Swing to the Moon: when dreams become reality!
News . 25 Sep. 2023
This summer, the Swing to the Moon film team, accompanied by one of their teachers, flew across the Atlantic to receive the Best Student Project award at Siggraph 2023. An adventure beyond their wildest expectations, which ESMA recounts here in great detail!
THE AMERICAN DREAM
Fly to Los Angeles, and see your work rewarded at one of the most prestigious festivals dedicated to computer graphics and special effects. It’s a dream shared by many animation enthusiasts, and one that the makers of their graduation film Swing to the Moon (ESMA 2022) were lucky enough to realize.
The adventure began last June, when the 7 directors* learned that their graduation film had won Best Student Project at the Computer Animation Festival Electronic Theater, the Siggraph festival! The Siggraph festival, which aims to recognize and reward the best work produced each year in the fields of animation, special effects and computer-generated imagery.
AN EMOTIONAL AWARDS CEREMONY
This real accolade was warmly welcomed by the school, and the Swing to the Moon team, who graduated in 2022 from ESMA Toulouse’s animation training program, flew to the Los Angeles Convention Center to attend the awards ceremony, accompanied by their former teacher and section head Yann Pannetier. At the ceremony, during which two other ESMA films – Roald and Malacabra** – were screened, the Swing to the Moon team was presented with the coveted award, in front of an audience of over 800 professionals!
After this, the adventure continues for our team of directors, who attend conferences, professional meetings – with technical directors from Pixar, Disney and Dreamworks, among others – screenings and other parties. These privileged moments enable them to showcase their work, and glean a large number of contacts within the animation industry.
RICH PROFESSIONAL ENCOUNTERS THAT AUGUR WELL FOR THE FUTURE
Vincent Levrero, one of the film’s directors, won’t soon forget this colorful week: “Our stay in Los Angeles for Siggraph 2023 was very intense, and we were able to talk to a large number of artists and professionals from the 3D world! It was the first time we’d shown ‘Swing to the Moon’ to so many people, and all the feedback was heartwarming!”
This feedback is confirmed by Elisa Drique, who also directed the film: “What I find incredible when you receive an award like this and attend a ceremony like this, are all the opinions on our work! Because it’s always difficult to have an objective opinion as a director, and to hear strangers talking about our film in very positive terms in the course of a conversation in a corridor, and to receive all these compliments from renowned professionals, it’s really incredible!”
It was an unforgettable moment, and one that the filmmakers had to rehash again on the way home, as their plane also hovered over the ocean. Congratulations once again to the film crews!
* Marie Bordessoule, Chloé Lauzu, Adriana Bouissié, Vincent Levrero, Nadine De Boer, Solenne Moreau and Elisa Drique
** This year, among the 22 projects shortlisted for Best Student Project, three ESMA films were in the running: Swing to the Moon, Roald and Malacabra.