Q&A Wins Documentary Short Award at Austin Film Festival
When we received word that “Q&A” had been accepted to the Austin Film Festival, the invitation came with a request attached. “Would you be willing to have your film programmed in the documentary category instead of the animation category?,” asked the festival representative who contacted us. I hesitated momentarily. That would take us out of the running for Best Animated Short, which if we were lucky enough to win would qualify us for Oscar consideration. On the other hand, we were excited to be a part of the festival and happy to be flexible with where they wanted to program our film. I agreed to the switch.
A couple months later, I got another very unexpected call from Austin. We had won the Documentary Short Award! I was shocked that an animated documentary had won the jury’s vote over several live action competitors, but was glad that our agreement to switching categories had such a pleasant outcome.
The win was a chance to reflect on animation’s place in film today. As Pixar’s Brad Bird points out, animation is not a genre. It’s a medium. Documentary, Comedy, Drama, Western, and so on— those are genres! Many in the animation industry wish to see animation compete on equal footing with live action fare. Some people argue that there shouldn’t be an animation category at the Oscars at all. They are concerned that such a distinction ghettoizes animation. I agree. Our win in Austin encourages me to believe that audiences are getting closer every year to accepting Animation as an equal member of the film world, not a second class citizen.
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Mike
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Rachel Beers
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stephen
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Bob Flynn
