Cannes is a great place for cartoons. That may sound odd, given the festivals’s reputation as a towering arbiter of high-minded auteurist cinema, but it’s true. The Palme d’Or for short film (which is a thing!) has been given to many, many animated short films over the years. As is also true of the Best Animated Short Film category at the Oscars, Canada’s National Film Board has done quite will for itself. In 1955 the very first official Palme d’Or du Court Métrage went to Norman McLaren for his experimental his experimental Blinkity Blank. That said, the more interesting story is a Cold War one. The Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact countries were powerhouses of animation for much of the latter half of the 20th century. The films never quite broke into American awards, but time and again juries at Cannes chose to recognize their brilliance. Russian...
- 5/24/2014
- by Daniel Walber
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Why Watch? For starters, today begins the 2013 Cannes Film Festival and this trippy short won the short film Palme d’Or back in 1955. Blinkity Blank is one of Canadian animator Norman McLaren‘s more charismatic experimental works, designed to play with persistence of vision. He scratched all of these strange little images directly onto black film leader, and accompanied them with scratches he added to the film’s optical soundtrack. Those odd noises were then added to Maurice Blackburn‘s experimental jazz soundtrack. The colorful shapes resemble abstract forms as well as the occasional bird, a favorite subject of McLaren’s. There also a number of blank frames, which he described as “sprinkling on the empty band of time.” Sometimes the shapes combine and grow, sometimes they erase one another. This fluid and immaterial rhythms of light grab fleetingly at the eye, and haunt your vision quite literally for the slightest of instants. Turn off the lights...
- 5/15/2013
- by Daniel Walber
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
PARIS -- The National Film Board of Canada will sponsor a new award at the Festival de Cannes for the winner of the short film Palme d'Or, festival organizers said Thursday. The Norman McLaren Prize, named after the celebrated animation filmmaker, will come with a cash prize of 3,000 ($3,800) for the director, along with an optional offer from the NFB to handle international distribution and to co-produce or invest in the winner's next short film. McLaren made some 60 films at the NFB, and his work is considered part of international film heritage. In 1955, he won the short film Palme d'Or for Blinkity Blink. The NFB is restoring all of McLaren's films. "We are delighted to pair the Norman McLaren Prize with this award in tribute to this great master of animated shorts, who is an inspiration for filmmakers around the world," said Veronique Cayla, managing director the Festival de Cannes. "In 2006, the festival will participate in the launch of Norman McLaren's complete works by presenting a selection of his restored films."...
- 4/29/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
PARIS -- The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) is to sponsor a new award at the Festival de Cannes for the winner of the short film Palme d'Or, festival organizers said Thursday. The Norman McLaren Prize, named after the celebrated animated filmmaker, will come with a cash prize of 3,000 ($3,800) for the director along with an optional offer from the NFB to take care of international distribution of the winning short film, and to co-produce or invest in the winner's next short film. McLaren made some 60 films at the NFB, and his work is considered part of international film heritage. In 1955, he won the short film Palme d'Or for his Blinkity Blink. The NFB is currently restoring all of McLaren's films. "We are delighted to pair the Norman McLaren Prize with this award in tribute to this great master of animated shorts, who is an inspiration for filmmakers around the world. In 2006, the festival will participate in the launch of Norman McLaren's complete works by presenting a selection of his restored films," said Veronique Cayla, managing director the Festival de Cannes.
- 4/28/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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