A Dendy Award, Annecy meows & Upcoming screenings

While the Cat Piano team was in France for the Annecy animation festival, back on home soil The Cat Piano was awarded the winner of the Yoram Gross Award for Best Animated Short at the Sydney Film Festival's as part of the Dendy Awards.

http://www.sydneyfilmfestival.org/default.aspx



The film's producer, Jessica Brentnall was there to graciously accept the award on behalf of the film. This award is also an Academy accredited one, which means the film will now be eligible for the Oscars shortlist for best short animation which will then be cut down to the handful of nominees.



The film's screenings at Annecy went great. It was really cool to see a 35mm film copy of it up there on the big screen. It was certainly not a cheap process but worth every cent. The film was screened seven times at the festival, twice in the giant Bonlieu theatre as part of the short film competition programm. Judging from the meows and reows coming from the audience in between the following films, it felt like the film went down a treat with the audience.

We weren't lucky enough to come away with a much coveted Annecy crystal this time but we were certainly on good company. Check here for a full list of the winning films:

http://www.annecy.org/home/index.php?Page_ID=2164

My personal favourites at the festival were 'L'homme a la Gordini' (The Man in the blue Gordini) by Jean-Christophe Lie from France which was a hilarious film set in a gawdy 70's throwback world where wearing pants is a criminal offense; L'Ondee (Rains) by David Coquard Dessault from Canada which was a serious of beautiful, atmospheric snapshots of a rainy day in an urban setting and of course 'Please Say Something' by David O'Reilly and 'Western Spaghetti' by PES.

Here's a couple of snapshots from the gang at the festival. I will post more pics up soon, when the rest of the crew arrive back from France.



Artistic Director of the festival, Serge Bromberg throws us some curly questions at a Q&A as part of the short filmmaker's breakfast, the day after our screening.



Ari Gibson (Co-Director) , Jason Pamment (Art Director) enjoy a beer in the French sun.
The 'Aussies at Annecy' picnic was a great afternoon. Baguettes with vegemite, Fruchocs and Tim Tams and even a few kicks of the Australian Football.

Upcoming Festivals

Here is a list of festivals that the film will be screening in over the next couple of months. Dates and times of the film's actual screenings still to come:

Melbourne International Film Festival (Melbourne, Australia)
http://www.melbournefilmfestival.com.au/

Brisbane International Film Festival (Brisbane, Australia)
http://www.stgeorgebiff.com.au/default.aspx

Anima Mundi Animation Festival (Rio de Janeiro/Sao Paulo, Brazil)
http://www.animamundi.com.br/

Message To Man International Film Festival (St. Petersburg, Russia)

LA Shorts Fest (Los Angeles, USA)
http://lashortsfest.com/content.asp?PageID=2

Small World International Animation Festival (Barnsley, England)
http://www.smallworldfest.co.uk/

Also, please join our fans of The Cat Piano facebook page to be kept in the loop on all related news and info!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Cat-Piano/78586590833