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!