Back to index of Festival Previews 

Ottawa 2000

 Interview with Festival Director Chris Robinson Questions: David Ehrlich 


David Ehrlich:

"So Chris, What's up for OTTAWA 2000? Any big changes in the structure since 98?"
Chris Robinson:

"There are no really big changes for Ottawa 00. We will feature competition,workshops, animarket, chez-ani, animator's picnic, and the parties (which seem to be more popular than the damn screenings!).

We have made more of an effort to showcase industry work. In 1998, we divided the competition into independent work and commissioned films and created a grand prix for best independent film and best commissioned film.
Somehow this got lost between the selection committee and international jury and perhaps our 1998 competition was a bit too heavily slanted towards the experimental/non-narrative genre. I'm not so sure...but that's what I'm told. Hopefully we'll have a better balance this year.

Along those lines, we've made a small change to the pre-selection format. With 1200 films coming in it is becoming more and more difficult to find people to come to Ottawa for 10 days and watch a blizzard of images. Additionally, I don't think it's a good idea that they do watch so many films. They get tired, impatient and maybe overlook some titles that are worthy of competition.
So what we've done (and it's an experiment..so if it fails we'll try something else) is to invite a selection committee to judge only the commissioned work and the festival (primarily myself) will pre-select the independent work. This should provide a better balance and an interesting selection.
Another reason for this change is financial. It is quite expensive to invite a selection committee, pay for their flight, hotel, food and then invite them back to the festival. It is very costly and something has to be done to address it because it is taking money away from other avenues of the festival."
David Ehrlich:

"I understand your reasons for this change. But as your taste so clearly leans towards the experimental and surrealistic (read: weird) don't you think this would narrow the range of 'independent' work selected?
If you're honest with your personal values, how would you be able to avoid this?"
Chris Robinson:

"I don't think so.
If you look at the SAFO 99 competition, the films were far more varied and accessible than Ottawa 98. I had nothing to do with the 'weird' leanings of Ottawa 98 competition. Besides...indie stuff is mostly experimental, non-narrative and surrealist orientated so it shouldn't make too much difference. And to ensure a better balance...we will have a committee looking specifically at commercial work. In 1998..the committee chose the best overall films and ignored the categories. That was a mistake. I also think that like live action festivals and museums and galleries...there should be a strong central voice determining the look of the event. If the festival does not reflect its director to some degree it merely becomes a generic event like any other festival. I don't want that and I don't believe that animators want that. As I said though, if it doesn't work out, we'll go back to the drawing board."
David Ehrlich:

"So who's on your juries?"
Chris Robinson:

"The Independent film competition will be selected by festival organizers.

For the Selection of commissioned films we've got Chris Landreth (Bingo, The End) from Canada, Pjotr Sapegin (Mons the Cat, Norway), and Andrei Svislotksi (Russia/USA, Sequence Director of Rugrats, Real Monsters, Duckman) and Ryan Larkin (Walking)

The International jury will include: Wendy Jackson, animator/writer/educator, USA; Suzanne Gervais, animator, Canada; Priit Parn, animator, Estonia; John Hays animator/president, Wild Brain, USA; and Jin Guo Ping, China.
The winner of the Grand Prix is automatically invited to serve as jury member for the next Ottawa festival (hence Parn's presense).

Other than that the changes will be fairly minor...the main hotel will be different and the Chez Ani and workshops venue will be re-located to the Arts Court building (which was used in 1992).

We're working on variety of retrospectives and tributes and right now they include: Jazz and Animation; From Scratch; Paul Fierlinger, Jan Lenica, Suzanne Gervais, Australian Animation, New Canadian Animation, Pjotr Sapegin, Gene Deitch, George Pal, and our central retrospective will be a look at Chinese Animation which will include two screenings of short films, one 1960s feature and a brand new feature called the Lotus Latern.
Other features will include Kirikou and the Sorceress, Socialization of a Bull (Slovenia); Gerd Gockell's documentary of German animation and three Japanese Anime films."
David Ehrlich:

"Will directors of commissioned films in competition be given hospitaliy?
There seems to be a trend, begun by Annecy, to make them assume their own expenses."
Chris Robinson:

"Commissioned filmmakers will receive hospitality."
David Ehrlich:

"What about food for those whose films are in competition?"
Chris Robinson:

"We offer small per-diems to the independent filmmakers. We stopped with per-diems to commissioned films in 1998 because I think the studios can cover that end of it. And besides...Ottawa has so many parties, chez-ani, the picnic that you can almost make it through the week without paying for food.."
David Ehrlich:

"How far will the festival hotel be from NAC and from the site of the Chez-Ani?"
Chris Robinson:

"The hotel will be about a five-seven minute walk from the NAC.
Chez-Ani is about the same but in a different direction. People have been quite spoiled so it will seem farther...but it isn't. You just cut through the big shopping mall to get to the Chez-Ani. I'm happy with this new set up because we are using an arts building rather than a cold hotel. Also...we have the freedom to bring in our our food and drinks. That will keep things very cheap."
David Ehrlich:

"How many films did you receive this time?"
Chris Robinson:

" We received over 1300 films. It's amazing. Where is this stuff coming from? Even with opening the doors to the internet, we still received most of the work via traditional means.
The frustrating aspect of it all was selecting. Because we have strict categories, some very nice films did not make it into competition."
David Ehrlich:

"How is it going with funding?"
Chris Robinson:

"We are just so lucky. Many of the traditional sponsors like Warner Bros, Dreamworks, PDI, Nelvana are there for us and internet groups like Atom Films and Wild Brain have come on board.
I wouldn't say it's been easy or that we're out of the woods yet, but everything seems ok. In terms of government, it's been about the same, but the City of Ottawa actually cut us slightly because they figured we were too successful and commercial. How strange...since the reason we had to find more corporate money was because they cut us heavily over the years. But I must say, we have to thank the industry. Whatever bad things you want to say these people are a big, big reason that Ottawa exists. 80% of our funding comes from the industry and we should all be very thankful because they could spend it somewhere else and then Ottawa would be a one theatre, one screening event."
David Ehrlich:

"Anything personal you'd like to tell animators before signing off?"
Chris Robinson:

"Well to the ones who didn't make it. Get mad, angry, and pissed off. It's your work, life, baby whatever...but please don't call and yell at us or ask us why it wasn't selected. I'm sure we made mistakes. Committees always do. Again, as I said before, because of categories we cannot simply select the best films. We must examine them within the context of their categories.
Ah...always problems."


Visit Ottawa Homepage


Back to index of Festival Previews