Village Gamer

Montreal – In celebration of International Animation Day and the National Film Board of Canada’s 70th anniversary, the NFB is launching a special edition of Get Animated! – a series of free public screenings, from October 23–31, 2009, in 13 communities across Canada. The NFB’s Get Animated! website will also offer exclusive animation programming from October 8, 2009.

The NFB’s third edition of Get Animated! will showcase amazing new creations for all ages from its Oscar-winning animation studios in two programs: Animation Feast and the NFB Family Program. The Family Program also features special presentations by acclaimed filmmakers Chris Landreth and Cordell Barker, as well as hands-on animation workshops for all ages. The NFB’s new 2-disc set Animation Express, a dazzling collection of films by today’s animation innovators, will also be on sale at screening venues.

Taking place October 28, 2009, International Animation Day is an annual celebration in over 40 countries, initiated by the International Animated Film Association (ASIFA) in 2002. NFB animation founder Norman McLaren was the first president of ASIFA, and the NFB is proud to be bringing this global celebration to Canadian communities for the third consecutive year.

This year, the NFB celebrates 70 Oscar nominations in 70 years – more nominations than any production company or organization outside Hollywood. Get Animated! is part of a broader commitment to ensuring that Canadians from coast to coast have access to outstanding NFB productions.

Screenings across Canada

Get Animated! free screenings will take place in Victoria, Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal and Halifax, as well as in five communities served by the NFB’s pioneering e-cinema network for francophone Acadians: Moncton, Bouctouche, Caraquet, Edmundston and Kedgwick, New Brunswick. Check the NFB Get Animated! web site for the full schedule of events.

The Animation Feast program of NFB new releases features nine shorts: The Spine by Chris Landreth, Runaway by Cordell Barker, Vive la Rose by Bruce Alcock, Peggy Baker Four Phrases by Howie Shia, Spare Change by Laurie Gordon and Ryan Larkin, How People Got Fire by Daniel Janke, Land of the Heads by Claude Barras and Cedric Louis, The Man Who Slept by Inés Sedan, and Robes of War by Michèle Cournoyer.

The Family Program features Runaway, Théodore Ushev’s Tzaritza, Pierre-Luc Granjon and Pascal Le Nôtre’s Leon in Wintertime as well as two shorts from the NFB’s Hothouse program for young animators: Wiggles and Giggles by Sarah Guindon and Git Gob by Philip Eddolls.

Special presentations by Chris Landreth and Cordell Barker

Two of Canada’s most acclaimed animators will present excerpts from their work, talk about their film-making process and take questions from the audience, as part of Get Animated!

Chris Landreth is an Oscar-winner for Ryan, co-produced by NFB and Copper Heart Entertainment. His new film, The Spine, an NFB production in association with Copperheart Animation and C.O.R.E. Digital Pictures, is winning prizes at film festivals around the world, including the Best of the Festival award at the Melbourne International Animation Festival. Landreth will be visiting Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Edmonton. Landreth’s Vancouver presentation will be a joint event with our local ACM SIGGRAPH chapter, and will take place on Wednesday October 28th at the VanCity Theatre.

Cordell Barker is a two-time Oscar-nominee, for Strange Invaders and the beloved classic The Cat Came Back. His new film Runaway recently received the Petit rail d’or for Best Short Film at the Cannes Film Festival and a Special Jury Award at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival. Cordell will be visiting his hometown of Winnipeg, as well as Montreal, Calgary and Halifax.

Animation workshops for all ages

Get Animated! features animation workshops for children and adults alike in selected cities. Children’s workshops will be held in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Winnipeg, with an adult workshop offered in Toronto. Animators from the NFB’s Mediatheque and CineRobotheque centres will offer workshops in Toronto and Montreal. In Winnipeg and Vancouver, workshops will be led by animator Scott Kiborn.

Exclusive online animation

As of October 8, 2009, will feature exclusive programming as part of Get Animated!, with new shorts joining over 150 NFB animation productions already online.

New titles include The Brainwashers and Subservience, puppet-animated films from two-time Jutra award-winner Patrick Bouchard, as well as Iriz Pääbo’s HA’Aki, a highly inventive and unorthodox look at hockey.

Also added: Tzaritza and Drux Flux by Theodore Ushev; Here and There by Diane Obomsawin; Uncle Bob’s Hospital Visit by Prince Edward Island animator JoDee Samuelson; Engine 371, a short about the construction of Canada’s transcontinental railroad by Kevin Langdale; and Forming Game by Alberta’s Malcolm Sutherland.

Animation Express

Get Animated! will feature the national launch of the 2-disc set Animation Express, a dazzling collection of 26 films by animation innovators. These include Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski’s Oscar-nominee Madame Tutli-Putli, Cordell Barker’s Runaway and Claude Cloutier’s Sleeping Betty, winner of 20 awards including the Genie Award for Best Animated Short.

A deluxe Blu-Ray edition of Animation Express features 13 extra titles, including the Oscar winners Ryan by Chris Landreth and The Danish Poet by Torill Kove.

Animation Express will be available for purchase at all Get Animated! screening venues, at a discounted price. Animation Express is distributed by Mongrel Media and Metropole Distribution.