Jul 8, 2019

GLAS Announces New Theatrical Distribution for Animated Short Films (EXCLUSIVE)

In four short years, GLAS has established itself as one of the preeminent animation film festivals in the United States, bringing international major-league filmmakers to its Berkeley, California, home base each March. Not content with simply bringing audiences to California, GLAS will soon be bringing its films to audiences. This fall, the festival's curators will launch Animation Next, a program of animated short films that will travel to movie theaters across the United States.

GLAS released a trailer this morning for the new traveling program:

The seven films, all of which were shown at the last GLAS, are representative of current festival hits and skew dark and surreal. They are:

Animation Next is not the first traveling American festival of its kind. Recent examples include The Animation Show, curated by Mike Judge and Don Hertzfeldt, and Spike and Mike's Festival of Animation; GLAS director Janet Bonds and programmer Sean Backew, have both stated that they were influenced by these two shows.

"These programs gave us access to short films we would never have otherwise encountered and made us want to become animators in the first place," they told Cartoon Brew. We believe such theatrical discovery is still relevant, even in the age of the Internet." Our program is a little different from other touring programs in that we are more adult-focused, we focus on a new generation, and we show more auteur-oriented films. Also, our films cannot be seen in other programs."

The GLAS team has not yet announced a touring schedule, but Animation Next plans to expand beyond the usual metropolitan centers." The program is open in many cities, including places that are perhaps not recognized as centers of animation culture." "However, many thriving communities of artists and filmmakers outside of major cities do not have access to see these works or are unable to go to the festival each year. Bonds and Buckeye cite the success of "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" as evidence that audiences are embracing a bold and innovative approach to animation.

In choosing the lineup, they aimed to follow their own tastes while still putting forth a variety of styles. In particular, we felt that this body of work represented a new wave of animation talent, creating truly groundbreaking work that pushed the boundaries of narrative, visuals, and structure." As we built the program, a subconscious thematic core began to emerge, and each piece felt contemporary and poignant in a truly exciting way.

The fact that all of the works are European is nothing more than a coincidence. The curators are looking at the "incredibly exciting work" coming out of the European continent, led by the dynamic French production and distribution company Mille, which provided four of the seven films." They have a remarkably consistent catalog of work, with a distinctive graphic quality and a truly diverse sense of storytelling."

Short films are weak at the box office, with few touring programs lasting more than a few sessions. However, the success of the festival shows that GLAS has found a niche in the U.S. for edgy independent animation. How this will translate into theatrical distribution remains to be seen. Indeed, the team has already completed the first edition: each "Animation Next" brings together very different films from different parts of the world.

For more information, see the Animation Next website.