The future of Animation panel at The Hamptons International Film Festival

"The Future of Animation" panel took place Sunday, October 10, at UA Cinema 6 in East Hampton, at the Hamptons International Film Festival, panelists included Lee Unkrich and Darla K. Anderson (director and producer of Toy Story 3), Thelma Adams (US Weekly, New York Film Critics Circle), Signe Baumane (Birth, Teat Beat of Sex), and Jim Cox (Over the Hedge, RingTales co-founder). New Yorker cartoon editor and Cartoon Bank founder Bob Mankoff will moderate.

"We're proud to be hosting this discussion and Q&A at the Hamptons festival," said Karol Martesko-Fenster, SVP and General Manager of Babelgum's Film and Animation Division. "The idea was to pair independent animators with studio professionals to see how the art of animation has evolved at both ends of the scale, and where it might be headed. I think the wide range of experience among our professional panellists, combined with Thelma's critical perspective and Bob's enthusiasm, will make for an engaging and memorable conversation."

THE PANELISTS

THELMA ADAMS reviews films for Us Weekly. From 1993 until early 2000, the former Chair of the New York Film Critics Circle was the New York Post film critic, where she continues to write about family TV. She writes regularly for Interview Magazine, as well as The New York Times, Cosmopolitan, Cosmopolitan International, Glamour, Glamour En Español, The Christian Science Monitor, Indie Magazine, American Bookseller Magazine and The Independent. She has appeared as a guest on CNN, CNBC, Access Hollywood, USA Live, PBS's Cinema, MSNBC, MSG Metro Learning, Fox News Channel, Drudge, Geraldo, NBC's America's Talking Network and the Rolanda Show. She is a frequent commentator on BBC Arts World Service "On Screen."

DARLA K. ANDERSON joined Pixar Animation Studios in 1993. Since then, her prodigious producing talents have contributed to some of the world's most beloved and acclaimed animated feature films, including Toy Story, A Bug's Life, and Monsters, Inc. Anderson produced the Golden Globe-winning feature Cars, for which she was awarded Producer of the Year in Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures from the Producers Guild of America. Before assuming her feature-film production duties, Anderson was the executive producer of Pixar Animation Studios' commercial group. As one of the Studio's and the animation industry's most accomplished producers, Anderson was elected to the Producers Council Board of the Producers Guild of America in July 2008. She is the first producer from the animation arena to be elected to the Council.

SIGNE BAUMANE is an independent award-winning film director whose short films have screened at Sundance, Berlin, Tribeca, and hundreds of other film festivals. Born in Latvia and educated in Moscow, Signe is a Fellow in Film at the New York Foundation for the Arts and a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. She is currently working on her first animated feature, a funny film about depression.

JIM COX is a long-time feature animation writer and producer. His credits include co-executive producer on the 2006 DreamWorks Animation feature animated hit Over the Hedge, writer/producer on Ferngully, story on Disney's Beauty and the Beast, and screenwriter on The Rescuers Down Under and Oliver & Company. Cox is also a co-founder of RingTales, a new media company that animates print comics (Dilbert, The New Yorker, Bloom County) for all digital media, along with partner Michael Fry.

BOB MANKOFF, cartoon editor of The New Yorker and founder of The Cartoon Bank, is one of the nation's leading commentators on the role of humor in American politics, business, and life.  Mankoff appears frequently on network talk shows such as "This Week" with George Stephanopoulos," "CBS Sunday Morning," "Nightline," "Today," and "Good Morning America"; cable TV networks such as Discovery Health, CNN and CNBC and syndicated radio programs. Mankoff has edited dozens of cartoon books-- including The Complete Cartoons of The New Yorker (Black Dog & Leventhal), the best-selling coffee table book featuring all 68,647 cartoons published in The New Yorker since its debut in 1925-and published four of his own. He is an accomplished cartoonist himself.

LEE UNKRICH joined Pixar Animation Studios in April 1994, and has played a variety of key creative roles in nearly every animated feature film since his arrival. He began his Pixar career as a film editor on Toy Story and continued on to be supervising film editor on A Bug's Life. Unkrich made his feature-film directorial debut in 1999 as co-director on the Golden Globe-winning Toy Story 2. He went on to co-direct Monsters, Inc. and also served as co-director and supervising film editor for the Academy Award-winning feature Finding Nemo. Unkrich also contributed his editing skills to two more award-winning Pixar films, Cars and Ratatouille. In 2009, Unkrich and his fellow directors at Pixar were honored at the 66th Venice International Film Festival with the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement Award. Prior to joining Pixar, Unkrich worked for several years in television as an editor and director. He graduated from the University of Southern California's School of Cinema/Television in 1991, where he directed several award-winning short films.

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS - Sunday October 10th, 2010

11am  - Animation Masterclass at GUILD HALL, EAST HAMPTON with Toy Story 3 director/producer

1pm - Animatron Showcase Screening at UA EAST HAMPTON CINEMA 6, THEATER 6 (30 Main Street) 1:30pm - "The Future of Animation" panel, also at THEATER 6 (please arrive 15 minutes early)

3-5pm - Animatron Animation Reception at Exile, 231 Main Street, Amagansett (transportation provided)

6pm - Hamptons International Film Festival Award Ceremony at GUILD HALL

The Babelgum Animatron Animation Film Festival celebrates the very best in international independent animated short filmmaking, providing international exposure as well as lucrative opportunities for emerging talent. Finalists have the potential to win cash prizes totalling $20,000, with awards given to 1st place and runner-up contestants in each of the four categories, as well as a Grand Jury Prize winner. Babelgum will co-present the Hamptons Animation Showcase, an eclectic animated shorts program at the 2010 Hamptons International Film Festival, with additional support on marketing and media visibility from Shooting People, the social network for independent filmmakers, and RingTales, a company that specializes in animating syndicated comic strips (Dilbert, The New Yorker).

About Hamptons International Film Festival

The Hamptons International Film Festival was founded to celebrate the Independent film - long, short, fiction and documentary - and to introduce a unique, varied spectrum of international films and filmmakers to the public. The Festival is committed to exhibiting films that express fresh voices and differing global perspectives, with the hope that these programs will enlighten audiences, provide invaluable exposure for filmmakers and present inspired entertainment for all. For more information about the Festival, and to become a member, please visit our website at http://www.hamptonsfilmfest.org/.

About Shooting People (http://www.shootingpeople.org/)

Shooting People is the world's largest networking organization dedicated to the support and promotion of independent filmmaking. Over 35,000 members in the UK and US share tips recommendations and news using Shooting People's website, the nine Daily Bulletins to get their films cast and crewed, and individual Member Profiles to exhibit themselves and their work to their peers, the industry and the world. Founded in 1998 by filmmakers Jess Search and Cath le Couteur, Shooting People's patrons include Mike Figgis (Founder Patron), Sally Potter, Morgan Spurlock, Christine Vachon, Michael Nyman, Penny Woolcock, and Jason Solomons.

About RingTales (http://www.ringtales.com/)

RingTales is a new media company founded by Jim Cox and Michael Fry that animates print comics for all digital media. RingTales holds the exclusive rights to animate Dilbert and the New Yorker Cartoons and several other popular comics including Pearls Before Swine, Bloom County, Over the Hedge, Cul de Sac, Lio, and Pooch Café.  RingTales animations have been viewed over 180 million times since March 2007. Jim Cox is a long-time feature animation writer and producer. His credits include co-executive producer on the 2006 DreamWorks Animation feature animated hit Over the Hedge, writer/producer on Ferngully, story on Disney's Beauty and the Beast, and screenwriter on The Rescuers Down Under and Oliver & Company. Michael Fry is a four-time internationally syndicated cartoonist. He currently writes the comic strip Over the Hedge, which inspired the DreamWorks Animation film of the same name that earned $335 million dollars in worldwide box office.

About Babelgum (http://www.babelgum.com/)

Babelgum is an integrated web and mobile video content platform free for users and supported by advertising available on-demand to a global audience. Babelgum Mobile is an original application currently available in the United States, UK, Italy, Germany, France and Spain which brings regionally tailored programming to smart phones - at present iPhone, iPod Touch, and Android  - via 3G and WiFi (www.babelgum.com/mobile).

Positioned between user generated video hubs and network TV-oriented destinations, Babelgum focuses on the third part of the ecosystem: innovative, editorially curated and professionally produced content on very specific passions - music, comedy, film, animation, urban culture, nature, and the environment. Babelgum's programming is comprised of exclusive original productions as well as independent and mainstream titles. Babelgum's content partners include, among others, EMI, Sony Music, the New York Times, Funny or Die, PBS, BBC, VBS, Lonely Planet, Coolhunting, National Geographic, ContentFilm International, Shine Limited, Cinetic Rights Management, iThentic, Gong Anime, FilmBuff, WorkBook Project, Cinelan, Reverse Shot, Shooting People, Film Independent, Power to the Pixel, and the Spirit Awards as well as the Encounters, Los Angeles, and Hamptons film festivals.

The company has also set up a series of online contests to nurture independent film, music and art talent: the Babelgum Online Film Festival, the Babelgum Music Video Awards and the Babelgum Metropolis Art Prize, chaired respectively by Spike Lee (BOFF1 & 2), Michel Gondry, and Isabella Rossellini.  

Babelgum is an independent and privately held company with offices in the UK, United States, and Italy.