Press release from J&E Publicity
Yoram Gross brings more than meets the eye to the 12th UTS Golden Eye animation awards.
The man who made the first Australian feature film to combine animation with live action backgrounds – will judge the 2011 UTS Golden Eye Award for the Best Animation. Mr Gross has directed over a dozen feature films and children’s TV series screened across the globe including Blinky Bill and Dot and the Kangaroo.
The UTS Golden Eye Awards showcases and rewards outstanding creative animation by the latest crop of Media Arts and Animation students. The presentation will be held on October 11, with Yoram Gross Films to sponsor a $500 cash prize.
The biennial Awards are open to any UTS Media Arts and Production or Master of Animation student. Previous Golden Eye winning films have received prizes and selection to screen at Cannes, Tropfest and other international festivals.
The winner of the 10th Golden Eye for Best Animation was Monkeynaut – directed and animated by Susie Jones. The film, about two monkey astronauts who are about to embark on a space flight from which no monkey has ever returned, went on to win an Australian Screen Sound Guild Award for Best Sound in an Animated Film in 2008.
Sarah (aka The Seventh Match) featuring Mia Farrow, Dot Goes to Hollywood and The Camel Boy are some of the feature films Gross’ studio made. The master animator was awarded the Order of Australia in 1995 for his contribution to the Australian film industry. He was recognised with the Murray Forrest Award for Achievement in Film Craft at the Australian International Movie Convention at the Gold Coast on August 25.
Gross believes that telling a good story in animation is important no matter what new technologies are available. “To make a good animated film the tools have changed but the message is the same – you have to have something to say which the audience must understand.”
The veteran animator with his wife and business partner Sandra also sponsor a Sydney Film Festival and Flickerfest animation award. “We support animation as an art form and industry as much as we can. Animation is certainly our business and our passion,” said Sandra Gross.