Our First Award
Dave Levy looks on as Mike and I accept (photo by Michael Sporn)
Mike and I were honored to receive an award at the premiere of our very first film. Many thanks to ASIFA-East for awarding “Germans in the Woods” 2nd place in Independent Animation! Mike and I had a blast watching our film with a theater-full of people, especially our friends who seemed to come from all over to support us tonight. As always, Linda Beck, Jen Oxley, Dave Levy and the rest of the ASIFA board put on a great event. Special thanks also to Candy Kugel, who does a great deal for the festival itself as well as giving ASIFA-East a home at her studio for our monthly meetings (I’m a member, of course). Cartoon Network and Michael Grover sponsored the wonderful after-party.
The festival is voted on by the entire ASIFA-East membership and to be put second only to Bill Plympton in our category was an honor Mike and I would not have imagined a year ago. The big winner of the night was Arthur Metcalf’s “Fantasie in Bubble Wrap”, which seems to be a huge favorite wherever it goes. The audience laughed from one joke to the next with barely a breath in between. Besides being brilliantly funny, Arthur’s a friendly, enthusiastic guy and to see him take the top prize was fantastic.
One point of criticism for the festival: I was a bit disappointed a few of the films awarded in the Student category weren’t included in the screening. Would have been nice to see what these filmmakers had done to receive their honors. Still, a great event, and we were happy to be a part of it.
A big thank you is due to StoryCorps, our partners on the film. Mike Garofalo did a superb job editing the audio for the film: there is really no slack in the sound and it’s an incredibly riveting two minutes. The theater was so absolutely silent while it played that we could hear the occasional faint gasps coming from around the room. A big thanks to Mike G, Dave Isay, Kathrina Proscia, Sarah Kramer and Lisa Janicki for their faith and support. My brother and I are honored to have had the chance to help share Joseph Robertson’s story.
As Mike and I have been promising, our next film will make you laugh. It’s about the relationship between a mother and her son… more on that later.
concept art from the next Rauch Brothers film
For more coverage of the 39th Annual ASIFA-East Animation Festival, see the following:
The Splog
Animondays
Cartoonbrew
Complete list of winners
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Jesse
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The Makings of Nat Cat
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Aunt Sara
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stephen
