In the Student Competition is "Janice" made with paper cut-outs by Katie Dana. In the Web Competition are "Mythical Playtime" by Mary Stanish and two films by Katie Williams, "Garbage Day" and "Spirit City Animation." In the Commercial Competition is "A New Addition" by Scott Rogers. Scott made his film for an on-line competition for Suburu.
A team of Grand Valley students was also accepted for an additional festival event, The Cartoon Challenge. Their team, Hogans Zeros, consists of Katie Williamson, Melissa Goduto, Robin Reyes, Thomas Vaccoro and Dan Hogan, with Caitlin Horsmon as faculty adviser. Ten teams will conceive, script, design and produce a 30-second animated feature on an assigned public-service topic in the four days prior to the festival. All of the materials, computers, software programs, and production equipment will be furnished at the Kalamazoo Valley Community College Center for New Media.
Deanna Morse, Grand Valley professor of film and video, will be a judge for some of the competition screenings and lead some panels during the Educators Conference on Friday. Kalamazoo native, Brian Tindall, speaks about the making of "The Incredibles" and life at PIXAR. Other presenters include John Fountain of Nickelodeon Animation and Rachel Lewis of Sony Pictures Imageworks.
Grand Valley is one of 10 schools selected to submit for competition a School of Animation Reel. These will be screened Saturday at 5 p.m. During the "Winners Circle" free 4 p.m. showing on Sunday at the State Theatre in Kalamazoo, judges will unveil the Bronze, Silver and Gold Award winners of all the entered categories, including the Cartoon Challenge. For a complete schedule of events go to the Web page: http://kafi.kvcc.edu.
