Features

This year, the 9th annual Animation First Festival, hosted by L’Alliance New York, offered various opportunities for the School of Visual Arts, BFA 3D Animation and Visual Effects and BFA Animation community to step beyond campus and engage in the growing international world of animation. Jimmy Calhoun, Chair, 3D Animation and Visual Effects, captures it best:

From thoughtful jury deliberations to producing an original 18-second film in 48 hours or moderating conversations with international set designers, students and faculty were invited to share their reflections and insights of their experiences at this year’s six day festival.

Student Short Film Competition Juror, Sana Kakumanu 

School of Visual Arts (SVA), CalArts, Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), and the University of Southern California (USC), were all tasked with selecting the Best French Film. While the participating French student jury from Gobelins, RUBIKA, l'École des Nouvelles Images, and Emile Cohl, evaluated submissions from the American schools. Sana Kakumanu (BFA 2027 3D Animation and Visual Effects) and Nevaeh Williams (BFA 2026 Animation) were part of the student jury from the four participating American schools. Sana shares about her experiences as a juror and selection process: 

Winners of the ‘Best French Film’ award in the Student Shorts category was Gauze by Noran Fikri Alezabi, Nicholas Arujah, Xinyue Ma, Yulin Yue, Xiaonan Zhou (Gobelins), while the winners for “Best American Film” were Sleep Sweetly by Sage Saccio (BFA 2025 Animation) and Death is a Giant Peanut by Amy Boisvert (CalArts). 

Animation Jam 48-Hour Challenge - BFA Animation Students

The Animation Jam is a unique opportunity for students to meet students from within and beyond the BFA Animation department. Teams from each participating school, Montpellier, BrassArts, Maryland Institute College of Art and SVA, had under 48 hours to create an 18-second collaborative film. Using any animation mixed media techniques they all had to incorporate a still image and audio provided by guest artist Félix Dufour-Laperrière from his film Death Does Not Exist.

BFA Illustration major, Victoria Ericks shared, “as an illustrator it is less common to do fully collaborative projects, so being able to join while pitching in my own knowledge is something I've wanted to do for years.” BFA Animation team leader, Jaiden Hawkes chose to invite their fellow teammates, not by strengths, but “whose company I genuinely enjoy. I am of the mind that friendships and good vibes thoroughly heightened everyone's enjoyment of the entire experience.”

This year’s teams representing SVA, The Zenith Horizons and the Glorp and Gleepers share what techniques they used, the obstacles they overcame and advice for future students interested in participating:  

Brie Hemingson (BFA 2028 Animation) I worked on similar challenges at different colleges and loved the experience. I approached my friends Marshall, Jett and Quinn to team up. Marshall then asked Gaby to join. It was such a fun way to be introduced and befriend someone new at our school. 

Victoria Ericks (BFA 2027 Illustration): I wanted to make stop motion "trash flowers" to use as a symbol in our project. These were made from collected gum wrappers, net and clay. The reason trash was used is because there were capitalism/pollution allegories in Death Does Not Exist.

DJ Wang (BFA 2027 Animation): Understanding our own limits and capabilities for this project. We had to improvise and adapt from our original plan. We gained clarity about our strengths, identified areas that needed additional support, and recognized which technical skills were best suited to each responsibility.

Cali Stone (BFA 2027 Animation): Working on this project influenced the way I work with a team. I adapted to the time range to manage everyone on our team through scheduling and assigning roles to people by working hour by hour instead of day by day or week by week.

Quinn Bidwell (BFA 2028 Animation): Some members who finished early took responsibility to help finish coloring and rendering the unfinished shots. Despite each being assigned a role at the beginning of the project, it was important to step in. It allowed us to have some extra time to take care of our personal needs, like sleeping and eating. It's a super fun project to work on with your friends, so getting all the stressful parts out first allowed us to make the most out of the experience.

David Seibert (BFA 2027 Animation): The team might have benefited from selecting members who were available to work and have overall better communication. I learned how to use toon boom harmony!

Matthew Braure (BFA 2027 Animation): Get rest beforehand, clean your room, make your bed, organize files! Most importantly have fun and don't be a perfectionist!

Jaiden Hawkes (BFA 2027 Animation): Consider how far you are willing to go for this challenge and plan accordingly. If you have classes, make sure to bring it up to your team! If you value regular meals and consistent sleep, make clear that you will step out as needed. Address what you are willing to do sooner rather than later. Also, bring snacks!

The Songbirds’ Secret - Chair of BFA Animation, Hsiang Chin Moe

In addition to SVA’s presence at the festival, Hsiang Chin Moe, Chair of BFA Animation, continues to seek opportunities not only to connect with international filmmakers but also to bring them into the SVA community. This year, she was invited to moderate Making of The Songbirds’ Secret with set designer Samuel Ribeyron, who shared an in depth look at the behind the scenes process of the feature paper cutout animated film, which involved more than 2,000 puppets and a multiplane camera setup. 

During his visit to New York, Samuel also spent time at SVA BFA Animation, meeting with several thesis students and learning about their production processes. Students received thoughtful and generous feedback on their work, including BFA Animation senior, Emmanuelle Martinez, who shared her stop motion set and animation tests. Reflecting on the experience, Moe shared,

Photo Credit: Hsiang Chin Moe, Courtney Davis, L’Alliance New York