Animations take 2nd SONY and 3rd SONY Prizes at SONY Tropfest

Last night's SONY Tropfest screening was very well attended. Host Adam Spencer announced a figure of 105,000 people. I estimate 90 per cent of those people to be aged between 19 and 25 and carrying a box of Krispy Kreme doughnuts. The crowd, in short, was young, dressed to impress and the sponsors have caught on big time. Sony was so well represented in banners and and blasting advertisments that you'd be forgiven for thinking that you were there to be part of one enourmous Sony commercial. The helicopter dragging the big lit-up 'SONY' sign which flew over in the midst of several of the films was really the crowning moment in rank commercialism.
The pre-recorded video of festival director John Polson from Hollywood was there to assure us that sponsorships like this were needed to keep the event free. Next year, when every film will have to include the line "I LOVE SONY!" and all attendees will be required to sit in the shape of a giant SONY ad which can be seen from Mars, it'll be nice to know SONY is there to keep the SONY Tropfest free for all SONY viewers of ads for SONY.

Filmmaker (and stand up commedian) Gary Eck took first place his comedy THE MONEY.

Some of the other awards (just the animators who won):

FIRST PRIZE
Film: THE MONEY
Director: Gary Eck
Producer: Philip Wade
State: NSW

SECOND PRIZE
Film: CONFESSIONS OF AN ANIMATION
Director/producer: Steve Baker
State: QLD

THIRD PRIZE
Film: YIN
Director/producer: Costa Avgoustinos
State: NSW

BEST COMEDY
Film: CONFESSIONS OF AN ANIMATION
Director/producer: Steve Baker
State: QLD

SONY FOUNDATION YOUNG TALENT AWARD
Film: YIN
Director/producer: Costa Avgoustinos
State: NSW

SONY ERICSSON PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD
Film: YIN
Director/producer: Costa Avgoustinos
State: NSW

Tropfest site...
You love SONY!...

King Canute and the cause of the cartoonist

When professors start writing books about the demise of editorial cartooning you have to guess that there is a trend developing. The sacking of Malcolm Evans in New Zealand demonstrates that the phenomenon of editorial timidity is not limited to the US.
Globalisation means that a paper printed on this side of the globe is just as likely to face the same constraints as one owned by a multi-national located on the other side. Eventually the perils of homogenising the world, transforming it from a place vast of diversity to a choice between McDonalds and Hungry Jacks, will touch us all.
Pleading with editors to forsake the realities of shrinking budgets and receeding advertising revenue in favour of the high minded principles of free expression and editorial independance is a bit like King Canute and his attempt to command the tides to stay their advance. The difference being of course that Canute played out the facade to teach his people that no one, not even a king is all powerful.
Perhaps however, the reverse can be realised. If enough cartoonists stand their ground, as John Sherffius of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch did, over a single cartoon, when he resigned, or Malcolm Evans did when he continued to follow his own editorial conscience, despite the obvious danger of being sacked, then the reading public will realise that even if editorial cartoonists are not kings, they do have high principles in mind.

Here's an article (not the professor one) on the resignation of John Sherffius...