Archive notice: This article was originally published on January 31, 2019. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
The FMX 2019 programme is filling up rapidly. Numerous confirmations can be announced, covering the great diversity of animated film – from the Wild & Strange track and the topic of indie animation to the Oscar-nominated Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and the stop-motion film Missing Link. The Open Source track will focus on technologies aimed at building bridges between
image creation, visual effects, animation and sound. The official trailer for the FMX Animation category, CatPlanets, is also online.
The FMX ticket shop is open; Early Bird tickets are available until March 15, 2019. Ticket Shop
Wild & Strange – From Black-and-White to Colourful
Indie animation plays an important role in the animation industry and makes the scene even more diverse than it already is. The Wild & Strange track, curated by Jeanette Bonds (Director/Co-Founder GLAS Animation), will present some of the most inspiring indie animation artists and their stories. One of the artists who has
attracted a lot of attention in the field of indie animation is British filmmaker Sophie Koko Gate. Since the release of her successful graduation film Half Wet at the Royal College of Art, she has been known for her strong artistic style, distinctive narrative sensitivity and bold and colourful characters. Her
most recent works include Darcy A/S/L, produced by Adult Swim, and the film Slug Life, which continues her series of cheerful and expressive short films. Three other notable indie animation artists complete the Wild & Strange track: Michael Frei, whose reduced but powerful film Plug & Play was an international success, will begin with his latest project KIDS. He is followed by Boris Labbé, whose recent experimental film La Chute was received with great critical acclaim. Tomek Popakul, known for his films Black and Ziegenort, rounds off the track with his film Acid Rain, which recently premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah.
The Art of Animation – Of New Paths and Missing Links
Danny Dimian, VFX Supervisor at Sony Pictures Imageworks, supervised the work on Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse for Sony Pictures Animation. In the FMX track The Art of Animation, he will give a talk about the recently Oscar- and VES-Award-nominated film. It is the first animated feature film in the Spider Man franchise and breaks new ground by combining computer-generated animation with hand-drawn comic techniques.
Another presentation in the track The Art of Animation takes a look at the new stop-motion feature film Missing Link (2019), produced by LAIKA. The talk will be given by Oscar-nominated Visual Effects Supervisor Steve Emerson. Steve has contributed to every award-winning LAIKA film: Coraline (2009), ParaNorman (2012), The Boxtrolls (2014) and Kubo – The Brave Samurai (2016).
Further programme items for the track The Art of Animation can be announced shortly.
Open Source – Cross-Technology and Cross-Industry Cooperation
Open-source software is ubiquitous throughout the film industry and provides a working foundation for many of the visual effects and animations created today. The Open Source track, developed in collaboration with the Academy Software Foundation, shows cross-industry activities for developing shared technologies for image creation, visual effects, animation and sound.
The track is curated by David Morin, Head of Epic Games Lab Los Angeles and Executive Director of the Academy Software Foundation (ASWF). Founded by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences and the Linux Foundation, the ASWF has set itself the task of creating a vendor-neutral forum for open-source development in the film industry and media.
FMX 2019 Trailer #2 – CatPlanets
In 2019, FMX will release four different trailers for the first time. Each of the areas named in the FMX subtitle – Animation, Effects, Games and Immersive Media – will be represented by its own trailer, unique in technique, style and story. After Wonderful World, which represents the FMX Effects area, the second FMX 2019 trailer now arrives, representing Animation. CatPlanets (created by students of the Animationsinstitut at Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg – Director: Yi Luo, Animation: Patrik Knittel, Technical Directing: Paulo Morato Scatena, Producer: Lukas Ritter) tells what can happen when cats do not get their way. Young Ida refuses her cat Keks a snack. At that moment, Keks grows bigger and bigger until the walls of the flat burst. Ida is flung into a universe in which cats float around instead of planets and asteroid fields consist of cat food. In this huge world, Ida appears
helpless. Can she restore order to the chaotic cat universe? To the Trailer
FMX Forum – Main Partner
FMX is pleased that Animation Media Cluster Region Stuttgart (AMCRS) and Foundry have once again been won as Main Partners. AMCRS will be represented with a stand at the Marketplace, while Foundry will welcome visitors in its Company Suite and at its workshops. ftrack, SideFX and
the SAE Institute will also offer workshops. Allegorithmic, Dynamixyz, BenQ and Dazzle Pictures will participate in the Marketplace. Further participants in the Recruiting Hub are Mackevision, eder, jangled nerves and Jellyfish, and Hochschule Hamm-Lippstadt, Hochschule Darmstadt – University of Applied Sciences and Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen have announced themselves for the School Campus.
Tickets for FMX 2019 are available via the FMX website – still at the Early Bird rate until March 15.
