Interactive animation content site aniBOOM has recently announced the jury comprising of six distinguished judges who will be presiding over the first aniBOOM Awards. Submissions of all types of Animation (2D, 3D, CG, Flash, Cell, etc) have been pouring in from around the world. Starting on 1September ’06, the aniBOOM portal will be launched and open to public for viewing as well as rating.
After the first competition stage, 25 finalists (the five movies that receive the highest rating in each of the five categories) will be screened to the judges. Both the general public and the Panel of Judges will cast their vote for the Best in each category. The five categories are: Funny, Drama, Music Videos, Experimental, and Crappy.
aniBOOM CEO Uri Shinar remarked, “aniBOOM was created to change the distribution chain so that young talent could expose their work to animation fans and industry professionals. Also, animators reap benefits, such as revenue share and the opportunity to win prizes”
Shinar continued, “We are honored to have such distinguished professionals on our panel of judges for this first year festival. These six judges demonstrate how aniBOOM brings together the entire animation community.”
The six judges are: Fred Cohen, the former Chairman of the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and former president of King World International Productions; Ken-Ichiro Hayafune, the Executive Producer of Nippon Animation and Chief Producer of Nippon Animedia; and Max Howard, the former president of Feature Animation at Warner Bros. with experience at such laudable companies as DreamWorks, Walt Disney Feature Animation, and the new JVP feature animation studio.
The jury also includes Professor Rony Oren, a director and producer of five television animation series and films, illustrator of 22 children’s books, and Head of the animation unit at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design; Arlene Sherman, the Emmy Award winning Creative Development Executive of Sesame Workshop, where she spearheaded the highly successful “Elmo’s World”; and Douglas Wood, the former Vice President of Production & Creative Affairs at Universal, Turner Pictures and Warner Bros. Feature Animation, and the current Head of Development for the JVP Feature Animation Studio. More judges will be announced shortly.
Because the contest is built around the importance of interaction with the animation community, the judges’ opinions will account for only 30% of the final vote. The remaining 70% will be in the hands of the viewers as calculated in the number of times the shorts are watched and the score they receive from the audience.