The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the 10 semi-finalists in the animated short film category of the 2010 Academy Awards. Thirty-seven entries had originally qualified in the category. And the Kinematograph is one of the semi-finalists. ;)

Kinematograph was selected to the International competition of short films of the 66th Venice Film Festival. Congratulations, mr Baginski.

This is how we roll.

Once a group of polish graphic novel artists get together, they tend to get a bit drunk. And then they like to draw comics together. One way to do it is a comic battle on an easel in front of a cheering audience (well, more screaming from the top of their lungs then cheering). On this photo easels pictured, afterwards, partly destroyed because there was no way to make a decent photo during the event – too crowdy:

On the next picture you can see Bartosz Sztybor, well known polish story writer, the only person to win two awards at the International Comic Festival in Lodz in one year (that record was set last year, as he won in two different categories with different short graphic novels) as he attempts to draw something, because the word spread the he’s not only great story teller but graphic designer as well. See for yourself:

I’m not too convinced. You can’t be THAT good at everything, mate.

So as far as the battle is concerned, there could be only one winner:

That’s Jaszczu, and yeah, you can see that killer instinct in his eyes, which is neccesary to slay all other contestants. Just look at this happy care bear:

that’s Krl, the runner up. He did not stand any chance whatsoever against that killing machine above. You might ask yourself how did I do in that battle? Well I was wise enough not to take part in it. This way I’m covered in full extent. Once the battle was over and dust settled, we thought it would be a good idea to draw each other. So:

That’s me drawn twice by this dude:

and this is him:

drawn by me. The resemblance is in deed striking, you must admit:

And once again me:

drawn by no other than forementioned Bartosz Sztybor:

So maybe he DOES have a good drawing hand. Because I look exactly like that. EXACTLY.

The third and final way to release your drawing force fueled by some alcohol is to take part in a freestyle jam, which is a comic story made up in real time by different artists, based on what-did-the-person-before-you-do rule. Basically lots of profanity ensued. But there were some hilarious moments of utter genius in that work. Something worth a good laugh. Unfortunately I don’t have that comic, it went home with the sketchbook owner as I imagine. But here are the geniuses hard at work:

And there – three ways to run a nerd party at a comicon. I can’t really say anything more about the comicon itself, because I didn’t participate in any way, but I heard it was good.

Big news coming your way. After 4 years ” the Kinematograph” is finally ready. What is that? It’s a short animated movie based on one of my graphic novels from the Revolutions series. The creator is none other than an Oscar nominee Tomek Bagiński. He was nominated for the Oscar in 2003 for his movie “the Cathedral”. So quality ensured. I didn’t see the movie yet, the premiere is scheduled on june 17th, so still a month away. Waiting for it imaptiently. In the meantime – besides the trailer – here are few stills from the movie (after the jump)…

(more…)

on Twitter. ;). I know it’s not much of a news and you’d really like to hear me say something elase (like – CF3 finished :D), but this is all for now. Back to programming. ;)

last night I received this:

to my total surprize I must add. Fourth nomination, I guess I got used to not getting it. But this year the Gnomes did the job. Big thanks to everyone who voted. Now all I need is a fireplace to put this on. The awards took place in the local television studio and was being broadcast live, and I had no idea whatsoever what’s coming, so it’s no surprize that I kind of lost it during the acceptance speech. :D But not that much, I think I managed to get my thought through – that I’m happy that a game was considered as art.

Find me.