Midsummer Night Toons & Animation Block Party
Last month I was finally able to attend Midsummer Night Toons & Animation Block Party. These two events are a few of the ones here in NYC that screen new, independent, local and international animated shorts and feature films.
Midsummer Night Toons via Animation Anarchy premieres new shorts from animators/filmmakers. Screenings feature drink specials, live music and prizes. Short films launched at this event have gone on to enormous success. I found out about this event while searching for things to do on Eventbrite.
These are the films that were screened
- Angela Arzumanyan - Tempo
- Chris Burns/Bob Fox/Gary Doodles/Tommy Sica - Flex Calibur
- Remus And Kiki - Love Nest
- Georgia Kriss - High Crimes
- Matt Lee - Cereal Prize
- Ben Lucas- I Should Really Go Home
- Andy Tai & Eduardo Enriquez - A Long Way From Home
- Kristin Stanton - PenRose
- Sonja von Marensdorff - Crow
- Victoria Vincent - FloatLand
Artwork by Ben Lucas 2018
My favorite short was " I Should Really Go Home". It was funny, random and the ending was unexpected.
Animation Block Party is the premier animation festival of the East Coast - Animation Block Party is dedicated to exhibiting the world's best independent, professional and student animation. It's the largest animation fest on the East Coast.
Though I've known about ABP while at SVA I have never been able to attend. This year I viewed the Student films and independent animators" block. The following films were screened followed by a short q&a with the filmmakers
- Animation Block Signal Film: Puppers Remix (Casey Safron / NYC / 30 sec)
- Quantum (Hannah Kim / RISD / 6:04 min)
- Negative Space (Max Porter & Ru Kuwahata / France / 5:30 min)
- Busy (Dawoon Kim / SCAD / 2:02 min)
- Gamble (Chayadol Lomtong / Sheridan / 7:07 min)
- Tennessee (Jack Wedge / NYU / 8:34 min)
- Feets (Elizabeth Dettmann / RIT / 3:03 min)
- Racing The Sunset (Nikolas Smith / SCAD / 4:02 min)
- He’s Watching (Arthur Metcalf / Los Angeles / 11:40 min)
- LogBoy (Fernando Puig / Ringling / 2:05 min)
- What Is A Man (Rob Munday / United Kingdom / 1:00 min)
- Bike Trip (Tom Schroeder / Minnesota / 10:34 min)
- PottyMouth (Sean Cote / MassArt / 2:30 min)
- Pour 585 (Pat Smith / Montauk / 4:47 min)
- Adventure (Ching Thao / MCAD / 2:21 min)
- Hard World: Yacht (Mike Hollingsworth / Los Angeles / 4:20 min)
My favorite film was He’s Watching by Arthur Metcalf . You can watch the full film below.
I HIGHLY recommend these two events for all who enjoy independent animation. Both events were affordable. I saw a few films that took me by complete surprise. Others were insightful, humorous and then some. I always look forward to these type of screenings to see just a fraction of the work that is being created.