GLAS Aims To Become The Next Major American Animation Festival

GLAS Animation Festival, America’s first major animation festival in nearly a decade, will take place from March 3-6, 2016 in Berkeley, California. With a full slate of competition programs, retrospectives, and international guests, the festival is poised to become the largest U.S. animation festival since 2007’s Platform in Portland.

The festival recently unveiled its signal film, created by filmmaker Kangmin Kim:

In addition to competition screenings (submissions are open until December 1st), GLAS festival director Jeanette Bonds has promised a full slate of curated programs, retrospectives, and lectures. The festival recently announced a wide-ranging and eclectic programming line-up. Among the highlights:

• A tribute to Satoshi Kon, with screenings of the three features Paprika, Perect Blue, and Tokyo Godfathers.
• A focus on animation from the Netherlands, with special guest Hisko Hulsing (Junkyard) and two programs of Dutch animation curated by Holland Animation Film Festival’s artistic director Gerben Schermer.
• A look at the use of 2D animation in live-action film with examinations of Diary of a Teenage Girl and Montage of Heck. Animation directors Sara Gunnarsdottír and Hisko Hulsing will give presentations on their work on Diary and Montage, respectively.
• British filmmaker Paul Vester will be the festival honoree. In addition to screenings of his shorts, including Picnic, Sunbeam, In the Woods, and Abductees, the festival will screen his new video projection “Clock 02,” a hand-drawn clock animation installation that measures the passing of time by counting forward with cycles of random lengths.
• Lecture by pioneering vfx director Phil Tippett
• Retrospective of French filmmaker Jeremy Clapin (Skhizein, Palmipedarium)
• Workshop with British indie filmmaker Peter Millard
• “Newsgrounds: Everything for Everyone,” a retrospective of animation from the website with Newsgrounds creator Tom Fulp in person
• “Mutations and Transgressions: The Beginning of a New Era in Japanese Independent Animation,” curated by New Chitose Airport Festival director Nobuaki Doi. Japanese filmmaker Ryo Hirano will appear in person.
• Kirsten Lepore presentation about her upcoming stop motion episode of Adventure Time.

For more info, visit GLASAnimation.com.

(Images above, l. to r.: Satoshi Kon’s “Perfect Blue,” Jeremy Clapin’s “Skhizein,” Hisko Hulsing’s animated sequences from “Montage of Heck”)