Every year, we have a special show put on for the RIT community called the Animation Show of Shows. Basically, the concept is to watch a gathering of some of the best animated shorts from around the world. The show is put together and curated every year by Ron Diamond, who is an Executive Producer at Acme Filmworks. It’s always a fun time, especially because I’m a sucker for a good story with a quality art style to boost.
The show is really special to me because I find it is a great time to sit down with my friends and people in my major who are all just as nuts for animation as I am. It helps us all come together, meet some new people and enjoy ourselves! I'm always thankful every year that RIT welcomes such a great event and chance to see some shorts that haven’t even reached the general public in theaters yet. It’s an amazing opportunity to get to watch some hilarious and heart-wrenching short animations before the rest of the viewing public.
Some of the shorts presented at this year's show were from some amazing studios and artists such as Disney, Don Hertzfeldt and other independent teams of artists and storytellers from all over the globe. What I think is amazing is how Ron travels all over the world to find these shorts, and then takes on the tough job of narrowing down thousands of these animated films and compressing them into a list of about twelve at any given year. There is plenty of effort involved in traveling for the purpose of sharing the world’s different perspectives on art and I’m excited that someone is so dedicated to bringing it all to RIT so we can all enjoy it together in our own little community.
I think the short films that do eventually get chosen are the one’s that leave the biggest impressions, share different views or a different style of storytelling in such a way that you might not have thought about before or that you can totally relate to on your own personal level, just like all good films! This year's show was definitely one to remember and I hope to see you all at next year's event, which will be the eighteenth anniversary of the event. There really is nothing better than to get lost in a story, or in a world you might not have ever found yourself.