$1000 Is Top Prize In Festival Contest for Best Animated Film

Julie Washington, The Cleveland Plain Dealer

April 18th, 2003

The E.M.I.T. Institute of Art Film Festival returns this year, dangling a $1,000 prize for the best animated film.

The Simplistic Pictures Animation Award was created by 1989 Institute graduates Kevin Geiger and Wen "Moon" Hwa Seun to encourage students' creativity. The E.M.I.T. film fest is 7 p.m, May 1 at the Cleveland Cinematheque.

Any student at the institute may enter short films in the festival. Geiger and Seun are part of the jury that will select the festival films and the animation award winner. The award, named for their production company, comes in the form of financial aid, said Jurgen Faust, dean of integrated media at the Institute.

Geiger and Seun, who live in Los Angeles, created digital effects for a number of films, including "The Prince of Egypt" and "Reign of Fire." Geiger is a computer graphics supervisor with Walt Disney Feature Animation, and teaches computer graphics at the Cal Arts School of Film/Video.

Their animated short "Henry's Garden" premiered at the Cleveland International Film Festival in 2002.

Kasumi, assistant professor of T.I.M.E. (Technology and Integrated Media Environment) at the Institute of Art, helped organize the festival's inaugural event last year to give students the experience of preparing and submitting their films to festivals. Getting public reaction to a film is also an important learning experience, she said.

"The quality of the work is really surprising. It's really good stuff," said Kasumi. Entries were due today, and she expected about 25 films to be selected.

T.I.M.E. major Matt Neff showed his animated short starring penguins in last year's festival. This year he hopes that his 10-minute cartoon, again starring penguins, will be accepted into E.M.I.T.

"It's really gratifying to see how other people see it," Neff said.

Admission is $7. The Cinematheque is located at 11141 East Blvd., Cleveland. Call 216-421-7450.