The 2015 ASIFA-EAST ANIMATION AWARDS SHOW

If you smelled fun last Sunday,

you were probably within sniffing distance of the

2015 ASIFA EAST ANIMATION FESTIVAL AWARDS SHOW

at the New School in NYC.

An air of palpable disaster loomed large over the event

when they hired this guy to host the show:

Regardless, the theatre began to fill up quickly.

Perhaps to see a live train wreck.

ASIFA EAST 

co-presidents

Dayna Gonzalez and Linda Beck

made sure to start off the evening with a pre-emptive 

apology for my soon-to-be shenanigans:

And then it began:

What should have been a 

straight forward

play-it-by-the-rules

awards show turned into a

no-holds-barred

ANIMATION ART AUCTION!!!

How else could ASIFA pay for 

flying me out first class and putting me up in

expensive 5 star hotels?!

Yeah yeah...

there were some awards given out.

And some great films watched.

But there was also an original sketch by

Patrick McHale,

creator of

Cartoon Network's

OVER THE GARDEN WALL:

And an original

DEEP DARK FEARS 

comic by

Fran Krause

(the first ever for sale before the book comes out)

There were also hugs.

Especially for

old school

ASIFA EAST 

admiral

animator

teacher

historian

Howard Beckerman

The winner of

BEST IN SHOW

went to

Nate Theis

for his

funny,

well-timed

and

perfectly designed

short

DRIVING

A great film and Nate's

Peggy

was well deserved!

We could have talked about

finely crafted films all night,

but an animation awards show was 

neither the time nor the place

so we auctioned off a killer

Animaniacs cel

signed by

creator/executive producer

(and 7D boss)

Tom Ruegger

Mr. Willems stepped up to

accept a craft award for animator

Pete List who won for

THE DUCKLING GETS A COOKIE?!

They had to practically drag Mo off the stage to stop him from

talking about how sorry he is for quitting Codename: Kids Next Door

and becoming a childrens book author.

Or completely the opposite.

I can't remember.

Anyway...

it was a great show

and I had a blast 

hosting the proceedings.

And everyone knows that after every great awards show

there's a great party!

And

LOTS AND LOTS

of pictures:

Was great seeing my first boss

Candy Kugel,

of the illustrious

Buzzco Associates

Kugels.

This proves there was food.

But I never saw any.

I was too busy being dragged into pictures

by ASIFA-EAST president Linda Beck,

who did an awesome job putting together the show.

(with the exception of host choice)

I think she tried to get a picture with

EVERYONE

at the party:

Jeez, enough already, Linda.

Anyway,

it was wonderful to be back with my

New York City Animation peoples.

I had a great time and loved every moment.

Thanks ASIFA EAST!

 

And

sooper big thanks to photographer

 Joe Eliot 

of

Murphy and Taft Photography

for the great pics!

I GOT ART AND I AIN'T AFRAID TO TRAVEL WITH IT!

Hmmmmmmm...

Some pretty nice people

gave me some pretty swell artwork.

Like this original marker sketch by

Mo Willems:

Or this original

comic by 

Fran Krause

And what about this

original production cel

from

Animaniacs

signed by creator

(and 7D executive producer)

Tom Ruegger:

I wonder what ima

do with them

when I'm in NYC

this weekend?

THE 2015 ASIFA EAST ANIMATION FESTIVAL AWARDS SHOW

Seriously...

I don't want you to think I'm just

an animation festival 

JUDGE.

I mean, yeah.

I'm heading out to the 

RiverRun Film Festival

to get judgy wit it.

But come May, it's

HOSTING

TIME!

Check it:

You are most cordially invited to attend the 

46th Annual ASIFA-East Animation Festival Awards Ceremony 

hosted by Codename Kids Next Door Creator, 

Tom Warburton.

Sunday, May 17th, 2015
6:00pm – 11:00pm
Tishman Auditorium at The New School
63 5th Avenue, NYC
(NE corner of 13th Street & 5th Ave)

Reception will be held at Wollman Hall directly 

after the Awards Ceremony and Screening. 

Refreshments and drinks will be served. 

You must be 21 to drink. Please bring ID. 

Please stay tuned for more details.

65 West 11th Street, 5th Floor, NYC
(between 5th and 6th Avenue)

Elegant attire is requested.

I mean, 

it only makes sense

that this:

and this:

Leads to this:

Right?

For more info,

head over

HERE!

MICHAEL SPORN

Another

legend 

has left us.

Michael Sporn

His name was synonymous with animation in New York.

He

hired, taught, nurtured, advised, mentored, 

and/or remained friends with 

so many in the 

New York animation community

over so many decades.

The thing I remember most 

about Michael is that he 

seriously,

really and truly

wanted to make films

that would change the world.

I'd periodically get into good-natured arguments 

with him about this.

Why wasn't it okay to just want to make people laugh?

What's wrong with a film about

FARTS?

That's not to say Michael didn't like funny films.

(or farts)

Quite the contrary.

But he thought that

animation,

as a medium,

had so much more to give:

Heart

Intelligence

and especially

Social Awareness

I can think of very few people who

saw animation as such a pure art form.

And I'll always respect him for that.

You can check out some 

of Mr. Sporn's work over

HERE.

And

if you get a chance,

take a long walk

through

his

SPLOG.

Rest well, Michael.

You defined what it was to be an

animator in

New York City.

PERPETUAL MOTION PICTURES RETROSPECTIVE RECAP!

Remember when I told you I'd be moderating 

a panel at the ASIFA-EAST 

PERPETUAL MOTION PICTURES

retrospective?

Well, I did!

(would i lie to you?)

The event was held at the School Of Visual Arts' 

Beatrice Theatre on 23rd street:

We had a great turnout of folks 

who worked at PMP during it's 12 year tenure,

some flying in from across the country!

And the panel was top notch:

From right to left:

Russell Calabrese (assistant animator)

J.J. Sedelmaier (assistant animator)

Tommy Schlamme (producer/editor)

Candy Kugel (animation director)

Mordecai Gerstein (designer)

and some nerd with a microphone.

We showed a ton of films broken down into categories

that set the panel off on all kinds of great stories.

Here's a pic of my 'cheat sheet':

The great thing about having a great panel is that, 

as a moderator,

you don't have to do much but set things up.

Just give them a topic and off they went!

They were all funny, informative, and full of history.

There were a lot of fond memories of ,

Hal Silvermintz and Buzz Potamkin,

(the guys who founded the studio)

not to mention animator Vincent Cafarelli,

all of whom passed away in the last 6 months.

The night ended with a screening of

THE LAST TIME, 

a film Candy made in honor of Vince,

her business partner of many decades

and mentor to me and so many other kids 

who dreamed of becoming an animator.

What an honor to host an evening like this.

Thanks to ASIFA-EAST, SVA

and everyone who helped put the event together.

For a more eloquent recap

(and to see where I stole most of these pictures)

go to animator Michael Sporn's splog over

HERE!

PERPETUAL MOTION PICTURES EVENT

Didja ever hear of a studio called 

Perpetual Motion Pictures?

Neither did I until I started working here:

These two were my bosses:

And they told me countless stories about the guys,

who used to be their bosses:

Buzz Potamkin and Hal Silvermintz

started Perpetual Motion Pictures in 1968

and spent almost 15 years animating stuff characters like these:

Perpetual was the biggest studio in NYC for a long time,

creating boatloads of groundbreaking commercials 

as well as long-form animated productions

until it splintered into separate companies in the 80's.

And now,

many moons later,

ASIFA-EAST is proud to present,

for one night only,

 a retrospective of Perpetual Motion's work 

presided over by a panel of folks 

who were 

THERE:

Mordecai Gerstein (designer)

Tommy Schlamme (producer/editor)

Candy Kugel (animation director)

J.J. Sedelmaier (assistant animator)

Russell Calabrese (assistant animator)

That's a LOT of talent to wrangle.

And there'll be even more in the audience!

That's why they're bringing in

the one person that can host 

and evening of this scale...

ME!

That's right.

Mr. Warburton is flying in to make his 

triumphant return to ASIFA-EAST.

And I can' t wait!

So if you're in New York City

on Friday, October 12th.

Come on out to 

The School of Visual Arts

Beatrice Theater

333 West 23rd St

NYC, NY

ast 7:00pm.

For more info,

pictures,

and 

 go

HERE!