Animation Block Party is an annual animation

film festival A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually in a single city or region. Increasingly, film festivals show some films outdoors. Films may be of recent date and, depending up ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

, usually held over three days in late July.

History

Brooklyn

On September 9, 2004, Casey Safron, the event's founder, curated the first Animation Block Party, held in

Williamsburg, Brooklyn Williamsburg is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, bordered by Greenpoint to the north; Bedford–Stuyvesant to the south; Bushwick and East Williamsburg to the east; and the East River to the west. As of the 2020 Unit ...

. The event was rated one of the top five smaller film festivals in the area. The following year, Animation Block Party opened for international submissions, acquired corporate sponsorship and expanded to become an annual festival with juried awards and prizes for participating animators.McCarton Ackerman
"Animation Block Party Arrives in Williamsburg,"
''Greenpoint Gazette'', July 28, 2011. In 2006, the festival expanded to its current multi-day format, drawing an average of over 2,500 attendees per summer."Person Pinball,

/ref> Based in Brooklyn, the event shows animation from both U.S. and international filmmakers. In 2011, Animation Block Party received 654 submissions, screening 97 of them at their 8th annual festival. Animation Block Party expanded to a four-day festival in 2013, including an opening night concert with performances by Adam Green,

Hooray for Earth Hooray for Earth is an American band and recording project founded by composer, singer and multi-instrumentalist Noel Heroux. While the first Hooray for Earth live show occurred in 2005, self-released home recordings date back to 2003. The group ...

, Tim Harrington, and others, and exclusive animation from Cartoon Network,

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television television channel, channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its List of assets owned by Param ...

and

Pixar Pixar Animation Studios (commonly known as Pixar () and stylized as P I X A R) is an American computer animation studio known for its critically and commercially successful computer animated feature films. It is based in Emeryville, Californ ...

Around the US

Animation Block Party has held traveling shows in Philadelphia, Austin, Omaha, Boston and Los Angeles, including a 2014 Valentine's Day showcase at The Troubadour in West Hollywood, which included original shorts from MTV Other,

Six Point Harness Six Point Harness may refer to: * six-point harness, a safety device similar to a five-point harness safety belt, but with a second belt for the legs * 6 Point Harness Six Point Harness (6PH) is an animation studio based in Los Angeles that deve ...

, Loopdeloop and

Bill Plympton Bill Plympton (born April 30, 1946) is an American animator, graphic designer, cartoonist, and filmmaker best known for his 1987 Academy Awards-nominated animated short '' Your Face'' and his series of shorts featuring a dog character starting w ...

Production

Animation Block Party also has a production division called Animation Block, which has turned several pieces from the festival into series. In 2008, Animation Block produced the series "Perfectland" for

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

, which premiered on April 22, 2008."Animation Block Party Sets Record, Lou Reed Visits Film Forum, and Lincoln Center Celebrates,"
''IndieWire'', July 31, 2008. In 2009, Animation Block produced the series "Breakfast" for the

Sundance Channel Sundance Channel can refer to: * Sundance TV, formerly known as Sundance Channel (United States). * Sundance Channel (Canada) * Sundance Channel (Netherlands) * Sundance Channel (Europe) * Sundance Channel (Iberia) * Sundance Channel (Asia) * Sunda ...

, as well as a 28 episode web series for

My Damn Channel Omnivision Entertainment (formerly ''My Damn Channel'') is an entertainment website and multichannel network founded to enable comedians, actors, filmmakers, musicians, and brands to co-produce, monetize and distribute original video content. Th ...

."Animation Block Proves the Internet Can Be Better Than TV,"

Clicker.com Clicker was an Internet video directory and search company based in Los Angeles, California. Their website aimed to be the TV Guide for all full episodes of programs available to watch on the Web. It is owned by CBS Interactive. Clicker indexed ...

, March 21, 2011.

References

{{Reflist, 3

External links

Festival Website
Recurring events established in 2004 2004 establishments in New York City Animation film festivals in the United States Film festivals in New York City July events