Accidents, Blunders and Calamities, a short film from Auckland’s Media Design School, has taken out the prize for Best Animated Film at the 2016 Comic-Con International Independent Film Festival (CCI-IFF).
Comic-Con International is held over four days in San Diego, California, and the film festival has been an integral part of the Con for the past 17 years.
Accidents, Blunders and Calamities, a reimagining of Edward Gorey’s The Gashlycrumb Tinies, features 30 CGI animals, meticulously crafted and then killed off by 44 third year Bachelor of Art and Design students.
The film was given the Best Animation prize by a panel of internationally recognised judges including Rotten Tomatoes’ editor-in-chief Matt Atchity; Eric Jacobus, the 2015 CCI-IFF winner for Best Action/Adventure film; and Spoon Pictures’ Nick Murphy.
Bachelor of Art and Design senior lecturer and director James Cunningham said the win offered an invaluable opportunity for his student's work to garner recognition overseas.
"I am pretty amazed at getting this award," says Cunningham. "To get a film that was made at a school in New Zealand selected to be in competition at Comic-Con is very impressive, but to beat all the other animations is a real feat."
"The students who worked on Accidents, Blunders and Calamities are super pumped by this result. Comic-Con is such a massive cultural event and to get this sort of recognition means a lot. I'm super proud of the work everyone did on this."
The students who worked on Accidents, Blunders and Calamities have since graduated from MDS and many are working in the film industry both in New Zealand and overseas.
Bachelor of Art and Design program leader Steve Dorner says that the result was indicative of the exceptional work produced by the Design students.
"Results such as this further contribute to Media Design School's international reputation as one of the top three schools to provide VFX and 3D Animation qualifications globally," he said.
Accidents, Blunders and Calamities has already won a number of accolades including the People’s Choice Award and the DEGNZ Best Editor Award at New Zealand's only Academy Awards accredited film festival, Show Me Shorts.
It has also picked up prizes at the Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film and BCN Sports Film Festival. The film also screened at the 2016 SXSW Film Festival.