The winners have been announced for this year’s 24 HOURS: Animation Contest for Students, held October 4 & 5. This free event challenges students around the world to compete in teams of five to produce a 30-second animated film in under 24 hours. Now celebrating its 22nd year, this international competition is hosted by animation professor, Aubry Mintz, at California State University, Long Beach.
The contest has broken its own record, welcoming 559 teams from 107 schools (2,155 students) from 23 countries, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Chile, Germany, Great Britain, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Israel, Mexico, Philippines, Russia, Scotland, South Africa, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, Türkiye and the U.S. As Mintz points out, the contestants represented 89 colleges, 17 very brave high schools and one very, very brave middle school (three teams), all competing during the same 24-hour period.
This year, more industry supporters provided additional prizes and funding efforts to support students. This includes an equipment request program for underserved students, which not only allowed them to participate 24 HOURS, but provided tools to aid in their virtual learning.
This year’s prompt was: In 24 HOURS make a 30 second film giving your teams vision for the future with AI as a friend or a foe and show how our world might fail or benefit from its evolution. The films utilized a variety of animation techniques, from hand drawn, to CG and even stop motion.
Since the sponsors were so generous this year, Mintz decided to give an extra award, rounding it out to eight teams that were awarded cash prizes, studio swag bags, art books, software, handheld drawing tablets, festival tickets and more ($77,450 in value). Sponsors for this year include: Toon Boom, ASIFA-Hollywood/Animation Educators Forum, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar, Netflix, XPPen, Sony Pictures Animation, Illumination, Bento Box, Nickelodeon Animation Studios and NICE, DreamWorks, Titmouse, Animation is Film, X in a Box, TVPaint, TAAFI, Wacom, DigiCel, CRC Press, Mac Hollywood, Stuart NG Books, Legends Animated and Indee.
Maggie Kang, director at Sony Pictures Animation, kicked off the contest this year giving students a video message to help them plan ahead and succeed animating under extreme pressure.
The final 30-second films were judged by a volunteer panel of esteemed animation professionals:
Shannon Prynoski, (Titmouse Co-Founder & VP), Evally Owo Aguila (Director and Storyboard Artist, Disney), Wilma Miranda (Animation Director, Animator; The Boys), Angela Abeyti (Prop Design Supervisor and Character Designer; Nickelodeon, Titmouse, Bento Box), Alex Smeaton (Animator; Apple TV+, Cartoon Saloon, Titmouse), Ryan Stapleton (Storyboard artist; Netflix, DreamWorks, Nickelodeon, Warner Bros.), Khoa Le (Animation Director, Lead Cinematics Editor; Insomniac Games, Sony Interactive Entertainment), Amelie Le-Roche (Senior Animator; Sony Interactive Entertainment, Infinity Ward) and Romney Marino (Associate Producer, Director of Development;Bento Box, Titmouse).
“This contest is never the same experience.” says Mintz, “This year, we had our first disqualification due to a team not closely following the rules, and we had teams competing from Israel during war and teams competing from Florida in the middle of a hurricane. So, while this year was filled with tension and difficulties, what makes this contest special is that all of these artists from around the world come together for this one 24-hour period and focus on what they love doing best: animating. And I like to think they forget about their troubles, even if for a short time.”
You can watch the films in order of their ranking on the contest’s YouTube channel @24HOURScontest.
Below are the winning teams and their prizes:
First Place
School: Sheridan College (Ontario, Canada)
Team: What Are We
Points: 314
First place winner prizes:
- Toon Boom Prize: $2,500 ($500 each team member)
- Wacom Movink Wacom Cintiq tablets
- 5 pro licenses of TVPaint Animation for each team member of one team
- 5 Harmony Premium / 5 Storyboard Pro 1 year license for each winning team
- Walt Disney Animation Studios: Each member will be invited to participate in a one-hour virtual “coffee chat” session with members of Walt Disney Animation Studios
- 5 CRC Press Ideas for the Animated Short, 2nd Edition for each winning team
- Full student passes to TAAFI for each team member
- X in a Box: Team will participate in Story Xperiential
- 5 pro licenses of Digicel’s Flipbook software
- Animation Magazine two-year digital subscription for each team member of all winning teams
Second Place
School: Ringling College of Art and Design (Florida, U.S.)
Team: Move it Move it
Points: 310
- ASIFA-Hollywood/AEF prize for 2nd place winning team: $1,500 ($300 each team member)
- Pixar prize pack for each team member
- Stuart NG Books: 5x $100 gift certificates for one winning team
- 5 Harmony Premium / 5 Storyboard Pro 1 year license for every winning team
- Walt Disney Animation Studios: Each member will be invited to participate in a one-hour virtual “coffee chat” session with members of Walt Disney Animation Studios
- 5 CRC Press Ideas for the Animated Short, 2nd Edition for each winning team
- Full student passes to TAAFI for each team member
- X in a Box: Team will participate in Story Xperiential
- 5 pro licenses of Digicel’s Flipbook software
- Animation Magazine two-year digital subscription for each team member of all winning teams
Third Place
School: Ringling College of Art and Design (Florida, U.S.)
Team: tapeworm
Points: 307
- Runner Up winner prize: XPPen $1,250 ($250 each team member)
- 5 Harmony Premium / 5 Storyboard Pro 1 year license for every winning team
- Walt Disney Animation Studios: Each member will be invited to participate in a one-hour virtual “coffee chat” session with members of Walt Disney Animation Studios
- 5 CRC Press Ideas for the Animated Short, 2nd Edition for each winning team
- Full student passes to TAAFI for each team member
- X in a Box: Team will participate in Story Xperiential
- 5 pro licenses of Digicel’s Flipbook software
- Animation Magazine two-year digital subscription for each team member of all winning teams
Runner Up
School: PennWest (Pennsylvania, U.S.)
Team: Stop Mo Rules
Points: 303
- Runner Up winner prize: Netflix $1,000 ($200 each team member)
- 5 Harmony Premium / 5 Storyboard Pro 1 year license for every winning team
- Walt Disney Animation Studios; Each member will be invited to participate in a one-hour virtual “coffee chat” session with members of Walt Disney Animation Studios
- 5 CRC Press Ideas for the Animated Short, 2nd Edition for each winning team
- Full student passes to TAAFI for each team member
- X in a Box: Team will participate in Story Xperiential
- 5 pro licenses of Digicel’s Flipbook software
- Animation Magazine two-year digital subscription for each team member of all winning teams
Second Runner Up
School: Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) (Georgia, U.S.)
Team: newBeez
Points: 300
- Second Runner Up winner prize: Illumination $1,000 ($200 each team member)
- 5 Harmony Premium / 5 Storyboard Pro 1 year license for every winning team
- Walt Disney Animation Studios: Each member will be invited to participate in a one-hour virtual “coffee chat” session with members of Walt Disney Animation Studios
- 5 CRC Press Ideas for the Animated Short, 2nd Edition for each winning team
- Full student passes to TAAFI for each team member
- X in a Box: Team will participate in Story Xperiential
- 5 pro licenses of Digicel’s Flipbook software
- Animation Magazine two-year digital subscription for each team member of all winning teams
Third Runner Up
Team: 20 piece chicken nugget meal with a medium fry, large soda, and special grade garlic sauce
School: Sam Houston State University (Texas, U.S.)
Points: 297
- Third Runner up winner prize: Nickelodeon $1000 ($200 ea team member)
- 5 Harmony Premium / 5 Storyboard Pro 1 yr license for EVERY winning team
- Walt Disney Animation Studios each member will be invited to participate in a one-hour virtual “coffee chat” session with members of Walt Disney Animation Studios
- 5 CRC Press Ideas for the Animated Short, 2nd Edition for each winning team
- Full student passes to TAAFI for each team member
- X in a Box – team will participate in Story Xperiential
- 5x pro licenses of Digicel’s Flipbook software
- Animation Magazine two-year digital subscription for each team member of all winning teams
Best High School
School: Orange County School of the Arts (California, U.S.)
Team: Dummy Media
Points: 279
- Best High School team winner prize: Sony $1,000 ($200 each team member)
- AIF full festival passes
- 5 x 1-year Student Memberships to ASIFA-Hollywood
- 5 Harmony Premium / 5 Storyboard Pro 1 year license for every winning team
- Walt Disney Animation Studios: Each member will be invited to participate in a one-hour virtual “coffee chat” session with members of Walt Disney Animation Studios
- 5 CRC Press Ideas for the Animated Short, 2nd Edition for each winning team
- Full student passes to TAAFI for each team member
- X in a Box: Team will participate in Story Xperiential
- 5 pro licenses of Digicel’s Flipbook software
- Animation Magazine two-year digital subscription for each team member of all winning teams
Behind the Scenes Prize
School: Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD) (Toronto, ON, Canada)
Team: Wouldn’t You like to Know
- Best Behind the Scenes Disney/Pixar winner prize: $500 ($100 each team member)
- 5 Harmony Premium / 5 Storyboard Pro 1 year license for every winning team
- Walt Disney Animation Studios: Each member will be invited to participate in a one-hour virtual “coffee chat” session with members of Walt Disney Animation Studios
- 5 CRC Press Ideas for the Animated Short, 2nd Edition for each winning team
- Full student passes to TAAFI for each team member
- X in a Box: Team will participate in Story Xperiential
- 5 pro licenses of Digicel’s Flipbook software
- Animation Magazine two-year digital subscription for each team member of all winning teams
More details about the contest, its website and fundraising efforts can be found at linktr.ee/24hourscontest. For more questions about the contest, contact 24hourscontest@gmail.com.
