The Gaudi Awards, also known as the “Catalan Goyas”, were given yesterday by the l´Academia del cinema català.  And I’m proud to announce that Cher Ami, directed by Miquel Pujol, written by Miquel Pujol and Iván Roca and produced by Acció, Digital Dreams and Euroview in association with Televisió de Catalunya, won the Best Animation Feature Award. Well done, Cher Ami!

I would also like to comment that the Best Special/Digital Effects were for David Ambit, Alex Villagrasa y Salvador Santana’s REC 2.

Related news.

Amaia Markuleta

On Sunday the Golden Globes were presented and, as it happened at the Critics’s Choice, ‘Up’ and ‘Avatar’ succeded again.  Pixar‘s animated tape won the two awards it was nominated to, the Best Animated Feature Film and the Best Original Score for Michael Giacchino.  On the other hand, ‘Avatar’ was the Best Motion Picture and its creator,  James Cameron, won the Best Director Golden Globe.

Nominees and winners full list.

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Already avalaible the full official version of the Goya nominated short film ‘Tachaaan!’, directed by Rafael Cano “Rafiki”, Carlos del Olmo and Miguel A. Bellot, produced by Nicolás Matji with original music by Jazz de Marras.

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Last Jaunary the 15th took place the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards 2010, the awards from the BFCA, the most prestigious film critics association from the United States of Amercia.

‘Up’ was considered the Best Animated Feature of 2009 and also winned the Best Score award with compositor Michael Giacchino‘s score.

The Best Special Effects award was for ‘Avatar’, big winner of the night with a total of six awards, included Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, Best Edition, Best Sound and Best Action Movie.  Even though, it didn’t get the Best Picture one, that was finally won by ‘The Hurt Locker’.

Highlightable that the critics gave the Best Foreing Language Film to ‘Broken Embraces’.  Good season start for Pedro Almodóvar!

Winners full list.

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The British Academy of Film and Television Arts, BAFTA, announced last week the candidates for the 2010 awards, that will take place on Febrary the 21st.

Download the nomination full list (241 KB).

Best animation film:

Best special effects:

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Today I want to introduce a just baked new blog, Eu Animation News, a site made by my friend and workmate at the production department of Planet 51, Lorena Hueso.  A web page including news, interviews and the most burning results from de animation industry in Europe.

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I find at Focus on Animation the trailer of the first animation feature made in Morocco: ‘The Companions of Elephant’.  The release of this Sigma Technologies production, with a 25 milion dollar estimated budget, would be on 2012.

The film takes place between 571 and 572 and tells the story of Abraha the king, who lead a 60 thousand men and 13 elephant troop in the South of Arabia, in order to destroy Meca and divert the peregrination and comerce of it to Sana.  In this miraculous episode mentioned in Koran, when the king ordered his troops to assault the holy city, the sky turned dark from the West and after a rare noise was listened a flock of birds completely covered it.  The holy places defensor birds threw the invasors lots of “magical” stones and bet the king’s troopes.

Abdellah El Fakir, director of the film, confesses that he is living with big passion the 3D recreation of this mythical battle of strong characters and sceneries from another Era.  A big challenge in Morocco, as this is the first film in this country fully done with digital images:

These are the first trailers of the proyect:

And here you are some making of:

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I read at Cartoon Brew that 88 year old Art Clokey died yesterday.  Born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1921 Arthur C. (Art) Clokey was a pioneer in the popularization of the stop motion clay animation.

At the University of Southern California (USC) had the director, writer and painter Slavko Vorkapić as his teacher, a very respected filmmaker at USA during the period between Wars whos film experiments I have compiled in this post.  Lit by his teacher’s experimental nature, Art Clokey created Gumbasia in 1955, a surreal short film where different clay objects contort and reshape themselves to a jazz music score:

But Art Clokey is mainly known for his television animated character Gumby, a little green clay humanoid that was animated using the same techniques experimented with Gumbasia at Premavision, that lead 233 episodies of the famous American television series  The Gumby Show and the Gumby: The Movie feature.

In 1960 he made his second most importat job, the adventures of Davey and Goliath series:

Very interesting too the open sequences of How To Stuff a Wild Bikini, in 1965:

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While writing a post about Art Clokey‘s death, I find a very important figure on his carreer that really interests me, his teacher at University of Southern California Slavko Vorkapic.  Painter, actor, experto on special effects, filmmaker, cinema teacher, director and editor, this serbian versatile artist, arrived to USA on 1920 and became one of the most respected filmmakers during the 20,30 and 40′s decades.

Vorkapić created a lot of documentaries and experimental films when heading the cinema department at University of Southern California.  In 1928 he codirected the experimental The Life and Death of 9413: a Hollywood Extra with Robert Florey:

Other works by Vorkapić: Moods of the Sea (1941) and Forest Murmurs (1947) with John Hoffman.

Amaia Markuleta

This morning, the SpanishAcademy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced their nominations for the 2010 Goya Awards. And so great seeing that from the four features nominated for the best animated film, I have worked in two: Planet 51 (also nominated for the best song) and Cher Ami.  Congratulations for my workmates and for the rest of nominated pieces! What a good professional year

You can see all the nominations list at Blog de Cine and an article related to these two productions at noticiasdenavarra.com.

Best animated feature:

Animal Channel

Cher Ami

Pérez, el ratoncito de tus sueños 2

Planet 51

Best animated short film:

Alma

La dama y la muerte

Margarita

Tachaan

Best special effects:

Ágora

Celda 211

Rec 2

Spanish Movie

Amaia Markuleta

Marvel Entertainment Inc. closes the year confirming the $4.3 billion valued acquisition by The Walt Disney Company. The information published on August 2009 was still missing the final approval from Marvel, who gave the final ok December the 31st of 2009.

The acquisition of Marvel, 1939 founded comic publisher and creator of characters as popular as X-Men, Iron Man, Captain America, The Fantastic Four, Thor or Spider-Man, is the biggest transaction Disney has ever done, after getting hold of Pixar Animation Studios three years ago.

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The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today the seven features that will continue on the best Visual Effects Oscar race:

This year, my bet is clear: ‘Avatar‘ has no challenger!

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Francis is an inventor. His invention is supposed to change the world. But forgot about one thing: dreams always cost too much. This is the synopsis of ‘The Kinematograph‘, third short film of the Polish Tomek Baginski, adaptation of a comic with the same title by Mateusz Skutnik. Besides, the short film produced by Platige Image is preselected for the Oscars 2010.

Other works by Baginski:

Fallen Art (2004):

The Cathedral (2002):

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Chris Landreth hadn’t presented any work since 2004, when he won an Oscar award for his short film ‘Ryan’. But in 2009 he finally released ‘The Spine‘, and I have to say that, as everything Landreth touches, I loved it! Here you can watch the making of:

Previous works by Landreth:

Ryan (2004):

Bingo (1998):

The End (1995):

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Buzz and Woody will come back to our cinemas this very June. The second ‘Toy Story 3′ trailer was recently released and today I found this sneak peek at Animated Views:

Besides, Upcoming Pixar, The Pixar Blog and Pixar Talk publish these pretty color scripts from the feature made by Dice Tsutsumi:

Amaia Markuleta

New ‘A Cars Toon; Mater’s Tall Tales‘ season arrives to Toon Disney, Disney Channel, Disney XD y ABC Family with 4 new episodes. John Lasseter accompanied by Victor Navone, Rob Gibbs and Kori Rae have made this Mater and Lighting McQueen ‘Cars‘ characters starring animated short series, that Pixar is releasing at Disney television channels in order to prepare the ground for the ‘Cars 2‘ launching on 2011.

dff

Season 2 (2009-2010):

Tokyo Matte:

“UFM – Unidentified Flying Mater“

“Monster Truck Mater” (release date still to be announced)

“Heavy Metal Mater” (release date still to be announced)

dff

Season 1 (2008):

‘Rescue Squad Mater’ – ‘Mate al rescate’

‘Mater The Greater’

‘El Materdor’

(via Focus on Animation)

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