Henry Selick honored at the International Family Film Festival

This year the International Family Film Festival will be honoring two greats in the film industry.

Henry Selick will receive the Friz Award for Animation on October 1, 2005 at the Awards Ceremony. Henry Selick is best known as the director of The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach. He is one of the leading stop motion animation professionals working in the world today. He is a graduate of Cal Arts in the first class of Character Animation. He went on to work for Disney Studios where he became a full animator under lead animator Glenn Keane on Fox and the Hound. There he befriended Tim Burton and Rick Heindrichs whom he has continued to work with on award-winning projects. Most recently he joined the newly merged Laika Entertainment/Will Vinton Studios in Portland, Oregon as one of their leading creative talents. Not only will Mr. Selick be attending the award ceremony but his most recently completed short film, Moongirl, will be premiering at the festival.

Adding to the excitement, Hope Freleng Shaw, Friz Freleng's daughter will be presenting the Friz Award in the name of her father to Mr. Selick. This is the first time that a member of the Freleng family has returned to the festival since Friz Freleng himself was honored at the first year's festival.

The second honoree will be receiving the Santa Clarita Film Excellence Award given to a filmmaker who has contributed significantly to the industry in the Santa Clarita Valley. The Santa Clarita Film Excellence Award will be given to Louis Florimonte, an internationally respected director, writer and educator who founded the Interschool Graduate Directing Program at California Institute of the Arts(Cal Arts) where students study directing for the theater, film and video. He also founded the New Works Festival at Cal Arts and in 1998 he won the Glass Bear Award at the Berlin Film Festival for his film, Where the Elephant Sits. Mr. Florimonte's students have been recognized for their work worldwide in such prestigious venues as Cannes, Sundance, and the Academy Awards. Louis retired last year and now resides in Colorado but he has a daughter who works for The Disney Studios as an animator still lives in Santa Clarita. His life has been a model of excellence in the performing and media arts, in education and in positivism. Mr. Florimonte has made significant contributions to the film industry through his own work and his student's work and through this contribution has impacted the industry and life in the Santa Clarita Valley.