International Update

This invitation comes to us from ASIFA-Hollywood, who have kindly invited all ASIFA members to take part in this year’s  Member’s Choice award vote for Best Animated Feature Film: ASIFA-Hollywood would be pleased to welcome the international community into the Annie Awards by allowing all interested members of ASIFA to vote on the new Member’s Choice Award. Unlike most Annie Award categories, which are voted on by ASIFA-Hollywood professional members only, the Member’s Choice Award for Best Animated Feature Film will be chosen by all interested members, whether they are professionals, students or fans of animation. The requirements are simple, but the time is limited. Please send to your designated ASIFA chapter representative your name and email address. Then (by November 7, 2011) your representative will send a full list, including the name and email address of each member who wishes to vote, to ASIFA-Hollywood. Each person on the list will be assigned a user name a password and will be allowed to vote on the Member’s Choice Award in January, 2012. Annie Award winners will be announced at a ceremony at UCLA’s Royce Hall on Saturday, February 4, 2012. If you would like to participate, please...

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ASIFA East encourages its members to enter the SICAF 2011 International Digital Cartoon Competition.Digital artists—not just animators—may enter illustrations or comics of any length, from “Web Cartoon” (up to four panels) to “Creative Story” (Ten episodes of a scenario).You may enter until April 22, 2011. See the attached announcement for details and links to the competition.Ray KosarinASIFA-East International Board Representative

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Do you have an old sketch, a photo or doodle on a cocktail napkin from an ASIFA-East event gone by, an ancient program or poster from a years-ago event, or any other interesting curio tucked away in your filing cabinet or that box behind the skis and camping equipment in your closet?ASIFA-International is preparing a commemorative book in honor of ASIFA’s 50th anniversary, and we would be thrilled to print your handsome (or quirky) images to go with it.If you’ve a scanner, your precious artifact need never leave your sight. (And if you haven’t, we’ll pick up and deliver said memento to you at your door.  How’s that for convenience?) You’ll be rewarded with a photo (or courtesy of) credit which will be treasured by your great grandchildren, even after they’re no longer able to see your films, because the equipment to play your BlueRays and DVDs has become scarce as an Edison phonograph.Drop me a note at raykosarin@aol.com and let me know what you have.  Because what’s a treasure if nobody gets to appreciate it?Ray Kosarin

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ASIFA-East was pleased once again, on October 26, to celebrate International Animation Day and the 50th anniversary of ASIFA with a program of classic animated shorts curated specially for International Animation Day by animation historian (and ASIFA-San Francisco president) Karl Cohen.  The nineteen shorts, made between 1968 and 1970, were first hand-picked by the late Prescott Wright (ASIFA-San Francisco) for his celebrated series of theatrical compilations, International Tournée of Animation.  The selection, a mix of independent and commercial shorts, included films by master artists, the pioneering (and still stunning) computer animations of John Whitney, and a selection of vintage commercials and early “Sesame Street” shorts. ASIFA-East members have requested a listing of the films in Tuesday’s program, which we are glad to provide here. -Ray Kosarin International Animation Day Screening 2010: A Tribute to Prescott Wright Richard Williams (UK): Charge of the Light Brigade titles Yoki Kuri (Japan): Miss Kemeko Pavel Prochazka (Czecholsolvakia): Acceleration John Whitney (US): Binary Bit Patterns Raoul; Servais (Belgium): Sirène Robert Mitchell, Robert Swarthe (USA): K-9000: A Space Oddity Bob Godfrey (UK): Rope Trick Herbert Kosower (USA): The Face Ernest and Giselle Ansorge (Switzerland): Les Corbeaux Keith Rodin (Canada): Cinetude No. 3 Robert Mitchell, Robert...

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by Tom SitoTom Sito of ASIFA-Hollywood wrote the following obituary of Bill Littlejohn for ASIFA Magazine. Our thanks to Tom and to ASIFA-Hollywood president Antran Manoogian for kindly sharing it with ASIFA-East (ed.).Bill Littlejohn, an American animator who was one of the pillars of the International ASIFA movement and a founder of the International Tournee’ of Animation, died Sept 18th in his home in Los Angeles. He was 96 years old.Bill was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1914. He began his career in animation in 1934, washing off acetate cels for re-use at the Van Beuren Studio in New York City. At Van Bueren he worked his way up to animator. By the mid 1930’s he relocated to Los Angeles where he could animate as well as pursue his other passion, aviation. He studied to earn a degree in aeronautical engineering and earned his pilot’s license. But he quickly tired of his more-technically minded colleagues, and resumed his career in animation at MGM Studios. He animated on shorts for directors Hugh Harman, Rudolf Ising, Milt Gross and Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera.Bill Littlejohn was politically active and was an early supporter of the rising trade unionist movement in...

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ASIFA is grieved to report the death of veteran animator and former ASIFA vice-president, Bill Littlejohn, who died September 18. He was 96.Born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1914, Bill Littlejohn began his career as a cel washer at the Van Beuren Studio in the early 1930s. Later that decade, he moved to the West Coast where he studied aeronautical engineering and worked, briefly, for Lockheed aircraft company in Burbank, before returning to the animation industry. In a career spanning seven decades, Mr. Littlejohn would animate for many theatrical, TV, commercial, and independent studios on both coasts including MGM; Jay Ward; Bill Melendez Productions; and John, Faith, and Emily Hubley’s studios. Littlejohn also co-founded ASIFA-West (now ASIFA-Hollywood) and the International Tournée of Animation, served on the Academy’s Board of Governors, and was president of the Screen Cartoonists Guild (Local 852).Bill Littlejohn was the perfect example of a man devoted faithfully both to the craft of animation and to ASIFA. He was, in the animation world, a little famous, but not nearly as famous as he might have been had he indulged in the sort of relentless self-promotion as many artists with only a fraction of his dedication and talent....

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