The second Catfish Animation Festival will be held Saturday at 2 p.m. at the Princess Theatre in Columbus, free of charge. The festival will consist of 19 animators who will show their short animated films. The films, all less than 15 minutes, will be judged, and winners will receive awards. Most of the animators are from Mississippi State University, but six are from other states.
The animations are dreamscape sequences. These animations are set to music and are stream of consciousness imagery, according to Festival Director Susan McCann. She said most of them are humorous and abstract, but others are films with characters and plots.
“All of them are great; there are a lot of first tries,” McCann said. “I’m just glad they entered them.”
McCann warns that some of the material in the animations may not be appropriate for young children. She said that some films contain death, nudity and other adult imagery.
The only other Catfish Animation Festival to take place was held in 1999 and was open only to students involved in the masters of fine arts in electronic visualization program at MSU.
“We decided to grow and extend the festival to include other colleges, universities and departments; we’ll slowly get there,” McCann said. “It is good for people to see what our department is doing.”
The festival is funded by a $300 academic excellence grant from MSU and matched with $300 from the art department.
The animation that floods television sets every day is most likely created by teams of animators. The films showing at the Princess Theatre are all created by only one or two people. The ways in which the animations were created range from hand drawings to computer-generated work, and all of the films reflect the personalities and interests of the animators.
Dick Ford of Dick Ford Animations of Mize will judge the festival.
Festival entertainment, besides the films, is provided by Starkvilles’ Mike Tyson’s Punch Out, with Jason Jones and Adam Howard. McCann said the band is both artsy and experimental.
The Princess Theatre is located on Fifth Street in downtown Columbus, and the Stage Door Coffee House located inside the theatre will be open for refreshments.