Sunday, February 8, 2015

Nominations Announced & Annie Awards

Nominations Announced & Annie Awards

(January, 2015)  Feb, 2015

Welp — I am just about caught up folks.
This is January’s entry, written in February — thank you for your patience.

As I’ve said, we had a wonderfully busy few months which culminated in January.
On the 15th, nominations were announced and we all watched with bated breath (except Tomm, who was too nervous — and instead, at lunch, went down to watch the ducks at the pond).

1_OscarNods_CourtesyOfScannainIFB
[Oscar®-Nomination photo courtesy of Scainnan, IFB.]


And, holy smokes…!!  Cartoon Saloon received its second Oscar®-nomination for SONG, going 2 for 2 — and GKIDS received 2 (for both SONG and THE TALE OF THE PRINCESS KAGUYA – which garners their/our team 6 nods in 6 years for THE SECRET OF KELLS, CAT IN PARIS, CHICO & RITA, ERNEST & CELESTINE and this year’s two nods for SONG and KAGUYA).


Amazing.


We continued the month on a high with a host of Europeans coming in for ASIFA-Hollywood’s 42 Annie Awards, as SONG OF THE SEA had earned 7 nominations including: Best Animated Film, Best Director, Best Writing, Best Editing, Best Music, Best Character Design & Best Production Design.


2_AnnieAwards
[The International Animated Film Society / ASIFA-Hollywood’s 42nd ANNIE AWARDS.]


14 members of the SONG team (plus!) came in as nominees, Director & Producer of CODA (Alan Holly & Ciaran Deeney) came in for the festivities as their film (one of the 10 Oscar®-shortlisted films) was also nominated for Best Animated Short, and French producer extraordinaire, Didier Brunner was honored with the Winsor McCay Lifetime Achievement Award.

3_LiTommPauljkb

[Cartoon Saloon & Cartoon Saloon-US, photo courtesy of David Derks.]

4_Didier[Didier Brunner on the red carpet.]

5_CODA
6_CODA
[Alan Holly & Ciaran Deeney of CODA on the red carpet.] 

7_Tomm&Paul8_Paul&Tomm
[Tomm & Paul on the red carpet.]

5_Salooners[The Salooners on the red carpet…]

9_LiTommEricClaus
[Liselott, Tomm Eric of GKIDS and Claus – SONG’S Danish co-producer.]

10_Colm&Darragh
[Best Music nominee for SONG, Colm of KILA, and Best Editing nominee for SONG, Darragh.]


Inside the awards, Tomm presented Didier Brunner (the producer of THE SECRET OF KELLS, THE TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE, and ERNEST & CELESTINE), with The Winsor McCay Lifetime Achievement Award.

11_TommWinsor
[Tomm Moore]

12_WinsorE&C
[Benjamin Renner’s ERNEST ET CELESTINE]

13_WinsorKELLS
[Tomm Moore’s THE SECRET OF KELLS]

14_WinsorTriplets
[Sylvain Chomet’s THE TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE]

15_WinsorTriplets
[Sylvain Chomet’s THE TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE]

16_WinsorGiven
[Tomm Moore, “and the Winsor goes to…”]

17_DidierWinsor
[Didier Brunner.]

18_WinsorDidier
[Didier & his  lovely wife (L), his Annie and Nicole Renaud (R), the composer of Bill Plympton’s CHEATIN’.]

19_DarraghRosaWill
[More SONG nominees, Darragh with Rosa (one of the character design nominees) & SONG’s Best Writing nominee, Will Collins.]

12_SandraRosaMarieLi
[All of the women nominated for SONG in Best Character Design – sans Tomm, plus Liselott Olofsson.]



13_Irish
[SONG’s French co-producers, Clement & Jeremie, Alan Holly & Ciaran Deeney of CODA, Marie Thorhague (Best Character Design Nominee for SONG) and the lovely Liselott…

20_AlanColm
[Alan of CODA and Colm of KILA.]




Congratulations to our fellow nominees, to all of the winners and to ASIFA-Hollywood for a great time had by all.





jkb | Cartoon Saloon-US

SONG'S US Theatrical Premiere (NY)


SONG’S US Theatrical Premiere (NY)

(December, 2014)  Feb, 2015

December took us to New York for the theatrical release of SONG.

What a magnificent city and the weather was mild.
1_RadioCityMusicHall
[Radio City Music Hall]

2_RockfellerCenter
[Rockefeller Center]

3_TimesSquare
[Times Square]

We walked around the city, visited the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island (- and found our respective relatives).
We visited, GKIDS offices (our distributors) where the lovely Sarah and I prepped some work and Tomm had some interviews.

4a_GKIDS4b_GKIDS4c_GKIDS
[GKIDS]

5_Tomm&DaveGKIDS
[Tomm with Dave, GKIDS Head of Distribution]

6_EricGKIDS
[GKIDS President, Eric Beckman]

We then headed over to NPR where Tomm had an interview.
7_Tomm&LiNPR
[Tomm & his lovely wife at NPR]

On Thursday, we headed to Blue Sky for a screening of SONG (& CODA) and went to the Neue Gallery (amazing exhibit of Schiele and Klimt).

8_BlueSky[Double Irish Bill]

9_BlueSky[Blue Sky]

Friday we were invited by American Indie (Oscar®-nominated) Filmmaker, Bill Plympton to his annual Christmas party.
There was an impressive group of people in attendance…

10_Plymptoons
[Peter DeSeve, Tomm’s lovely wife (ceramicist & documentarian) Li, & Bill Plympton.]

11_Plymptoons
[Amid Amidi & John Canemaker.]

12_Plymptoons
[Peter DeSeve, Elliot Cowan, Tomm Moore, Bill Plympton, John Canemaker & Signe Baumane.]

The premiere of the film was that evening at the IFC Center where we had a lovely turn-out and a great Q&A.

13_IFCSongMarquee
[Tomm at the IFC Center, NY.]

14_IFC_SongQ&A
[NY Q&A]


Thanks, NY!
15_ThankYouNY
[Statue of Liberty]

(Coming up, January’s belated post…)

jkb | Cartoon Saloon-US

Happy New Year!


Happy New Year!

(November, 2014)  Feb, 2015


Happy New Year!
CS_HolidayCard
[Holiday Card Courtesy of Cartoon Saloon]

Forgive the few months of silence but Cartoon Saloon has had a few very busy months, which took us right through the holiday season.

Director Tomm Moore & Producer Paul Young (THE SECRET OF KELLS, SONG OF THE SEA) came to LA for a variety of events including LA’s premiere of SONG.

November began with Animation Magazine’s Animation Summit where Paul joined this year’s prestigious Oscar panel.

AnimSummit_OscarPanel
[From L to R: (Moderator) Ramin Zahed, (HTTYD2) Dean DeBlois, (BOXTROLLS) Graham Annabel & Tony Stacchi, (THE BOOK OF LIFE) Jorge Gutierrez, (SONG OF THE SEA) Paul Young.]

GKIDS’ Head of Distribution, Dave Jesteadt, came in from NY to join a formidable panel on independent film distribution.

AnimSummit_DistrPanel
[From L to R: (Moderator) yours truly, (GKIDS) Dave Jesteadt, (Shout! Factory) Melissa Boag, (SC Films International) Simon Crowe.]

Tomm flew in the following day to attend The Hollywood Reporter Animation Roundtable.
Other panelists included, Bonnie Arnold (HTTYD2), Travis Knight (BOXTROLLS), Don Hall (Big Hero 6), Dan Lin (THE LEGO MOVIE) and Jorge Gutierrez (THE BOOK OF LIFE).

4_HRRoundTable
[The Hollywood Reporter Roundtable]


Tomm and Paul then attended AMPAS’ Governors Awards which presented Maureen O’Hara, Jean-Claude Carriere and the legendary Hayao Miyazaki with an honorary Oscar® “to honor extraordinary distinction in lifetime achievement, exceptional contributions to the state of motion picture arts and sciences, or for outstanding service to the Academy.”

5_PaulLasseterMiyazakiTomm
[Paul, Tomm, John Lasseter and Hayao Miyazaki]

On Feb 9th, SONG OF THE SEA premiered at the iconic Egyptian Theatre (& Feb 12th at Mann’s Chinese 3) to an absolutely packed audience where, afterwards, Tomm & Paul entertained the crowd with a Q&A.

6_AF__Q&A_02_Point
[AFI SONG premiere + Q&A at the historic Egyptian with Tomm & Paul]

7_AFI_RedCarpet
Red Carpet photo courtesy of the AFI: L to R – Michael Sinterniklaas, Chris O Dowd, Dave Jesteadt, Paul Young, Tomm Moore and yours truly.

7b_AFI_Reception
[AFI post screening celebration with Irish Animation Rock-stars.]

Paul had to head back home and Tomm & I then began to expand the West coast tour where, in addition to screening SONG, we brought along Alan Holly’s beautiful short film, CODA.

7c_CODA
 [CODA, one of the 10 shortlisted films of 2014-15, by And Maps And Plans – Alan Holly & Ciaran Deeney.)

CODA is not a Cartoon Saloon-affiliated film but it is an Irish Film Board Short, was one of the 10 shortlisted films, and Alan Holly is a friend of The Saloon (having worked as an animator on both THE SECRET OF KELLS and Cartoon Saloon’s poem ON LOVE for Roger Aller’s film, THE PROPHET).  We were happy to bring this beautiful short along with us to screen as a double [Irish] billing.

February 13th, first on our tour, was the incredibly talented and receptive crew of PDI.
As of this post, we are all heartbroken to hear of the news of the closing of PDI and the layoffs at DW.  We know how gifted the entire crew is and our best wishes (and hearts) go out to them.

8_PDI
[PDI.]

The following day, we headed to Pixar where we had an amazing screening and truly wonderful day, thrilled to be amongst old and new friends.

9a_Pixar9b_Pixar9c_Pixar
[Pixar]

On the 15th, we only had a half day before we had to leave for the airport…

We had to practically RUN through the Walt Disney Family Museum (where, among a plethora of interesting things, we discovered Walt Disney’s ancestry traces back to – of all places, Kilkenny!).  We also ran over to the Cartoon Art Museum.

Holy Moly, those two places are San Francisco GOLD!

10_WDFM
[Walt Disney Family Museum]

11_CartArtMus_PhotCredMcCalls
[Cartoon Art Museum, Photo courtesy of McCalls]

We are thrilled to be exhibiting works from both KELLS and SONG late February at The Cartoon Art Museum (more info TBA) and it was wonderful having a chance to meet with the museum’s curator to work out the logistics of the exhibit.

If you’re in the vicinity of the Bay Area from the end of Feb thru June (or so), please come by.  We will update with finalized details coming soon, check out the Cartoon Saloon website and also Cartoon Art Museum’s.

On Monday the 17th, SONG screened for Paramount’s animation department — which started another packed week…

Tuesday, we headed to Nickelodeon for another screening and Q&A and that evening a screening (and Q&A) at the NoHo 7 for our friends at ASIFA-Hollywood.

12A_NoHo_Q&A12B_NoHo_Aud
[ASIFA-Hollywood NoHo Screening & Q+A]

Sony Pictures Imageworks hosted us on the Wednesday and Tomm got a chance to chat with his Samurai Jack hero, Genndy Tartakovsky.

13_Tomm&Genndy
[Tomm & Genndy]

We also had a lovely tour of Sony’s autograph walls (amazing!), where Tomm had signed for KELLS & years later, Benjamin Renner signed for ERNEST & CELESTINE…

14_Sony_JamieBenTomm



15_Sony_Uli [Our friend, Uli’s…]

16_Sony_Otomo
[And, Otomo’s!]

On Thursday, we screened at both Disney Toons and Disney Feature and in the audience were fellow contenders (and as of this posting, fellow nominees & friends of The Saloon – Directors of BH6), Chris & Don.

17_WDFA_Chris&Don
[BH6 Directors, Chris Williams & Don Hall]

We also got an amazing in-depth studio lot tour by friend, Disney Legend (& fellow 2D Animation Vet), Tony Anselmo.

18_Legend_TonyAnselmo
[Tony]

Our  friends Stephanie and Michael of NYAV Post also recorded extra commentary for SONG while Tomm was in town.  Thanks for squeezing us in, guys!

19_NYAC
[Tomm recording for the DVD extras…]

We then joined our friend Stuart Ng at CTN for a book signing of DESIGNING THE SECRET OF KELLS…

20_TommBookSigning
[Book Signing]

We then had a packed screening of SONG (which, rumor has it, may have been the most well-attended event of the expo!).

21_SongScreeningCTN
[Panoramic, CTN SONG screening]

We also attended a panel on THE PROPHET with (our friend & colleague) Writer & Director, Roger Allers.  Cartoon Saloon’s poem, ON LOVE was shown and Tomm, along with other colleagues who participated in the film, joined Roger on stage to discuss next year’s film (to be distributed by GKIDS).

22_TheProphet
[The Prophet panel]

23_TheProphetAll
[The Prophet Crew]

On Monday, we received a wonderful screening reception from our very dear friends at DreamWorks and were invited to a lovely luncheon afterwards…

Again, we were heartbroken by the news of the closures and layoffs and our heartfelt best wishes go out to our friends & colleagues at DW & PDI.

Their artists cross-over talent in both 2D & 3D is exemplary– and their appreciation and genuine support for independent filmmaking is heartfelt.

24_DW
[DW]

As were then headed to Portland, our Danish producer, Claus, shared the film at Titmouse…

Before Tomm & I flew to Portland, we were treated to a very special evening at the Disney Musical Hall: A David Oreilly Retrospective at the REDCAT.

25_DavidO_REDCAT
[REDCAT]

On Tuesday, Nov 25th we arrived in beautiful Portland and screened for LAIKA.
As always, we had a lovely visit and then in the evening we had an ASIFA-Portland screening at Cinema 21.

25b_ASIFA-Portland
[ASIFA-Portland]

We then went out with some friends before we called it a night.
Thank you, Portland.

26_Portland
[L to R: Evgeni Tomov, Chris Butler, Joan Gratz, Tomm Moore & yours truly]

And that concludes November…
Stay tuned for my December post and our amazing NY Premier…
Thx!!
jkb | Cartoon Saloon-US