Three cheers for Nina Paley and her Flash-animated feature film Sita Sings the Blues, which took home the top feature prize at the 32nd Annecy International Animated Film Festival. As you may have spotted at CartoonBrew.com, Paley received an Annecy Cristal trophy after the jury, which included Matt Groening, voted in her favor. Bravo, Nina!
The gargantuan effort and time Nina Paley spent to get her independent film, Sita Sings the Blues, to the silver screen appears to have been well spent. This 82-minute, Flash-animated feature has already wowed audiences at the Berlin International Film Festival, but her recent screening at the Tribeca Film Festival (where she caught “Tribeculosis” - ha!) has revealed a torrent of glowing reviews. This morning, Variety’s Ronnie Scheib said that her film “constitutes an irrefutable argument for classic 2-D animation as a viable, vibrant low-budget arthouse medium for adults.” How ’bout them apples?
Along the way, Paley paused to join Bill Plympton, Matt Singer and Alison Willmore in an animation discussion with IFC:
If you haven’t seen it already, here’s the trailer for Sita Sings the Blues, dubbed “The Greatest Break-Up Story Ever Told”:
I spent this past week in Portland, Oregon for the 1st Annual Platform International Animation Festival. Portland itself was a thrill, and the festival surely lived up to expectations.
I joined Dan Sarto’s (AWN.com) Attack of the Blog: Meet the Bloggers panel on Wednesday (see Charles Zembillas’ photos), and then moderated The Flashers Convention, a panel covering the use of Flash in the world of character animation. Joining me on the panel were Brendan Burch (Six Point Harness), Nina Paley, Delna Bhesania (Bardel), Chris Staples (Cartoon Network) and David SanAngelo (Soup2Nuts).
We covered the benefits of Flash to independent animators, cost savings in the TV world and whether or not ‘Flash’ is still a dirty word in the animation industry. Harmony, the digital 2D software from Toonboom, ended as a topic multiple times, and seems to be making headway versus Flash.
Thanks to all who attended, and to Cartoon Network, Irene Kotlarz and Anne Denman for inviting me. I’ll surely be back next year.
Nina Paley, a self-professed “cynical cartoonist” turned independent animator, began working on Sita Sings the Blues in December of 2004. This week Paley unveiled her first trailer for this 72-minute film, which she has been slowly releasing in sections, chapter by chapter.
Nina Paley’s 72-minute feature ‘Sita Sings the Blues’ is yet another in a growing list of ultra-low budget Flash features. She’s been slowly releasing segments of the film, and Chapter 4 (MOV) is now available for download at archive.org.
The film is based on the ancient Indian epic called ‘The Ramayana,’ and her interpretation has been met with praise, but also anger - and according to Nina, mostly anger from men.
She’s currently projecting a 2008 end-date, and as a crew of one, that alone would be an incredible feat. Nina is still in need of completion financing, and she’s encouraging interested investors to contact her.
A massive update to the Cold, Hard Flash links section has 
just been posted. The section has nearly doubled, due surely to the increasing number of emails I’ve been receiving from studios and artists. Thanks much to everyone who’s contributed, and please keep ‘em coming.
A few highlights I’d like to point out:
Odd Job Jack - A Canadian Flash show
Pil Animation - A Flash company in Tel-Aviv
Copernicus Studios - A Studio in Nova Scotia
Nina Paley - I somehow left off this amazing artist
Bradleez Cartoons - Check out ‘Hate Mail’
