Panida welcomes 'Animation Show of Shows'

The “Animation Show of Shows” returns for its second year in theaters with 13 charming family-friendly films.

The 18th annual show will play at the Panida Theater from April 2-5. Highlights include Disney/Pixar’s Academy Award-winning “Piper,” the latest in 360-degree storytelling in Google’s touching father-and daughter-journey the Oscar nominated “Pearl” by Academy Award winner Patrick Osborne and “About a Mother,” a new folktale with echoes of Shel Silverstein’s “The Giving Tree,” The show also features a late-night bonus of four provocative shorts exclusively for mature audiences.

This year’s show includes an expanded selection of fresh student films from leading animation schools in the U.S., Belgium, Canada, Korea and Russia. This is not surprising, since the most interesting and groundbreaking work is being done at these hotbeds of creativity.

Featuring techniques ranging from hand-drawn to stop-motion to the latest computer-generated imagery, the 17 extraordinary films in this program were created by animators from Belgium, Canada, France, Israel, Korea, Latvia, Norway, Russia, Scotland, the U.K., and the U.S. Their themes range from gay issues and civil rights, to deeply felt personal stories, to the wacky humor that animation does so well. Many have garnered awards from prestigious festivals around the world.

For the first time this year, in addition to regular shows, there will also be a number of special daytime screenings specifically designed to be family-friendly and appropriate for viewers of six years and up. Those who attend the later evening screenings will have the opportunity to see four films — “Corpus”, “Blue”, “Manoman” and “All Their Shades” — that approach their mature subjects in more graphic detail.

Largely crowd-funded through a highly successful Kickstarter campaign, this year’s Animation Show of Shows represents the enthusiasm and commitment of 550 individual contributors from around the world.

Movies included in this year’s show are:

- “Stems” — Ainslie Hendersen (Scotland)

- “Shift” — Cecilia Puglesi & Yijun Liu (U.S.)

- “Pearl” — Patrick Osborne (U.S.)

- “Crin-Crin” — Iris Alexandre (Belgium)

- “Mirror” — Chris Ware, John Kuramoto, Ira Glass (U.S.)

- “Last Summer in the Garden” — bekky O’Neil (Canada)

- “Waiting for the New Year” — Vladimir Leschiov (Latvia)

- “Piper” — Alan Barillaro (U.S.)

- “Bøygen” — Kristian Pedersen (Norway)

- “Afternoon Class” — Seoro Oh (Korea)

- “About a Mother” — Dina Velikovskaya (Russia)

- “Exploozy” — Joshua Gunn, Trevor Piecham, & John McGowan (U.S.)

- “Inner Workings” — Leo Matsuda (U.S.)

- “Corpus” — Marc Héricher (France)

- “Blue” — Daniela Sherer (Israel)

- “Manoman” — Simon Cartwright (England)

- “All Their Shades” — Chloé Alliez (Belgium)

Founded and curated by Ron Diamond, has been presenting new and innovative short films to animation studios, societies, schools and festivals around the world. Over the years, 32 of the films showcased in the Show of Shows went on to receive Academy Award nominations, with nine films winning the Oscar. In 2015, the show was expanded to include public screenings in cities around the world, allowing general audiences to experience these singular works of art on the big screen, as they were meant to be seen.

Information: AnimationShowofShows.com