“Furry Film Festival:” thoughts from Fred Patten and Califur’s video programmer.

by Patch O'Furr

Gideon & BuckHopper

“The San Francisco Furry Film Festival” was a fantasy article inspired by many potential reasons for why it could happen for real.  A movie journalist even told me it was an idea “way past due!”

Once put together, it could have built-in audience at any con.  However, the practical work of organizing a festival wouldn’t be too different from making a small con.  With such a special niche, that puts it out of reach unless a team of dedicated movie lovers gather around the idea.  That hasn’t happened yet… but 2016 has brought amazing Furry movie events.  There were sold-out furry screenings for Zootopia, and the furry-made documentary ‘Fursonas‘ won unprecedented notice on the festival circuit.

A furry film fest isn’t so far-fetched.  Here’s hoping it happens.  Meanwhile, below are reactions from Changa, video programmer for Califur and admin of Furry.today (check the site for great videos!) And then Fred Patten.

– Patch

From Changa:

One of the reasons I started furry.today was to keep myself constantly looking for new furry shorts and animations and keep track of them for things like our Parties and the animation festivals I had been putting on at Califur. Here was the play list for the Animation Festivals we showed in 2015.  Warning: Lots of embeds.  I mostly put that page up not linked anywhere as it was my way of handing out a link to people asking me what specific films were after the con.  A dedicated Furry film festival is a great idea (not sure of the logistics.) From your article, I haven’t seen Finsterworld but was aware of Furry Force – they were at Califur, they received the Ursa Major award and it was rather awesome. I do know about your site and it’s cool that you noticed my video blog.

Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.

Furry Film Festival

The suggestion of a Furry Film Festival makes my mind overflow with potential titles. Such a festival could easily be filled by excellent but obscure features (many foreign).  That would have the advantages of probably being cheaper to rent than those by large American studios like Disney and DreamWorks (which might snub a Furry Film Festival even if it was willing to pay really expensive rentals), and more enticing to the public that might be overly familiar with big American studio “classics” anyway.  Here are some suggestions (emphasizing what I would like to see):

American Features
Mr. Bug Goes to Town, directed by Dave Fleischer. 78 minutes. December 5, 1941.

 

Bill and Coo, directed by Dean Riesner. 61 minutes. March 28, 1948.

Gay Purr-ee, directed by Abe Levitow. 105 minutes. October 24, 1962.

Shinbone Alley, directed by John David Wilson. 85 minutes. April 7, 1971.

Fritz the Cat, directed by Ralph Bakshi. 80 minutes. April 12, 1972.

Coonskin, directed by Ralph Bakshi. 89 minutes. August 20, 1975.

An American Tail, directed by Don Bluth. 80 minutes. November 21, 1986.

Tiny Toon Adventures: How I Spent My Vacation, directed by Barry Caldwell and six others. 80 minutes. March 11, 1992.

Once Upon a Forest, directed by Charles Grosvenor. 72 minutes. June 18, 1993.

Balto, directed by Simon Wells. 77 minutes. December 22, 1995.

The Nut Job, directed by Peter Lepeniotis. 86 minutes. January 17, 2014.

Foreign Features

Puss in Boots, directed by Kimio Yabuki. 80 minutes. March 18, 1969. (Japan)

Blinky Bill, directed by Yoram Gross. 90 minutes. September 24, 1992. (Australia)

Felidae, directed by Michael Schaak. 78 minutes. November 3, 1994. (Germany)

Catnapped!, directed by Takashi Nakamura. 76 minutes. June 10, 1995. (Japan)

The Fearless Four, directed by Michael Coldewey, Eberhard Junkersdorf, and Jürgen Richter. 89 minutes. October 2, 1997. (Germany) NOTE: Warner Bros. has an excellent American dub of this, unreleased. Ask for it.

Help! I’m a Fish, directed by Stefan Fjeldmark and Michael Hegner. 83 minutes. October 6, 2000. (Denmark)

The Adventures of Renny the Fox, directed by Thierry Schiel. 90 minutes. August 12, 2005. (Luxembourg)

Blinky Bill’s White Christmas, directed by Guy Gross. 80 minutes. December 24, 2005. (Australia)

El Arca, directed by Juan Pablo Buscarini. 88 minutes. July 5, 2007. (Argentina)

Niko & the Way to the Stars, directed by Michael Hegner and Kari Juusonen. 81 minutes. October 10, 2008. (Finland)

Roadside Romeo, directed by Jugal Hansraj. 93 minutes. October 24, 2008. (India)

The Missing Lynx, directed by Raul Garcia and Manuel Sicilia. 100 minutes. December 25, 2008. (Spain)

Cinderella in the Far West, directed by Pascal Herold. 81 minutes. April 16, 2012. (France)

Bitter Lake, directed by Shay. 41 minutes. August 19, 2012. (France/Germany/Netherlands)

A Turtle’s Tale 2: Sammy’s Escape From Paradise, directed by Vincent Kesteloot and Ben Stassen. 93 minutes. August 15, 2012. (Belgium)

Delhi Safari, directed by Nikhil Advani. 92 minutes. October 19, 2012. (India)

The House of Magic, directed by Jeremy Degruson and Ben Stassen. 85 minutes. December 25, 2013. (Belgium)

Sheep and Wolves, directed by Andrei Galat. Scheduled for 2014; postponed to 2015. (Russia)

Shorts

This is a mixture of furry films, animation school student projects, and even commercial films. It only briefly suggests the wealth of material that exists.

Anthrocon 2014: Compass. 5:16

Chicken or the Egg. 3:22

Children of the Night. 4:20

Control Bear. 4:04

Crayon Dragon. 3:13

Kickball. 2:26

Merry XXXmas from Room 366. 2:55

RusFurence 2012: The Movie. 16:37

I could go on, but this gives you an idea of how enjoyable a Furry Film Festival could be. These particular films might not be available, but others could surely be found to fill a three-day festival program. Would it be best to schedule such a film festival in conjunction with a furry convention? I’ll leave the details to the festival organizers.

Fred Patten