The ANNY Best of Fest happened in our web-based virtual reality space, this year.

Animation Nights New York hosted its 5th annual ANNY Best of Fest ONLINE! The weeklong festival ran online from November 13th to the 20th and featured multiple, exciting events across multiple platforms including webXR, Zoom, and VOD. In addition to its Film, VR, and Games program, this year’s festival included fourteen industry roundtables, fifteen filmmaker interviews, four special presentations, and an exciting array of special showcases and performances.

5th ANNY Best of Fest Winners: Film

Partnering with ANNY for the first time, Alamo Drafthouse hosted the festival’s film program through its VOD platform, Alamo on Demand. In total, 20 Best of Fest Winner Films were selected by an industry jury to screen at the festival. Jurors included Margaret Dean (Skybound/Women in Animation), Wayne Gilbert (Vanarts), Delphine Sellez-Alvarez (FIAF), Elliot Cowan (Independent Animator), James Belfer (Cartuna), Aagje Van Damme (Independent), Pilar Newton (Independent), and Cat Gulácsy (Calling All Talent, LLC).

This year’s Best of Fest Winners included the following:

EGG. Martina SCARPELLI. France, 12:07.

PANTA RHEI. Wouter Bongaerts. Belgium, 10:14.

ALMOST THERE. Nelly Michenaud. United Kingdom, 08:44.

MOUSE. Noah Mauchly. United States, 19:41.

LINES OF OBLIVION. Paola Cubillos. Belgium, 04:03.

GENIUS LOCI. Adrien Mérigeau. France, 16:20. (*Grand Prize Winner Film)

ALEF B’TAMUZ. Yael Reisfeld. Israel, 05:58.

OOZE. Kilian Vilim. Switzerland, 05:29.

THE MAN IN THE BOX. Ale Borges, Alvaro Furloni, Guilherme Gehr. Brazil, 19:17. (*AFA Prize Winner)

SPERMACETI. Jacky De Groen. Belgium, 11:35.

GRAVEDAD. Matisse Gonzalez. Germany, 10:30.

FIVE MINUTES TO SEA. Natalia Mirzoyan. Russian Federation, 07:10.

SO FAR, SO CLOSE. Mikkel Odehnalu. Czech Republic, 10:17.

HOMESICK. Hila Einy, Yoav Aluf, Noy Bar. Israel, 07:15.

COPS & ROBBERS. Florian Maubach. Germany, 08:15.

LUGE. Mickaël DUPRÉ. France, 12:36.

SMALL SPARK. Julie Rembauville. France, 03:07.

MOTHER’S SONG. Signe Baumane. United States, 02:30.

THE PEONY PAVILION. Jie Weng. China, 03:17.

DAUGHTER. Daria Kashcheeva. Czech Republic, 14:48.

*Adrien Merigeau received the Grand Prize for “Genius Loci” from Industry Judge Tom Sito (USC), while Ale Borges, Alvaro Furloni, and Guilherme Gehr received the AFA Award from Chris Perkins (Animation for Adults) for their film, “The Man in the Box.” 

This year’s Best of Fest prize sponsors included MOHO Animation Software, TVPaint, Animation Magazine, Wacom, HP, and Animation Sherpa. All Best of Fest Film Winners received full copies of MOHO Pro Animation Software and 1 Year Digital Subscriptions to Animation Magazine. Grand Prize Winner for Film and the AFA Prize Winner received a Wacom One Pen Display, a License for TVPaint, and a 100%-Off Coupon for Animation Sherpa’s Space Switching Course by Richard Lico: the Animation Director for MOSS.

Of the 20 Best of Fest Winners, 15 teams participated in exclusive Filmmaker Q&A webinars on Zoom. The Q&As were open to the public and gave festival attendees an exciting chance to connect with the filmmakers, ask questions, and get an inside look at their favorite films. 

5th ANNY Best of Fest Official Selections: Games and XR

The 5th ANNY Best of Fest saw a strong lineup of XR pieces this year. VR 6DOF, 3DOF, Games, and 2D Pieces created in AR & VR were included in the XR Showcase. 12 pieces were chosen as Best of Fest Official Selections and presented in the ANNY Virtual Events webXR space and on the VIVEPORT platform while 3 Games were featured as Official Selections.

Pieces chosen included the following for the XR Showcase:

A NEW NORMAL. Asavari Kumar. USA and India.

CITIES OF LADIES 2 (YOU). Kim Noce. United Kingdom.

DEAR VIRUSES. Wang JunJie. Japan.

DREAM DROPLETS. Nick Rutten. Netherlands.

THE WEST FLEMISH PUB EXPERIENCE. Joren Vandenbroucke. Belgium.

THE HANGMAN AT HOME VR. Michelle Kranot, Uri Kranot. Denmark (*VR 6DOF Grand Prize Winner)

KTEER TAYYEB. Samia Khalaf. USA. (*VR 3DOF Grand Prize Winner)

MAYFLOWER REFLECTIONS. Paul Long. United Kingdom.

NAKED WINDOWS. Luke Conroy, Anne Fehres. Netherlands.

BELONGINGS. Carol Silverman. USA.

WHEN I LEAVE AFGHANISTAN. Pafo Gallieri. United Kingdom. 

LADY SAPIENS. Camille Duvelleroy. France.

*Joanna Popper (HP) presided as the VR Judge. Samia Khalaf received the VR Grand Prize for her 3DOF piece, “Kteer Tayyeb,” while Michell and Uri Kranot received the Grand Prize for their 6DOF piece, “The Hangman at Home VR.” For their excellence, both teams received an HP Reverb G2 Headset, a 1 Year Digital Subscription to Animation Magazine, and 100%-Off Coupons for Animation Sherpa’s Space Switching Course by Richard Lico: the Animation Director for MOSS. 

On the Games end, Official Selections included the following:

GET-A-GRIP CHIP. Jon Lawitts, Vicky Wei. USA.

THE DIVINE LIGHT. Babak Arjmand. Islamic Republic of Iran. (*Grand Prize Winner Games)

NINJAMAN. Scott Popular. Japan.

*Games Judge Olga Polukhina (Ibis Arts / IGDA NYC) selected Babak Arjmand as the Grand Prize Winner Games for his piece, “The Divine Light.” Babak received a 1 Year Digital Subscription to Animation Magazine, 1 Wacom One Pen Display, 1 License to TVPaint, and 100%-Off Coupons for Animation Sherpa’s Space Switching Course by Richard Lico: the Animation Director for MOSS.

Industry Events

The 5th ANNY Best of Fest also featured several industry roundtables. Guests from all corners of the world gathered in ANNY’s webXR space to discuss current, salient topics in the industry. Each roundtable lasted an hour and spanned everything from Storytelling and Immersion to Remote Hiring and the Uncanny Valley. This year’s roundtable moderators included James Pallot (Sensorium), Mike Schnier (Toon Boom), Sara Jeruss (The Leadership Team), Tristan Goik (ASIFA East), Rachael Ward (Animation for Adults), Wayne Gilbert (Vanarts), Jeremy McCarron (Trickfilm), Jason Whalen (Agency Charlie), and Will Roberts (Augmented Pictures). Industry participants included representatives from Games for Change, The Glimpse Group, Cartuna, Laika, Titmouse, Concurrents Inc, Pipeline, Parallux, and Illust Space, among others. (We tried to have an animator at every table!) Edited versions of the Industry Round Table discussions will be published on the Animation Nights New York site.

Several guests also participated in ANNY Exchange: an ongoing networking initiative that connects industry executives with ANNY filmmakers. Participants gathered in special webXR rooms that featured stills of each filmmaker’s work. The immersive Meet and Greets lasted 20-minutes each and resulted in some strong connections! Guests this year included recruiters from Augenblick, Illumination, Hornet, Duolingo, Titmouse, and 110th Street Films, among others.   

Special Showcases and Performances

Several industry partners graciously lent their time to create special showcases at this year’s festival. Piotr Kardas, Director of Polish animation festival O!PLA, allowed his 2021 program to be screened in one of ANNY’s virtual theaters, while celebrated auteur Emily Hubley shared her in a webXR special exhibition of films and stills. Mexican animation studio Spaceboy created a virtual carnival to showcase their studio work, GO!insideVR hosted a live performance piece, “Only Answers Left Alive,” with vrland, and Ferryman Collective gave us an exclusive performance of “Welcome to Respite”: the first chapter in their critically-acclaimed, immersive theater series, “The Severance Theory.”

Guest Presentations

Beyond webXR, a few industry guests also hosted presentations on Zoom Webinar. Jana Day (Placemark Solutions) gave a talk on how coaches can assist animators with career growth, while Ellen Su (Titmouse) shared portfolio tips and tricks for artists trying to find studio work. Jeremy McCarron gave a preview of how his company, Trickfilm, is revolutionizing the distribution of animated content, and Meow Wolf leaders Tristan Love and Alethea Avramis described their company’s new, immersive media exhibit in Denver: the result of an exciting partnership with animation directors Jason Carpenter, Elyse Kelly, and animation producer Holly Stone.

ANNY will resume its monthly screening events in January 2022. Sign up for our mailing list or sign up on our Discord Server to stay tuned for updates, and be sure to join in on future events!

by Evan Vernon & Yvonne Grzenkowicz

Thank you again to our online venue partners

Thank you to our Sponsors & Friends-of-the-Fest

ABOUT Animation Nights New York

WE CURATE AND CONNECT.

Animation Nights New York is a curated monthly screening event and annual festival started in NYC. We show animated short films and virtual reality animation experiences from all around the world. Screening events are free. Project Submission is free.

ANNY Exchange connects talent to projects. We connect animation talent to opportunity using our festival as a vehicle. Sign up to participate.

The ANNY Cannes Program is an additional opportunity for our in-competition filmmakers. We bring together filmmakers from around the world to join us at the Cannes Film Festival. Participants in the ANNY Cannes Program benefit from our unique partnership with the festival, which allow us to hand select 20 animated short films for exhibition as part of the ANNY Cannes Program. Films are available for viewing on the ANNY channel in the Short Film Corner, and during a special screening in the Marché du Film. We host industry events in Cannes as part of ANNY Exchange.

The ANNY Best of Fest is a  conference and festival featuring Animation Screenings, Fine Art Installations, an XR Showcase, Professional Panels, and Industry Events.

ANNY Virtual Events is our online VOD solution and webXR platform. We present our monthly screening event online! Join us in the ANNY Virtual Events space! Sign up to our mailing list for up-to-date information on the next event. Interested in collaborating on an event? Send us a note or join our discord server!

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