Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

– This Sunday, May 7th, ASIFA East is having their 37th Animation Festival. The screening starts at 6pm at the New School Tishman Auditorium 66 West 12th Street Between 6th and 7th.

It’s always a great affair where students mix with pros, all the studios come out, and award winners flash their certificates. This acts as the central gathering for the NY animation community. If you’re in NY, you gotta go.

- There’s a lot happening in animation in NY this month, between ASIFA East, Tribeca and the upcoming Film Forum program. There are also a lot of local colleges having their graduate screenings.

- Yesterday, the Tribeca Film Festival had their Directors’ luncheon. It was held at a restaurant called Ono in the meatmarket section of NY, 9th Ave. & 13th St. I saw Jeff Garlin and Robert Wuhl there. Jane Rosenthal and Robert DeNiro made short speeches, and a number of animators were in attendance: Emily Hubley, Bill Plympton, Alex Budovsky and Patrick Smith.

They set us apart at tables built around our specific type of film. I got to sit with live-action film makers from Toronto, Australia, Germany and a Festival director from Georgia (the country set between Russia and Turkey not the one in the deep South). I loved it and had a great conversation with these guys about the problems of making films in the different countries. Not-too-oddly enough, they’re all the same – money. Though the woman from Georgia talked about the cut-off they’ve had from Russia, itself, which has caused severe problems to their economy. (A different kind of money problem.)

All in all it was entertaining, enjoyable conversation, and the food wasn’t bad either, though it arrived slowly.

- There’s a sneak peek at a Maurice Sendak book in progress. It’s a 3d pop-up book about monsters from the 30′s. Robert Sabuda is a pop-up book artist who is helping with the design.

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