film.
Debevec added, “The winning films are not cartoons where scissors dance with staplers, but films with credible human characters who find love, suffer loss and face their mortality, leaving a profound emotional impact on the audience.”
The winners are:
• Ark (Best of Show), Grzegorz Jonkajtys and Marcin Kobylecki, www.thearkfilm.com, Poland: In the film an unknown virus has destroyed almost the entire human population. Oblivious to the true nature of the disease, the only remaining survivors escape to the sea. In great ships, they set off in search of uninhabited land untouched by the deadly virus. So begins the exodus, led by one man.
• Dreammaker (Jury Honors), Leszek Plichta, Institute of Animation, Visual Effects and Digital Post Production, Filmakademie Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany: The film shows that in the past, this talented dreammaker created the most beautiful dreams for people. Now, he lives in solitude focused on only one purpose — the creation of a special dream — his dream.
• En Tus Brazos (Award of Excellence), Francois-Xavier Goby, Edouard Jouret, Matthieu Landour, Supinfocom Valenciennes, France: This is a remarkable tale of the greatest tango dancer of the 1920s who finds himself confined to a wheelchair after an unfortunate accident. Thanks to his loving wife, he recovers the use of his legs just in time for the most magical dance of his life.
For complete details on SIGGRAPH 2007, visit www.siggraph.org/s2007.
