Yoobee to award Animation and VFX at Tropfest 2014

24 July 2013

Yoobee to award Animation and VFX at Tropfest 2014

Tropfest, the world’s largest short film festival, gears up in New Zealand for 2014, with entries to the competition now open.

The second year of the competition on these shores includes some exciting new developments. Chief Executive of the Taranaki Arts Festival Trust, Suzanne Porter says, “Tropfest NZ is off with a bang this year and is proud to announce our exciting new Industry Partner, the Yoobee School of Design.”

Yoobee will support two new prize categories for Animation and VFX. The winner in each category will win a prize of $2,500 plus a Free Short Course on Campus or a Free Online Course, depending on their location.

“Part of the beauty of Tropfest is also its simplicity. Each film can be no more than seven minutes, must be made specifically for Tropfest, and contain the Tropfest Signature Item which this year is ‘Glasses,’” adds Porter.

Maureen Manson, Marketing Manager Yoobee School of Design, says “Yoobee School of Design is pleased to be introducing two new awards in Animation and VFX and to have Yoobee associated with the largest short film festival in the world! It's a great opportunity for our students and staff to be a part of such an iconic event.”

The competition is open to anyone and attracts talented NZ film makers and creative teams. The competition is presented by the Taranaki Arts Festival Trust and is a free outdoor event held at the TSB Bowl of Brooklands in New Plymouth, 16 February 2014.

At this stage interested parties are invited to register with Tropfest to keep up to date with competition news and announcements. Entrants are now invited to send an email to anne-maree@taft.co.nzwith the subject line “Registering my interest in making a film” to be kept up to date on the news from Tropfest NZ. The final deadline for entries is Monday 6 January 2014.

Submission forms and information available here: http://www.tropfest.co.nz/submit/submission-information.html

About Yoobee
Until recently, Yoobee School of Design was known as Natcoll Design Technology.

Yoobee is the largest private design school in New Zealand, with campuses in Christchurch, Auckland and Wellington. Yoobee programmes include Graphic Design, Web Development, Animation, Filmmaking, Game Design and 3D Graphics. In addition to full time programmes Youbee offer a variety of part time courses, online learning and professional teaching and learning resources. Over the past 15 years Yoobee has maintained its international reputation for producing industry-fit creative professionals.

Yoobee Online: http://yoobee.mrooms.net
Yoobee Short Courses: www.yoobee.ac.nz/shortcourses

About Tropfest
Tropfest began twenty-one years ago when director John Polson showed a six-minute film he made for under $100 at his local café (‘The Tropicana’) in Sydney for 200 friends and family. Today the free Australian event is attended annually by a live audience of over 150,000 film-lovers and hundreds of thousands more watching via its live national TV broadcast and other platforms.

In the past two decades, Tropfest has become recognised as one of the world's most exciting launchpads for emerging filmmakers. Tropfest is also known for securing the support of some of the biggest names in the international film community including Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe, Geoffrey Rush, Liev Schreiber and Tobey Maguire. Tropfest launched last year in New Zealand, Arabia and in the USA with Tropfest Las Vegas and Tropfest New York.

The Tropfest YouTube Channel has had over 11 million video views, with around 40% of those coming from the United States. The channel provides film enthusiasts the chance to watch the top films from past festivals at: www.youtube.com/tropfest

The first Tropfest NZ event was held in 2013 and was attended by 8,000 people. The winner was a short film called ‘Cappucino Tango.’

TROPFEST NZ – The world’s largest short film festival, now in New Zealand – 16 February 2014, Taranaki. www.tropfest.co.nz | www.facebook.com/tropfestnz

ENDS

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