The goal of the ELAC International Animation Festival is to give an in-depth and entertaining introduction to contemporary international animation. Screenings of short, animated films from around the world, analyses, and Q&As with a panel of well-known animation experts, and a tribute to an international animation artist working in the U.S. animation industry are all part of the festival program.
(Please note that only at 24 seconds of our report there is a bit of sound distortion)
French Short Animation Selection:
Empty Places Geoffroy de Crécy imagines a hypnotic world where, in supermarkets, airports, offices, discotheques, every human trace has disappeared. Empty places is a short movie about the machines. Released in Feb 2020, it has been selected in more than 40 festivals around the world. Empty places received multiple awards, including Annecy Festival, Anima Brussels, Vienna shorts Festivals, and more.
Nominated at Césars 2022, the french movies awards.
Mild Madness, Lasting Lunacy – Original title: Folie douce, folie dure, 2020, Director Marine Laclotte – This walk in the daily life of several psychiatric institutions allows us to meet extraordinary people who let us enter their privacy. Awards: 47th Cesar Awards (French Academy) (2022) – winner Best Animated Short 24th Shanghai International Film Festival 2021 winner Best Animated Short Film
Genius Loci is a 2020 French animated short film by Adrien Merigeau – Renee, a young loner, sees a mythical oneness beneath the urban chaos one night – In 2021, it was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film
Logorama is a 2009 French adult animated short film produced by the French graphic design and animation studio H5 as their first and only animated project. Release date: February 19, 2010 (USA) Directors: François Alaux, Hervé de Crécy, Ludovic Houplain – Awards: César Award for Best Short Film, Academy Award for Best Short Film (Animated). The film is set in a stylized version of Los Angeles and portrays various events as being told entirely through the extensive use of more than 2,000 contemporary and historical company logos and mascots
The Monk and the Fish – (French: Le Moine et le poisson) is a 1994 animated short film made by Michaël Dudok de Wit – A monk notices the presence of a leaping fish while walking near a pond. Obsessed by this discovery, which completely disrupts his retreat, he tries to catch the animal. Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film at the 67th Academy Awards and Best Short Animated Film at the 48th British Academy Film Awards. It was also one of seven short subjects shown in French cinemas and released on VHS as part of the package film Le Petit Cirque et autres contes.It was also included in the Animation Show of Shows.
The Night of the Plastic Bags – Director Gabriel Harel – Agathe, 39, has but one obsession: to have a child. She finds her ex, Marc-Antoine, a DJ, mixing techno in Marseille. As she tries to talk him into getting back together, plastic bags come to life and attack the city.
Le petit dragon – Director Bruno Collet – Thirty-five years after Bruce Lee, his soul reincarnates into a little doll. With self-confidence, the rubber-made toy leaves to discover the great-scaled world all around him.
Panel Members:
Sarah Baisley served as editor in chief of AWN, 2003 to 2007. In charge of all content creation for popular monthly professional online magazine, three weekly newsletters and daily online news service serving the animation and visual effects industries worldwide (155 countries). Previously editor in chief of Animation Magazine for five years, she is a specialist in animation publicity and journalism and is freelancing now in the wine industry as a journalist and marketing specialist. She headed publicity at Hanna-Barbara, Ruby-Spears, Southern Star and Film Roman studios during the previous 17 years of her career. She is founding member of Women in Animation. She also is a member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and participates on panels concerning topics about the animation and visual effects industries. Currently she is a retailer and journalist about wine and spirits.
Mike Libonati has been an animation and visual effects instructor for over 15 years. His students have had their work presented at Siggraph, CTN Animation Expo and various film festivals throughout the country. In addition to teaching, Mike works in 2D and 3D development in Los Angeles for various clients for both film and television including projects for Disney, Universal and Fox. Mike has also worked on renderings for architectural lighting design on projects such as the Coex Mall in Korea, Asia’s largest underground mall, and Tesla Motor Company in Los Angeles. Mike has a Master’s Degree from CalArts in Experimental Animation. He currently teaches animation at ELAC.
Yegane Moghaddam, 2024 OSCAR nominee for the Short Animation, is an Iranian animator and illustrator who has a strong passion for nature, culture and the reality she lives in. Her works are usually centered around the theme of nature and conservation. Currently She is working on her three-part animated series, portraying different aspects of living as a girl in a restricted society. Her debut film Our Uniform, is part one of this short collection which is an autobiographical story about school uniforms in Iran and how young girls accept this clothing convention as part of their everyday life.
Julien Bocabeille is currently supervising character animation for DreamWorks in Los Angeles. Born and raised in France, he has been animating and crafting stories since his graduation from Gobelins, L’Ecole de l’Image in Paris in 2007.After his graduation short “Oktapodi” got nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Animated Short category in 2009 he has worked on blockbuster features such as the “How To Train your Dragon”, “Kung Fu Panda”, “Boss Baby” or “Puss in Boots” franchises. He also spent two years as a Head of Character Animation in Montreal, Canada before coming back to his animation roots in LA.
Patrick Mate that his work was highlighted in our SpotLight section of the program, is a French born DreamWorks Animation veteran who has worked on many films including Puss in Boots, Shrek Forever After, Monsters vs. Aliens, Shrek the Halls, Bee Movie, Flushed Away, Shark Tale, Father of the Pride, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, The Road to El Dorado, The Prince of Egypt, Balto, and many more! He was brought on to the Sony Pictures Animation team as an authority on Smurfs!
Tribute to A Legendary Animation Artist: Marjane Satrapi, Marjane Satrapi was born in 1969. She grew up in Tehran where she attended the Lycée Français (French high school). She then studied in Vienna before she relocated to France in 1994. In Paris, through fellow comic book artists, she was introduced into the Atelier des Vosges, an artist studio which gathered major, contemporary comic book artists. In her first graphic novel, Persepolis 1, published by L’Association in November 2000, Marjane told the story of the first ten years of her life until the overthrow of the Shah regime and the outbreak of the Iraq-Iran war. In Persepolis 2, published in October 2001, she described the Iraq-Iran war and her teenage years until she left for Vienna at the age of fourteen.
Persepolis 2 dealt with her exile in Austria and her return to Iran. Since then, she has published Embroideries (Broderies) and Chicken with Plums (Poulet auxPrunes ).
Persepolis was adapted into an animated film of the same name. It debuted at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival in May 2007 and shared a Special Jury Prize with Carlos Reygadas’s Silent Light (Luz silenciosa).] Co-written and co-directed by Satrapi and director Vincent Paronnaud, the French-language picture stars the voices of Chiara Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve, Danielle Darrieux, and Simon Abkarian. The English version, starring the voices of Gena Rowlands, Sean Penn, and Iggy Pop, was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 80th Academy Awards in January 2008. Satrapi was the first woman to be nominated for the award. Persepolis was a very successful film both commercially (with over a million admissions in France alone) as well as critically, winning Best First Film at the César Awards 2008. The film reflects many tendencies of first-time filmmaking in France (which makes up around 40% of all French cinema each year), notably in its focus on very intimate rites of passage, and quite ambivalently recounted coming-of-age moments.
Organizers:
East Los Angeles College – East Los Angeles College (ELAC) is accredited by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC), Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC). ELAC is one of nine colleges in the Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD) The College was established in 1945 and is situated in a secure, comfortable environment in the suburban community of Monterey Park, conveniently located 8 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. Our multicultural student body of over 30,000 students complements the communities that ELAC serves. ELAC grants Associate in Arts/Science (A.A./A.S.) degrees as well as Certificate Programs.
Cinema Without Borders Foundation is a non-profit organization supporting independent and international cinema and filmmakers. Cinema Without Border Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promote and introduce independent and international cinema. Cinema Without Borders (www.cinemawithoutborders.com) a CWB Foundation publication, is an international cinema webzine dedicated to covering and discovering the news, reviews, trends and new artistic milestones in independent film and filmmaking worldwide.
Partners of the Event: Consulate General of France in Los Angeles, L’Agence du court métrage Sony Classic Pictures , and Villa Albertine Los Angeles
Supporting Organizations: Southeast European Film Festival LA, Polish Film Festival LA, Hungarian Film Festival LA, Scandinavian Film Festival LA, Czech That Film, and ELMA European Languages & Movies in America
Bijan Tehrani is the Founder and Director of ELAC International Animation Day Festival. Bijan Tehrani is also founder and director of “I, Immigrant” Film Festival. Bijan Tehrani is a film director, writer and a film critic, his first article appeared in a weekly film publication in Iran 45 years ago. Bijan founded Cinema Without Borders, an online publication dedicated to promotion of international cinema in the US and around the globe, eighteen years ago and still works as its editor in chief. Bijan has won several awards in international film festivals and book fairs for his short films and children’s books as well as for his services to the international cinema Bijan is a voter for the 82nd Golden Globe AwardsBijan is a 82nd Golden Globe Awards voter
Linda Kallan, Co-Director of ELAC International Animation Day Festival
Linda joined the ELAC faculty in 2001. A dedicated professor and artist, she works in charcoal, graphite, and pastel, and lives in Los Angeles. She is married with one son. Linda Kallen has been a major organizing force behind ELAC International Animation Day.
Technical Director of ELAC International Animation Day: Juan Chacon
Special Thanks to Mike Libonati that without his help and support ELAC International Animation Day festival could have never happened, to Tom Sito and Ziggy Kozlowski whom helped us with organizing French Animation Day, Aude Hesbert, Director of Villa Albertine Los Angeles, Head of Film & TV and our Student Volunteers.