Media Design School wins Jury Special Award at SIGGRAPH Asia

Media Design School wins Jury Special Award at SIGGRAPH Asia 2014

7 November 2014

Media Design School is celebrating their most prestigious film accolade yet as their latest short film, Over The Moon, has just been announced as the recipient of the Jury Special Award at SIGGRAPH Asia 2014.

SIGGRAPH Asia, described as Asia’s premier computer animation festival, determines the winner of the Jury Special Prize by bringing together a panel of internationally recognised leading computer animation industry specialists.

After evaluating hundreds of entries, the jury then selected 20 films to be screened in SIGGRAPH Asia’s most prestigious showcase, the Electronic Theatre.

James Cunningham, Senior 3D Lecturer at Media Design School, was ecstatic to find out that Over the Moon had not only been selected to screen at the Electronic Theatre and that it had been given the Jury Special Award.

“To be recognised by SIGGRAPH ASIA and our peers within the film and visual effects community is an immense achievement and a testament to the hard work and creativity of the students, faculty and industry partners who worked on this project,” says Cunningham.

“This is the highest-level award that any of Media Design School’s films have ever received.”

Over The Moon was Media Design School’s most ambitious project to date, with 15 Bachelor of Art and Design students working for 23 weeks and 18,000 hours to complete the film.

“While we'd like to acknowledge the contribution of the actors, musicians, and composers who were involved in the creative process, this award would not have been possible without the involvement of the writer and creator of the original Connie Radar comic book, Karl Wills.”

“Karl’s unique characters, a super smart scientist Connie and her bumbling robot, Julian, made such an intriguing odd couple and they were great fun to adapt from comic book to screen” says Cunningham.

This is not the first time that a Media Design School film has experienced success at an international film festival. In 2013, films produced by Media Design School's Bachelor of Art and Design were selected and screened at more than 40 international film festivals.

Over the Moon has also experience significant success at other festivals. It recently screened throughout New Zealand as one of the finalists for Best New Zealand Short Film at the New Zealand International Film Festival. It also played at Comic-Con International Independent Film Festival.

One other Media Design School film, Shelved, will also be screening at the Animation Theatre as part of SIGGRAPH Asia’s 2014 Computer Animation Festival Program.

ABOUT MEDIA DESIGN SCHOOL
Media Design School is New Zealand’s most-awarded private tertiary institution. The Auckland-based school is distinguished by its close alignment to industry and offers specialist degrees for emerging creative industries including Bachelor of Art and Design (3D Animation and Visual Effects), Bachelor of Creative Technologies (Game Art), Bachelor of Software Engineering (Game Programming) and Bachelor of Media Design. A range of foundation diplomas and graduate qualifications are also available.

Media Design School is part of Laureate International Universities, the world’s largest private university group with over 80 institutions in 29 countries, including dedicated design schools in San Diego, California, and Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA; Berlin and Hamburg, Germany; and Milan, Italy. For more information, visit www.mediadesignschool.com

ENDS

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