NY Int'l Children's Film Festival Presents OBLIVION ISLAND, 12/10 & 11; Announces Workshop & Festival

The NY Int'l Children's Film Festival presents OBLIVION ISLAND on Saturday & Sunday, December 10 & 11 at 11:00am at the IFC Center.

It is In English and Recommended for ages 6 to adult.

The WORLD PREMIERE of the ENGLISH LANGUAGE VERSION. The creators of Ghost in the Shell mix exquisitely detailed 2D backgrounds with modern 3D character designs in a dazzling animated adventure that plays like Alice's fall through the rabbit hole into a world of topsy-turvy, anime dream-logic. When Haruka misplaces a hand-mirror that was a keepsake from her mother, she stumbles upon a portal to the subterranean world of Oblivion Island, a place where strange masked creatures gather up all the childhood trinkets humans abandon as they grow older and attend Dream Theaters where they can watch and feel the memories locked in these forgotten objects.

The land is ruled by an evil overlord, The Baron, who craves the power created by the memories locked in Haruka's cherished hand-mirror - a power that will allow him to rise beyond his world of discards and take over the world of humans! Aided by Teo, a lowly junk collector, and Cotton, her old stuffed animal brought back to life, Haruka struggles to recapture the mirror from the Baron, and to rediscover the fleeting moments of childhood love and friendship that are among life's most precious treasures.

To purchase tickets, visit http://gkids.tv/intheaters.cfm.

The FEBRUARY FILMMAKING CAMP will be FEBRUARY 20-24, 2012. REGISTRATION is NOW OPEN.

NYICFF's weeklong filmmaking camp will take place Monday through Friday, 10am to 4pm (early drop-off and late pick-up available) and will be held at Battery Park City School in lower Manhattan.

Class sizes are limited and are expected to sell out.

There are three classes available:

CREATE-A-CARTOON
Recommended for Ages 6-9
Young producers will use their own stories and art to make an animated movie in collaboration with filmmakers. Children will work together to create the plot, characters, backgrounds, music, and even use their own voices to narrate the story. Then, with the help of production company Small Factory, these original stories are transformed into a completed animated short film.

STOP-MOTION PIXILATION
Recommended for Ages 8-12
In this hands-on animation workshop, children ages 8 to 12 will use the stop-motion technique of pixilation to create and star in their own film. Students will collaborate under the guidance of filmmaker Aaron Hughes to conceive, write, storyboard, construct sets, shoot, act in, and edit a complete mixed media animated short film.

ANIMATE IT - INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION
Recommended for Ages 10-14
In this exciting cross-Atlantic creative collaboration, student filmmakers ages 10 to 14 will connect via Skype video conferencing with filmmaking students at the Bergman Center on the Swedish island of Fårö. The two groups will work in parallel to complete their own short films using the Animation Box, a stop-motion animation device created by visiting Swedish filmmaker and instructor Erling Ericsson.

To learn more and register, visit http://www.gkids.com/?section=workshop.

The STUDIO GHIBLI FESTIVAL will be from December 16 to January 12 a the IFC Center.

TICKETS are NOW ON SALE!

GKIDS is bringing a 25-year retrospective of films from Japan's famed Studio Ghibli animation studio to the IFC Center this winter! Don't miss your chance to see some of the greatest films on new 35mm prints, including the Academy Award-winning Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, Castle in the Sky, Princess Mononoke, Kiki's Delivery Service, Porco Rosso, Pom Poko, The Cat Returns, plus North American Premieres of Only Yesterday, The Ocean Waves, and more.

Films will be presented in both subtitled and English language versions (where available), with subtitled versions playing 6pm and later.

To purchase tickets, visit http://gkids.tv/intheaters.cfm.