Animation … More Than Just A Cartoon, Palm Springs International Animation Festival
Animation is about creating the illusion of life. You can’t create it if you don’t have one!
-Brad Bird
Growing up watching Bugs Bunny harassing Elmer Fudd, Mickey Mouse charming Minnie, and rhyming along with School House Rock on Saturday mornings, cartoons aka animation were entertainment. This weekend at the Palm Springs Animation Festival I️ learned to appreciate the art of animation like a fine wine! And what better place to view this “Art” than the Palm Springs Art Museum.
Brian Neil Hoff and Dimitri Halkidis are the Directors aka “Master Minds” of the festival. It took them over 9 months to bring the festival to fruition screening more than 150 animated films from 92 countries.
The festivities opened with a fun “suare” at Mayor Moon’s ( The Mayor of Palm Springs) home on Wednesday evening.
Dimtri Halkidis is also the president and creator of “Boo2Bullying” and my 501c3 mentor!
The festival began on Thursday with Red Carpet openings, and Brian posed for a selfie with me me before entering the theater! I️ took a break during my lunch time and was able to watch a few of the opening animations that were done as sketches and progressed to water color illuminating animation as a true art form! Beautiful indeed!
And can we talk about “Loving Vincent,” the animation made entirely out of oil painting!
My Festival Fav’s: Tehran Taboo, Bilal, Loving Vincent, the hand drawn animation, the watercolor animation and animated TV series!
And of course the parties were amazing!
Let’s not forget the panels with speakers! I was able to catch Chance Raspberry, Animator for the Simpsons as he talked about his new animation “Little Billy.” Chance was inspired to create ” Little Billy” from his own personal medical history of growing up with Tourette’s Syndrome.
Brian Neil Hoff dreamed of one day creating an animation festival in Palm Springs. He worked on his dream little by little each year.
“It took a lot of hard work and determination. I faced lots of ups and downs putting the festival together, and I had to really believe in myself in order for others to believe in me!”
I love how Brian made his dream into a reality! Bravo to Brian and Dimitri for a spectacular inaugural Palm Springs Animation Festival! I can’t wait to see what year 2 has to offer!
Cheers!🥂
notoriouslysinglegirl 
One Response to “Animation … More Than Just A Cartoon, Palm Springs International Animation Festival”
Comics were an important part of my childhood and still makes me feel like a child, I guess that the inner child still alive within me.
I loved Daffy duck and Bugs Bunny fighting for anything lol!