This got me thinking of what were the best animated Christmas Films or Specials?

Here’s my Top Ten….and yes I’ve checked it not once but twice, to see who’s naughty or nice!

1. The Snowman (1982) (Short)
2. The Simpsons – “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire” (1989) (TV)
3. South Park – “Mr Hankey, the Christmas Poo” (1997) (TV)
4. Father Christmas (1991) (Short)
5. Prep and Landing (2009) (TV)
6. How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966) (TV)
7. Mickey’s Christmas Carol (1983)
8. The Madagascar Penguins in a Christmas Caper (2005) (TV)
9. The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
10. The Polar Express (2004)

Films that would have been on the list but lost out because they were technically not animated were… The Muppet’s Christmas Carol (1992) and The Grinch (2000)

If you haven’t seen these films I highly recommend them to get you into the Christmas spirit.

So what are your favourite festive films and your top ten? I’m sure I’ve missed out on some crackers!

Here at Brown Bag Films we are actually making a Christmas themed short film ourselves. It’s a secret at the moment but will be released in the New Year, so watch this space…it may be on your top ten next year!

Merry Christmas from all at Brown Bag Films!

It was the 50th anniversary of the festival so it was a great time to be there.

50 years of Annecy - This is the entrance to the Bonlieu centre

50 yrs of Annecy

Annecy ticket booth

As always, Annecy was an inspirational and fun place to be in the company of fellow Animation professionals. I had a lot of meetings while I was there in the beautiful surroundings of the Imperial Palace Hotel.

Imperial Palace Hotel

I even got to sample some of the local cuisine…. L’escargots!!!

SNAILS!!!!

Steeling my nerve!

Here goes nothing!!!

Pas mal...

The closing night awards and party were fun, even if the awards ceremony intself was a little baffling in its style of ‘comedy’… I guess it would have helped more if I could understand what they were saying

Annecy awards ceremony

The stage of winners as the celebrations begin

Large white ballons descended... I thought it was the finale of the Prisoner!!!

Congrats to the winners which a full list of can be found here
The big winner of the night was the Filma Sinna Mann:

This film went on to win 3 awards on the night & the director Anita Killi seemed genuinely stunned & delighted every time her name was called as winner. It was great to see such hard work being recognised.

It was such a flying visit though, that I felt like I wasn’t there long enough & didn’t see enough animation. I hope to go back for a bit longer next year when (hopefully) we will have something on show at the festival.

I was recently in Shanghai for a week as part of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year annual retreat. I was nominated last year and as one of the alumni I attended  the World Expo in Shanghai with over 70 Irish business people, and spent some time meeting local businesses and networking with each other.

Shanghai is an incredible city and no amount of googling will prepare you for it. It is a cross between London, Dubai and New York all rolled into one. Where once paddy fields lay 20 years ago, now stands Shanghai’s magnificent skyline of skyscrapers. Standing underneath these modern tower blocks is like standing on the set of Blade Runner.

The scale of the World Expo is almost impossible to describe. It cost $50 Billion dollars (yes, that’s Billion!) and it will last just one year before it will all be demolished other than the Chinese stand. It looked busy when I was there, but I didn’t expect there to be 500,000 visitors on the same day as me. Chinese people are really wonderful but they must be more patient that the Irish; in 28 degree heat they queued for 3 and 4 hours to get inside each pavilion. Over 17 million people, 97% Chinese, have visited the Expo to date.

The Irish Pavilion was a wonderful example of modern architecture but the inside of it lacked punch and didn’t match up to many of the other country’ pavilions.  Having traditional music or Irish dancing every hour for the many millions of visitors would not have cost the earth and would have breathed some life into the place. We saw a very kitsch example of an old Oirish kitchen where I expect Darby O’Gill would have been proud to have had his breakfast. Technology Ireland was not so well represented!  The best room featured a video wall which featured a short clip of Granny O’ Grimm as well as hundreds of other clips from Irish films.

I was surprised that Shanghai was so westernised and ‘Communism Lite’ came to mind as I passed the enormous shopping malls selling only the most exclusive of labels. While the markets peddled fake handbags, Prada, Hermes and Louis Vitton all maintained prime real estate on a scale I haven’t seen in other capital cities. I found that Facebook, Twitter and Youtube are all banned websites, but other than that there was little to indicate that I was in a communist country.  (I was able to tweet using my own account via my mobile phone)

The president of Ireland, Mary McAleese, gave an inspired talk to the Irish/Chinese business community and what felt like a weekend turned out to be  a week and I was back on the plane headed for Dublin. In case you’re wondering, some of the photographs I’ve attached were taken using my tilt shift lens

 “As a Public Service Broadcaster RTÉ’s remit is to produce children’s programmes just as they commission Drama and Documentaries. Irish children have as much right to quality home produced programmes as their parents do. However, the RTÉ schedule is almost entirely full of imported animation from the US and Europe. Unless there is a change in RTÉ’s policy, Irish children will learn to speak with an American accents and can expect to see American-style yellow school buses for a long time to come” said Cathal Gaffney, Managing Director of Brown Bag Films 

 “Who knows what success the Animation sector could achieve if RTÉ were to commit just 5% of its programming budget towards animation. Ultimately, Irish children would be the real beneficiary as they watch quality home produced programmes relevant to an Irish audience and to their lives”

he added.

 “RTÉ need to wake up and become strategic about animation programmes for their schedule, the rest of the world has identified the talent and potential in our sector in Ireland. We have a great opportunity to replace acquired programming with indigenous programmes that will be more relevant to an Irish audience.  What we are lacking is a vision at the very top in RTE and as a result 25% of the Irish population are been ignored. This is simply not good enough” said Gerard O’Rourke, Monster Animation.

 “There is little advertising revenue to be earned by RTÉ from children’s programmes and their lack of support for animation would indicate that RTÉ’s policy is more about chasing commercial revenues than their Public Service remit” he concluded.

 The Animation CEO Forum believes that the animation sector is a shining light of Ireland’s Smart and Creative economy.  The animation sector is almost entirely export focused and is the largest full time employer of the entire Film and Television sector. Without much domestic support, Irish Animation studios successfully export their work internationally and the irony is that animated programmes created in Ireland are broadcast on almost every children’s channel around the world.

 “Animation provides exactly the type of high-value, technically-skilled, stable employment that Ireland needs to build its ‘Knowledge Economy’.  That the Animation Industry has not only survived but grown exponentially is a testament to its members’ creativity, business acumen and drive,” said Damien Farrell, Chairman of Animation CEO Forum. 

 The Animation CEO Forum are thrilled with the two Oscar® nominations and congratulate Nicky Phelan and Darragh O’Connell from Brown Bag Films and Tomm Moore from Cartoon Saloon who have been nominated in the Best Animated Short and Best Animated Feature categories.

 “The Irish animation sector has been punching well above its weight internationally for some time and these nominations are a testament to its creativity and professionalism.” said Damian Farrell, Chairman of the Animation CEO Forum and Creative Director of Caboom.

 This success is a boost to the Animation sector, and it comes despite the lack of funding to the sector from RTÉ.

Brown Bag Films are currently looking to employ an experienced Senior Systems Administrator to undertake the role of maintaining a medium sized network of servers, desktop systems and communications devices.

What We’re Looking For:

The System Administrator is responsible for installation/configuration, operation, and maintenance of systems hardware and software related infrastructure. This individual is expected to do technical research and development to enable continuing innovation within the infrastructure.  The System Administrator is required to maintain system hardware, operating systems, software systems.This individual will assist in various company projects within the IT/R&D department and also other departmental projects if technical assistance is required.

What You Can Expect in the Job:

The main responsibilities of this position is to deliver IT solutions to the business, ensuring IT developments are correctly identified, documented and aligned to business and IT strategies in a addition to the following> 1) Design/Support Solution for all operational needs. 2) Install new/Rebuild existing servers and configure hardware. 3) Develop and Maintain installation and configuration procedures.

Who We’re Looking For:

1)     Bachelor ( 4Years ) degree, in computer science or similar.

2)     System Administrator/System engineer Cert in Microsoft.

3)     Scripting language, SVN , Microsoft Exchange, Domino Server 8.0.1, IBM Blade Center /IBM Sans,IBM TSM, Barracuda Web filter, Sonicwall, Citrix Xenserver and Lan/Wan Knowledge.

4)     Four to six years systems administration experience.

5)     A person with a the ability to solve problems.

6)     Provides technical guidance to a number of departments within the company.

If you think that this job is for you, please complete an  Application form and apply in total confidence to: jobs@brownbagfilms.com  

Date for last applications: 1 February 2010.  All correspondence should be in by email to jobs@brownbagfilms.com only.  No recruitment agencies please.

About Brown Bag Films:

Brown Bag Films® is an award-winning computer animation studio. Established in 1994, Brown Bag Films is located in the heart of Dublin City employing more than 50 full time staff.  Brown Bag Films have a slate of original television and family feature properties in active development. Recent productions include ‘Olivia’ (Nick US) and ‘Noddy in Toyland’ (FIVE) for Chorion and ‘Wobblyland’ HIT/Nick UK. In 2009, Brown Bag Films delivered 20 hours of 3D animation to international broadcasters and were voted the ‘European Producer of the Year’ at the Cartoon Tributes, Norway. For further information, please visit our website; www.brownbagfilms.com

Brown Bag Films are looking to recruit a Business Development/Legal Affairs Executive to work full time from their office in Dublin. The ideal candidate will be qualified in either law or have a business MBA. While the job will be serious, you will also need a sense of humour and may have to watch cartoons frequently!

What We’re Looking For
We’re looking for someone who has strong communication skills and can handle complex negotiations. You will need to have a keen interest in television or film (and ideally animation) as well as new and emerging technologies. You should have a good working knowledge of all legal and business affairs relating to television production and rights exploitation. An ability to work unsupervised on your own initiative is essential. It is expected you will have at least 2 years experience in a similar position and demonstrate strong commercial and business acumen.

What you Can Expect in the Job
As part of the management team, you will answer directly to the Chief Executive. You will also work very closely with both TV Production and Content R&D. You will be across all production and development contracts and will play a key role in closing project finance as well as any general company legal issues. International travel may be a requirement of this position.

Who we’re looking for
We are looking for someone with strong knowledge, understanding and enthusiasm for television production and the industry. The ideal applicant will have experience in some or many of the following areas:
• All agreements relating to development, production and distribution and exploitation of programme rights.
• Strong understanding of programming financing. Experience in completing co-production treaties, tax subsidy application forms.
• Working with production teams and advising on contractual, compliance and production issues during production such as Chain of Title, intellectual property rights, compliance issues etc
• Reasonable understanding of Licensing & Merchandise and Music Publishing.

If you think that this job is for you, please complete an  Application form and apply in total confidence to: Kevin Farrell, Kevin.farrell@brownbagfilms.com Date for last applications: 19 January 2010. All correspondence should be in writing or by email to Kevin only. No recruitment agencies please.

About Brown Bag Films:
Brown Bag Films® is an award-winning animation studio, producing high quality computer animation for the international market. Established in 1994, Brown Bag Films is located in the heart of Dublin City employing more than 50 full time staff. Brown Bag Films have a slate of original television and family feature properties in active development. Recent productions include ‘Olivia’, ‘Noddy in Toyland’ and ‘Wobblyland’. In 2009, Brown Bag Films delivered 20 hours of animation to international broadcasters and were voted European Producer of the Year at the Cartoon Tributes, Norway. For further information, please visit our website; www.brownbagfilms.com

Here at Brown Bag we’re generally quite casual in our work attire but everyone ditched the jeans for the evening and got their glamour on! After a year of hard work we were all looking forward to a night of letting our hair down and gambling too, even if it wasn’t with real money.

We were joined on the night by Kathleen O’Rourke – writer and voice of Granny O’Grimm and Mr. Richie Baneham, animation director on Avatar, who had arrived home in Ireland for Christmas.
After a couple of drinks and hot food to warm us up on one of the coldest nights of the year, we got straight into the fun and games. Lady luck wasn’t with me until I tried to get rid of my chips and then I started winning. Our in-house dancer Richie Keane got the troops at his table so motivated to win that they soon joined him dancing on the chairs, waving their arms along to YMCA. Their efforts were rewarded with receiving one million in chips each!

By the end of the evening four out of 5 people in the blackjack final were from Brown Bag. Darren and Sean offered their skills as tutor to Anne, Astrid, Barry and Jean. This didn’t work out so well for poor Astrid, who on taking Sean’s advice risked it all and lost everything in the first of 2 rounds.

As Cathal and Lisa made a quick getaway, the rest of us headed over to Grafton St. and blagged our way into Lillie’s bordello for a nightcap and a boogie, before heading out into the night in search of the one thing everyone wants for Christmas – a taxi home.

10 Animated Shorts Move Ahead in 2009 Oscar® Race

The film, directed by Nicky Phelan, written and performed by Kathleen O’Rourke and produced by Darragh O’Connell, is shortlisted in the Best Animated Short Film category.

The Short Films & Animated Feature members of the Academy will now select 5 nominees from the 10 shortlisted films and the announcement will be on February 2nd 2010.

Check out Granny O’Grimm’s own website at www.grannyogrimm.com, and visit her on Twitter and Facebook.

The Oscars take place in Los Angeles on March 7th 2010.

CALLING ALL TALENTED STORYBOARD ARTISTS!

Are you an exceptional visual story teller? Are you able to convey expression and illustrate movement effortlessly?  If so, Brown Bag Films are looking for your storyboard reel right now! Experience in pre-school animation for Television or Feature is a requirement for this freelance position.

Applicants will ideally have an Irish or EU passport. Please forward your CV and reel or link to your own website to: jobs@brownbagfilms.com

Reels should be no bigger than 15mb in size.

Update Nov 4 2009: Our apologies if you have received both a confirmation email & an error message in response to your emails. This was a glitch which has now been fixed. We have received all emails. Thanks and apologies for any confusion!