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Here’s an international pic sent in by Sara Namjoo of the crew from The Iranian Lullabies; a 2012 show produced in Iran by Pooya TV!
From the Facebook Page:
Iranian Lullabies is a musical TV series in 13 short animated episode.The show tries to make a beautiful bedtime moments for children and parents accompany with varied local and national overviews and stories all around Iran.
TICKETS ON SALE ATÂ WWW.GKIDS.COM
HI-RES IMAGES ATÂ WWW.GKIDS.COM/PRESS
New York, New York, February 3, 2014 – The critically acclaimed New York Int’l Children’s Film Festival has announced its full slate for the 2014 edition, which runs March 7-30 at five Manhattan locations. The Festival will present 100 new animated and live action shorts and features, opening and closing night parties, studio showcases, retrospectives, filmmaker Q&As, filmmaking workshops, the Whole Foods Market Pop-Up Concessions Stand, audience voting and the NYICFF Awards Ceremony.
The 17th edition includes four weeks of groundbreaking and thought-provoking new films for ages 3-18. Highlights include US and North American feature film premieres of Amazonia (France), Boy in the World(Brazil), Aunt Hilda! (France), Foosball (Argentina), Patema Inverted (Japan) and others, six Oscar®-qualifying short film programs, a live sing-a-long event featuring 2011’s The Muppets and hosted by Oscar®-winning producer and composer Bret McKenzie, and LAIKA: Behind the Magic, a special presentation featuring never-before-seen footage of the studio’s upcoming feature, The Boxtrolls.
“The 2014 Festival brings together an incredible mix of the best new film from six continents – from the newest crop of international features, special preview screenings, and even a few Oscar® nominees, to our six wonderfully eclectic short film programs, where many of the Festival’s true treasures lie,†said Festival found and creative director Eric Beckman. “Families and film-lovers of all ages can feast on four weekends of non-stop movies. It is an eye-opening, horizon-expanding experience – and just a whole lot of fun.â€
DATES:   March 7- March 30 – Full schedule available at www.gkids.com
LOCATIONS: Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â DGA Theater, IFC Center, Scholastic Theater, SVA Theatre and Village East Cinema
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SHORT FILM PROGRAMS – The Festival’s wildly popular short film programs showcase the best short films from around the world, selected from over 3,000 entries. Jury-selected winners will be eligible for Oscar® consideration in animated and live action short film categories. Featured in this year’s lineup are Feral (Daniel Sousa, Heebie Jeebies) and Mr. Hublot (Laurent Witz, Short Films Two), both nominated for best animated short film at the 2014 Academy Awards®.
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SPECIAL PROGRAMS:
Get ready to meet the cutest animal in the entire known universe – a baby capuchin monkey with impossibly huge eyes and impossibly human expressions – on a stunningly photographed 3D adventure into the heart of the Amazon rainforest.
Recommended ages: 5 to adult
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In 2012, over 5,000 young girls traveled to New York City to vie for a part in the Broadway revival of Annie and a bed in Miss Hannigan’s infamous orphanage. Only eight got a part. Director Joshua Seftel takes us backstage for a behind-the-scenes look at the creative chaos that is putting on a Broadway show – from the first auditions and early choreography, to dress rehearsal calamities and opening night jitters.
In English – Recommended ages: 6 to adult
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A rare behind-the-scenes presentation from LAIKA studios, creators of the Academy Award®-nominated Coraline and ParaNorman. LAIKA’s Mark Shapiro will give insights into the intricate stop-motion animation process, using footage of time-lapse production, exclusive clips of LAIKA animators at work, and a demonstration using the actual character models from of the movies. Followed by a complete screening of the film Coraline and an exclusive first look at never-before-seen footage from the upcoming LAIKA feature The Boxtrolls.
Recommended ages: 9 to adult
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The latest adventure from the beloved Muppet gang takes them across the globe as they embark on an international tour, selling out grand theaters in some of Europe’s most exciting destinations including Berlin, Madrid, Dublin, and London. James Bobin, who (like us) can’t seem to get enough of the Muppets, returns to the directing chair after the 2011 hit The Muppets. Also returning is Oscar®-winning songwriter Bret McKenzie, who is a star in his own right as half of the musical comedy duo Flight of the Conchords.
Rated PG
Join award-winning composer and producer Bret McKenzie and Muppet pal Walter (Peter Linz) in an interactive sing-along screening of the 2011 Disney hit The Muppets, suitable for Muppet lovers of all ages. The film features Bret’s Oscar®-winning Man or Muppet, plus Life’s a Happy Song, Pictures in My Head and lots of other toe-tapping classics. Come sing along!
Rated PG
Fly to Brazil ahead of the flock, with this special pre-release screening of Rio 2, the latest from Oscar®-winning Blue Sky Animation Studio. The Rio characters are joined by Oscar® nominee Andy Garcia, Grammy® winner Bruno Mars, Tony® winner Kristin Chenoweth, and Oscar®/Emmy®/Tony® winner Rita Moreno.
In English – Recommended: all ages
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NYICFF 2014 FEATURE FILMS (ALPHABETICAL):
With an oddly comforting charm, Anina, is a quirky, warm, simply-but-beautifully animated picture with a look that seems hand crafted from materials gently worn and loved.
     Subtitled – Recommended ages: 7 to adult (5 to adult for Spanish speaking audiences)
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Jacques-Remy Girerd, creator of A Cat in Paris and Mia and the Migoo returns to NYICFF with his latest hand-drawn gem, Aunt Hilda!, a glorious throwback to the flower power classics like Yellow Submarine and The Point. Hilda lives high above the city, happily at home with tens of thousands of rare and luscious plants in her palace of a greenhouse. But down below, a new, genetically modified super-grain threatens to disrupt the delicate natural harmony. Hilda must help the Earth save itself from a very colorful biological mayhem.
Subtitled – Recommended ages: 7 to adult
Brazilian artist Alê Abreu brings to screen a strikingly unique visual style to show the world through the eyes of a young boy. A child, Cuca, lives a life of quiet wonder, exploring all that the countryside has to offer. His cozy life is shattered when his father leaves for the city, prompting him to embark on a quest to reunite his family.
Recommended ages: 5 to adult
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NYICFF 2013 Opening Night film and Grand Prize winner returns as a Best Animated Feature Oscar®-nominee! Director Benjamin Renner is our guest for the New York theatrical premiere of the new English language version, featuring Forest Whitaker, Mackenzie Foy, Lauren Bacall, Paul Giamatti, William H. Macy, Megan Mullally, Nick Offerman, and Jeffrey Wright.
In English – Recommended ages: 5 to adult
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Oscar®-winner Juan José Campanella’s first animated film obliterated box office records in his home country of Argentina and puts Hollywood on notice that high-end CGI is not the exclusive purview of the major US studios with this tale of foosball players come to life.
Subtitled – Recommended ages: 7 to adult
3D maestro Ben Stassen (NYICFF 2011’s Sammy’s Adventures) returns with a rollercoaster-ride of a film filled with jack-in-the-box surprises, inventive robotic contraptions, and plenty of swooping and swooshing z-axis movement.
In English – Recommended ages: 6 to adult
Produced by Luc Besson, who gave us the 2012 opening night A Monster in Paris, this breathtaking gothic musical is the passion project of writer/director/composer Mathias Malzieu, adapted from his best-selling novel and the 2007 concept album from his rock band Dionysos.
In English – Recommended ages: 8 to adult
Winner of top prizes at the Berlin and Los Angeles Film Festivals, Janis Nord’s instantly engaging second feature combines coming-of-age drama with slow-burn thriller to tell the story of a boy who is unable to extricate himself from a growing web of lies
Subtitled – Recommended ages: 9 to adult
The new feature from Time of Eve director Yasuhiro Yoshiura is a perspective-twisting sci-fi adventure about two kids separated by opposite gravities. Once they master the art of navigating competing gravitational forces, they set out to evade their respective leaders and discover the secret that keeps their worlds apart.
Subtitled – Recommended ages: 9 to adult
Lukas Moodysson’s fantastic new picture about trio of 13-year-old schoolgirls trying to form a punk band is overflowing with energy and youthful exuberance.
Subtitled – Recommended ages: 13 to adult
Fresh from premieres at Sundance and Toronto, Zip & Zap is one of the most talked about family films on the festival circuit – a classic mystery adventure in the vein of Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, and The Goonies
Subtitled – Recommended ages: 7 to adult
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NYICFF 2014 JURY:
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ABOUT NYICFF:
Established in 1997, NYICFF is an Oscar®-qualifying event and North America’s largest film festival for children and teens ages 3-18. The most recent edition attracted a sold-out-in-advance audience of 30,000. NYICFF 2014 takes place March 7-30, with 100+ films from around the world, plus premieres, retrospectives, filmmaker Q&As, filmmaking workshops, audience voting, and the NYICFF Awards Ceremony. Festival sponsors include Whole Foods Market, Meredith Parents Network, and Scholastic, with funding support by National Endowment for the Arts, NY State Council on the Arts, and NYC Department of Cultural Affairs. In addition to the annual March festival, NYICFF presents year-round film programming both in New York and nationally, including annual children’s film festivals in Boston, Los Angeles, Miami and Philadelphia.
Qualifications
You can apply for this job by clicking this link.
First off let me say, I am a tough critic when it comes to hardware. I’ve owned dozens of laptops and a number of tablets over the years and I beat them up pretty hard. If I don’t like something I sell it right away. If I do I’ll keep it and recommend it to everyone I think will care. My main tablets have been the LE16600, the LE1700, the Asus EP 121 and the iPad Retina display and Galaxy Note 2. I’ve owned too many laptops to list here. That said, I’ve owned the Lenovo Helix for about a month now and it has taken a bit of getting used to primarily because of Windows 8 and not the hardware itself.
I primarily use it in three ways:
I could possibly see myself using it in the fourth mode with is presentation mode to pitch either a show or storyboard since the tablet screen then faces outward away from you but you have control of the keyboard but I haven’t needed it yet. I still think that might not work well because you can’t see what page you’re on if you overshoot the panel by double clicking the arrow key or something like that. I do not use the stock stylus but in order to have any stylus work at all you must take the stock on out to have the digitizer recognize a stylus at all. A stupid thing for Lenovo to do in my opinion. because it makes the stylus VERY easy to lose if you want to use a different stylus. A better stylus is a Wacom penabled stylus which feels good in the hand and works very well. Also a Motion Computing LE1600/LE1700 stylus will work with it and that’s about as good as it gets for a stylus as far as I’m concerned.
A comparison of stylii  Top to bottom; Cintiq, LE 1700, Wacom  Penabled pen,Lenovo Helix stylus
My primary use is lunchtime and working on my own projects in a restaurant or cafe, drawing and writing or working on it while on vacation for an hour to get some small thing done or check a file. I do a huge amount of freelance so i need all of my files to be on the hard drive so I use Dropbox to sync it all and with a 256gb ssd hard drive the Helix does fine job of backing my art and projects up. With every other tablet I’ve owned this was an issue but luckily the Helix is new enough to take advantage of the higher capacity ssd drives. The tablet itself is very well made, sturdy and solid feeling. It feels like you could actually drop it and it would not break. Especially the tablet itself.
The keyboard dock has a small lip on it where the tablet slides
into which might get caught on a bag if you tried to store it by itself.
The keyboard dock is a bit light but sturdy as well. It does not creak at all when you hold it at one end and while it’s a bit heavier than say an iPad it feels like it won’t break and I like that. It’s clearly made well. I use it often to write out scripts and outlines as well as correspond with clients and work. The keyboard is solid but could use a tiny bit more weight to it because with the tablet docked in laptop mode the unit gets a bit top heavy and will rock a bit on the lap. On the desk it’s just fine but it IS a laptop. Another few ounces on the front of the keyboard dock would have made all the difference in the world.
The Helix is an 11.5 inch device and if you’ve owned an LE1600 it is much thinner and smaller. It’s significantly lighter as well.
The Helix vs the LE1700
And side by side you can clearly see it’s significantly smaller in size.
Finally top down.
The trackpad has no physical buttons on it and is just one big surface similar to a Macbook pro. It was awful when I first got it but after updating all the Lenovo drivers as well as upgrading to Windows 8.1 the performance is significantly better. If there was no Windows 8.1 I would have returned it. Yes it’s that stark of a difference to me. I did not think I would like the touch screen while using it in laptop mode but I do and tend to use it fairly often. That said, I have found that again Windows 8 rears it’s ugly head in the form of horrific palm rejection but it’s fairly easy to disable the touch screen to draw with and again worth it just for being able to draw at a cafe or train.
How to disable the Touch screen in Windows 8.1
For those that don’t know you can right click on the Windows icon bottom left corner, select device manager and then Human Interface and select the touch driver and right click on it to disable it. Should Microsoft make it easier? Doggone RIGHT they should but they didn’t and this is an easy enough work around. Still, a simple widget on the desktop to toggle such things wouldn’t be that hard for them and yet they’ve clearly NOT done it on purpose since they make the Surface Pro which suffers form exactly the same thing. In general, am horrified by the long string of bad decisions Microsoft is currently making and I hope they shape up soon. I doubt they will however as they don’t even realize they’re doing anything wrong!
Moving on… I primarily draw with Sketchbook Pro and occasionally use Photoshop and Illustrator. When I draw I use a wedge to prop up the tablet called an Allsop Cool Channel platform  which I love because of it’s slight angle and it’s lightness. 
The Allsop Cool Channel platform from the side
And from the front.
I animate in Flash, Maya and After Effects regularly as well as use the Toon Boom Suit of apps such as Storyboard Pro and Animate fairly often. All of these are processor intensive apps (except Sketchbook Pro) and chug fairly quickly on a crappy machine due to vector and 3d calculations. The Helix performs admirably on all occasions as far as I’ve found. Don’t get me wrong it’s NOT a desktop computer and it does NOT have a dedicated graphics card so it WILL chug with the hard stuff like rendering or a file with 500,000 polys but in my mind that’s okay, because I’m walking away anyway and really I seldom render on a laptop. In my mind, cleanup up and final are for desktops but you can get a LOT done on a laptop.
Battery life is decent enough that I am not watching the clock as I work and it will easily go 4 or 5 hours between charges. I charge it every other day or so. The Helix actually has two batteries, one in the tablet itself and one on the keyboard dock which is nice as it does give you an extra bit of juice. Speakers are really loud and work well but don’t expect too much since it’s only a laptop and has speakers the size of your pinky nail. It does NOT have an SD card slot which I find perplexing but I read that Lenovo had a choice, more cooling ability or an SD card slot, and I guess it’s for the best because this sucker does get hot when in use but only in the top left corner and I’m seldom touching up there so it does not bother me.
I installed Skyrim on the Helix and while it technically works it’s not very good and you need to use an xBox controller to have any sense of control as the trackpad is useless and so is the stylus. Even then it’s a tiny bit jumpy at best. I also installed the Microsoft top down game: Halo Spartan Assault which works fairly well and I’ve had fun playing that. It’s not really a great gaming laptop to be truthful but I have an Xbox for that so it’s not a deal breaker for me.
So in conclusion, I would highly recommend the Lenovo Helix for artists and animators alike. It’s not prefect, won’t replace your desktop completely but has enough power to use any of the standard apps like the Adobe and Autodesk suites as well as do some light gaming if you’re so inclined. It has a decent sized hard drive to store files, plus an display port that can be used to connect to an HDMI enabled TV (with a convertor) the stylus is crap but you can get a better one easy enough.
It seems as though David Silverman of The Simpson’s fame is posting all sorts of cool drawings from the show’s early days on Twitter! the above is a special Bart ‘mouth chart’ and I do seem to remember seeing this back ‘in the day’. Anyway, you can read the full post about David Silverman’s postings here and click David’s name to connect to him in the Twitterspere.
