Thursday, October 20, 2016

Alternate Cartoon Awards

A continent on the far side of the Atlantic wants to start its own tradition.

... Rome’s biggest industry market MIA kicked off Thursday, in parallel with the Rome Film Fest, with a special focus on animation. ...

One of the main discussions centered around the recently announced European Animation Awards, which will officially have its first event in 2017. ... While the European Film Awards, as well as the BAFTA and the Cesar Awards all have animation prizes, these ceremonies typically honor only the producers of the films. The EAAs aims to honor the entire teams behind the films, including animators, background designers and composers, with 20 categories overall set for the inaugural event next year.

“The main target of this award is to celebrate each year European professionals of the animation industry, acknowledging all the talents of animation from the bottom to the top, from assistant animators and character designers to directors and lead animators." ...

Organizers reinforce that the event is not meant to be a parallel to the Annie Awards, America’s top animation awards, but to stand on its own legs. “The European Animation Emile Awards were not created to compete with the American awards, but rather they aim to put a larger focus on what is happening in Europe.” ...

Any awards festival that throws a spotlight on animation is a positive step for the cartoon business. Just today I talked to a leading animation creator who remarked:

Even when we make a movie that out-grosses most of a studio's live-action features, we're still considered second-class citizens. If you make animated features, you get very little respect. ...

Which is, sadly, a long-established tradition in Hollywood and elsewhere. Maybe the European Animation Awards will help to hoist cartoons out of the entertainment ghetto they have long occupied.

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