Ottawa 08
Well, it’s over. I don’t know what to make of it. Pleasantly unusual I told people. as usual i quietly left the closing party without a word. When i got home I was sad that the fest was over. first time i felt that way in at least a decade.
This was a tough one. We had staff problems all year. Logistic challenges because of a change in venues. most of this forced kelly to work even more than usual. By the week of the festival, she was burned out. The day before the festival she had a car accident and totalled our car (she was okay). that night, we found out that guests were stuck on airplanes because of a strange package left lying around (turned out to be luggage). on Day 1, our office secretary decided to stay home. Said it was too hard a job. On Day 4, we were victims (along with some other organizations) of a big heist at the Chateau Laurier. all the a/v equipment we rented and stored in a locked room at the hotel was pinched. It was a pretty major caper. To everyone’s credit, it only delayed the start of our industry day by a couple of hours. A few hours later, one of our drivers quit.
Challenges are a part of any festival, but they were screwy this year.
Which makes it even more incredible that the OIAF went relatively smoothly. take away some transportation problems (which we recognized and will work on) and it was remarkable how successful the festival was given what went on. Absolutely fucking miraculous.
i wish our attendees could see how much goes into to organizing these five days and the sacrifices that are made by our staff.
as for the content, I’m pretty content. I was really pleased with the competition (even if it was dominated by aggressive masculinity in crisis films this year). We also had a good industry balance with Williams, Pixar, Aardman, Yo Gabba Gabba, and Eric Goldberg. real good mix of indie/industry. if you didnt find anything that pleased you, then you don’t belong in animation.
As for the awards, i can’t quarrel with the international short decisions…although for my money Don Hertzfelt’s I am So proud of you is a fucking masterpiece of insanity, tragedy, and absurdity. I got a chill watching that film. Beautifully tragic. Nonetheless, Chainsaw is no slouch.
Now… there will be a lot of criticism of the decision to award Terra the feature grand prix. I was as surprised by the decision as anyone. I certainly felt that the film was worthy of showing in competition, but no, it was not my pick for the prize. But, fuck a duck, good on ‘em.
Anyway…to the filmmakers, attendees, guests etc… thanks. I really enjoyed myself this year. I hope all of you found something too.
Chris Robinson