Monday, February 8, 2016

VOID - International Animation Festival, Copenhagen

About a year and a half ago, I was contacted by the Cinemateket (Film Institute) in Copenhagen about doing a retrospective in 35mm of my best features and shorts.  But at the time, I was in the middle of donating all of my 35mm prints to the Eastman House in Rochester, NY to set up an archive there.  So the timing just wasn't right.

About four months ago, the retrospective seemed back on, but the Cinemateket had trouble getting the 35mm prints from the Eastman House.  The Academy in L.A. has all of my negatives now, and ultimately we'll be making new digital copies from restored negatives, but it's sort of a slow process. 
We've got digital copies of my newer features like "Cheatin'", but not the older ones. 

So the major problem for the Cinemateket was locating good quality 35mm film prints.  The Academy had created a new 35mm print from the restored negative of my film "The Tune", but that's just one of my older animated features. 

So, my office manager recommended that they contact E.D. Distribution, my French distributor, and they came to the rescue with their collection of 35mm prints of my movies.  Vive la France!

I've been to Copenhagen before, about 15 years ago when I did a master class at the Viborg Film and Animation School - so it was nice to return.  The Cinemateket is very modern and expertly run - plus I had good crowds for all of my films.

                                          Giving a master class at the Danish Film Institute


But the really terrific thing about my screenings was that they were part of a larger festival called VOID, which was a weeklong screening of animation for adults.  What a great idea, why can't someone in the U.S. do something like that?  They had sold-out audiences - so it's clearly what the public wants.



I hope, with the success of festivals like VOID, that other cities will being showing animation that's not just for kids.  So, if you have an animated film that's for adults, please send it to VOID.  I give VOID an A+ !

--Bill Plympton

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