College of the Canyons held its second annual International Animation Festival on Saturday with over 600 student-created animated films submitted from more than 70 countries. The festival also allowed local students interested in an animation career to connect with industry professionals.
One hundred and fifty students trickled in and out of the theater rooms on the third floor of Mentry Hall at COC where they had the opportunity to watch animated film submissions from students all over the world.
“The purpose of it was really to give aspiring animators a showcase for their work. There’s a lot of work [that allows] to show professional work, like these animation festivals, but very little for students,” said program coordinator and longtime COC animation instructor Jeff Baker.
The student-driven festival made its debut last year and highlights students of all ages who create original works in the animation category. This year’s theme was social media issues, as artists submitted works touching the subjects of social media and its correlation to mental health, politics, daily life, and much more. Although there was a theme, the film submissions were about a broad array of topics, said Baker.
“It seems that young people have a more sophisticated view of social media than we really think,” said Baker. Last year many of the films submitted spoke on the topic of social media and how it affects individuals in a variety of ways, he said. “When we saw that we were like, ‘Well maybe we need to talk about that and expand on the idea.’”
Students also had the chance to connect with industry professionals and learn how they can perfect their portfolios with Sony Pictures Animation Talent Acquisition Manager Carlos Daniel Vasquez. The panel discussion that shared insights on “Identity in Animation” featured Samantha Goff, creative talent manager with Fourth Wall Management, director and storyboard artist March Sanchez, and director and professor Kataneh Vahdani.
Students were also interested in learning about how to take the first steps to get into the animation industry, the different areas of animation, and different career pathways that many people are not aware of, said program coordinator John Garzon.
“Everyone thinks about animation like Disney movies, but there can be animators for courtrooms, like if there’s an injury or accident sometimes an animator will design the accident, and that’s animation,” added Garzon.
Toward the end of the festival, 23 submissions would be awarded in their respective categories, said Baker.
Chase Olivera, a COC freshman, won the people’s choice award at last year’s festival and submitted a new animation film this year titled “The Chihuahua Shake,” which took him a full year to complete from start to finish, he said.
“It is about a painter who is trying to paint a Chihuahua. The Chihuahua just won’t stop shaking and the painter has to learn to adapt to the Chihuahua so he is able to paint a new masterpiece,” Olivera said.
Olivera got the idea from his father’s original song with the same title. He decided to make the idea into a full story, he said as he laughed, reminiscing on the occasion.
Although Olivera wasn’t aware if he would win an award this year, he was “looking forward to people watching my film and see how the audience would react to it,” he said.
In the future he hopes to have the opportunity to work on internships in the industry so he can further pursue his animation career, a place where he feels he can be creative and do much more, he said.
For its second installment, the international film festival was considered a success with double the number of animation film submissions and attendees compared to the previous year, said Garzon.
