The UTS: Sydney International Animation Festival will be held on 13 and 14 October at the University of Technology, Sydney. Along with festival favourites such as the International programs, highlights of home-grown animation and the ever bizarre Late Night Bizarre sessions the 2012 festival will feature animations from Tokyo University and the Royal College of Art. Also for the first time the UTS: Sydney International Animation Festival will premiere two feature films!  A Monster in Paris, directed by The Shark Tale’s Bibo Bergeon and the academy award-nominated Czech film Alois Nebel. Full program details can be found at www.siaf.uts.edu.au.

Program:

Saturday

12.30pm - 1.45 pm - Royal College of the Arts - 25 Years of Animation

London's Royal College of Art animation department has been doing what they do best for 25 years - where does the time go?! For all of those twenty five years RCA films have been screening just about everywhere and we decided it was time to do a stock-take on the hundreds of films that have been created within those hallowed halls. But where to begin? In true SIAF style we went straight to the top - that would be Joan Ashworth, Professor and Head of Animation at RCA and we were gifted a collection of RCA's 'best' 100 films. This is now one of our most treasured possessions and the temptation was to leave immediately before they changed their minds and asked for them back. From that staggering collection of animated wonderfulness comes this tribute to 25 years of outstanding animation craft. It took a couple of months to get through all of that material and in the way these things often work out at SIAF, the whole deal was nailed down over a roast chook in Estonia ... but that's another story.

4pm - 5.20pm - The Australian Showcase

A strong year for Australian animation. There is masterful CG, beautifully crafted puppet animation, and skilfully drawn work. All together it's the most comprehensive look at a year of animatin' in this wide, brown/green/wet land. Lovin it!

5.45pm - 7pm - International Program #1

The best of recently released short animated films from all over the world, coming in from every corner, they use every technique, they can be funny, dramatic, eye-popping, subdued, documentary or autobiographical. The one thing they have in common is that we think they're the pick of the crop. There are also competition programs focusing purely on abstract animation and longer shorts.

7.30pm - 9pm - A Monster in Paris

Paris, 1910, panic sweeps the city. Floodwaters are rising and a monster is on the loose! Formidable Commissioner Maynott and his men hunt it down day and night. With no luck. It could be that in the limelight at The Rare Bird, a Montmartre cabaret where feisty Lucille is the star attraction isn't a bad place to hide after all!

9.15pm - 10.25pm - Light Night Bizarre

Paris, 1910, panic sweeps the city. Floodwaters are rising and a monster is on the loose! Formidable Commissioner Maynott and his men hunt it down day and night. With no luck. It could be that in the limelight at The Rare Bird, a Montmartre cabaret where feisty Lucille is the star attraction isn't a bad place to hide after all!

Sunday

1pm - 2.20pm - Tokyo Univerity of The Arts

Tokyo University of the Arts. The arrival of legendary Japanese animator Koji Yamamura ("Mt Head", "Franz Kafka's A Country Doctor", "Muybridge's Strings" to name but a few) dramatically and quickly re-energised the Tokyo University of the Arts animation course into a creative powerhouse of the Japanese animation scene and the world is beginning to sit up and take notice of its graduates. This collection looks at some of their more recent graduate works and shows what a unique torrent of animation has been untapped there.

2.45pm - 3.45pm - Poemetrics

Poemetrics, is a series of shorts that look at a range of expressive moving image work from treated live action to animation via motion graphics based on or inspired by poetry or poetic texts as a starting point. These form a visual investigation of the words in poetic motion, enriching the meanings and enhancing the understanding. The programme has a variety of works that are entertaining, surprising and beautiful showing the combined power of moving image with poetry with thoughtful effect. This program has been specially curated by onedotzero and produced in partnership with Empac [experimental media + performing arts center] Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute as part of the arts series called quote unquote: experiments in time based text. 

4pm - 5.20pm - The Making of Longbird (short) & Dance of the Shadows - Lotte Reiniger documentary

The Making of Longbird is a behind-the-scenes look at the battle royale raging between an animator and a character that just won't do what it is commanded to. Dance of the Shadows is a documentary based on German film artist Lotte Reiniger who created the first feature length animated film. It shows the topicality of Reiniger who even today has an inspiring effect on the art of young animation filmmakers worldwide.

5.45pm - 7pm - International Program #2

The best of recently released short animated films from all over the world, coming in from every corner, they use every technique, they can be funny, dramatic, eye-popping, subdued, documentary or autobiographical. The one thing they have in common is that we think they're the pick of the crop. There are also competition programs focusing purely on abstract animation and longer shorts.

7.30pm - 9pm - Alois Nebel

Directed by Tom s Lun k, Alois Nebel is based on the first modern graphic novel to be published in the Czech Republic. Set in the European summer of 1989, it tells the story of Alois Nebel, a lonely train dispatcher at a small railway station on the Czechoslovak border who generally leads a quite life. Sometimes when the fog rolls in, however, he is haunted by visions from the dark days of 1945.