Independent animation
The term independent animation refers to animated shorts, web series, and feature films produced outside a major national animation industry.
Criteria[edit]
A good portion of the work is viewed in animation festivals and private screen rooms along with schools that produce animation through instruction. The significance of independent animation is as important as studio fare. "Independent" initially implied amateurs and unknowns. However, following the implosion of the entertainment industry and mass layoffs of animators, "indie" now almost exclusively refers to industry veterans with connections producing content on their own time.
Representations[edit]
LGBT representation in independent animation has increased over the years, as many series have featured LGBTQ characters. Lizzy the Lezzy, which premiered on Myspace in 2006, included LGBTQ+ characters like Lizzy, a lesbian.[74] Plum, a bisexual character, first appeared in the animated series, Bravest Warriors, a show which aired on Cartoon Hangover's YouTube channel from 2012 to 2018, as confirmed by her crushes and by writer Kate Leth.[75][76][77] The show was made by Adventure Time creator Pendleton Ward and featuring Ian Jones-Quartey, who voiced the character, Wallow, while he directed his own show, OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes which featured multiple LGBTQ+ characters. Although Plum had a crush on Chris, kissing him multiple times during the show, she is also madly in love with her doppelganger as shown in the comics.
The Rooster Teeth animated web series, RWBY, which began in 2013, features lesbian characters,[78][79][80] and a trans woman named May Marigold, voiced by Kdin Jenzen.[81][82] Nomad of Nowhere, another RoosterTeeth show, released in 2018, featured a lesbian protagonist named Skout, who had a crush on Captain Toth, her superior.[83][84] In addition, Hazbin Hotel, by Vivienne Medrano, centers around a bisexual princess of Hell named Charlie, with a girlfriend named Vaggie,[85][86] with the series also featuring an asexual character named Alastor,[85][87] and a gay pornstar named Angel Dust.[88][86][89] Medrano's other series, Helluva Boss, featured various bisexual characters, such as a demon named Moxxie,[90] and a pansexual demon named Blitzo.[91]
My Pride: The Series, which premiered in February 2020 on YouTube, follows a "queer, disabled lioness" named Nothing who is trying to heal the world.[92][93] Yssa Badiola of Recorded by Arizal hosted a RTX panel, on September 21, 2020, and stated that there would be LGBTQ characters if a full season was ordered.[94][95] Nico Colaleo's animated web series, Too Loud, the first season which ran from July to August 2017, and the second season which aired from September to November 2019, includes an LGBTQ character. In the episode "Slumber Party Sneak-In," Desiree plots with her sister, Sara, to dress up as a girl in order to go to a slumber party. The rest of the girls find this out, then console her, accepting, and deciding they like her no matter whether she is a trans girl named Desiree or as a closeted boy.[96] In September 2019, Colaleo later described the episode as important, described it as his favorite episode of the show's second season, and a "pro-transgender episode."[97]
Angakusajaujuq: The Shaman's Apprentice (2020), featuring Canadian Inuit characters, won Best Independent Short Film at the Festival Stop Montreal.[98][99][100]
African American animator/filmmaker Ayoka Chenzira is known for the 1984 satirical animated short Hair Piece: A Film for Nappyhead People, which was inducted into the National Film Registry in 2018.[101][102][103] Another example of independent African-American animation is Bruce W. Smith's 2019 Academy Award-winning short film Hair Love.[104]
Independent animation outside the United States[edit]
Germany[edit]
One of the earliest feature-length animated films was The Adventures of Prince Achmed, made in 1926 by Lotte Reiniger, a German artist who made silhouette animation using intricate cut-out figures and back-lighting. She made another feature, Dr. Dolittle, in 1928.[105]
The United Kingdom[edit]
The BFI funded around thirty pieces of experimental animation between the mid-fifties to mid-nineties (notable examples: The Quay Brothers).[106] Another major contributor to independent animation in Britain was Channel 4, which gained an international reputation as one of the most adventurous broadcasters of animation featuring works from Joanna Quinn (Girls' Night Out),[107] Paul Barry (The Sandman), Mark Baker (The Village), Barry Purves (Next)[107] and former National Film Board of Canada animator Paul Driessen (3 Misses).[108][109]
Another British animated milestone, the 1978 adaptation of Watership Down by American filmmaker Martin Rosen, was also made independently as well.[110]
France[edit]
Examples of French independent efforts include René Laloux's Cannes-winning Fantastic Planet (1973)[25] and Marjane Satrapi's own 2007 adaptation of her graphic novel Persepolis.[111]
Japan[edit]
Kōji Yamamura,[112] Masaaki Yuasa,[113][114] Yoji Kuri and Kihachiro Kawamoto have been prominently acclaimed Japanese independent animators known for their artistic qualities.[115][116][117][118][119]
Brazil[edit]
In 2016, Alê Abreu's Boy and the World (released in 2013) won the first Annie Award for Best Animated Feature – Independent at the 43rd Annie Awards.[120] Two years later, Tito and the Birds would be nominated in the same category.[121][122]
Chile[edit]
Pato Escala's 2014 debut short film, Bear Story, won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short.[123] As a result, many animators such as Fernanda Frick (Here's the Plan), who worked on Bear Story, and Hugo Covarrubias (the Oscar-nominated Bestia)[124] made their own animated shorts in Chile.[125]
Czechia[edit]
Michaela Pavlátová is known for making independent efforts[126][127] such as the 2021 feature My Sunny Maad,[128][129] which was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film.[130]
Estonia[edit]
Estonian animator Priit Pärn is known for his crude drawings, dark humor and satirical absurdist tone on such films as Breakfast on the Grass (1988) and 1895 (1995; the latter spoofing cinema's impact on perceptions of history, identity and nationality filled with cinematic references, cultural stereotypes and inside jokes).[131]
Denmark[edit]
Jonas Poher Rasmussen's 2021 animated documentary Flee[132][133] was nominated for three Oscars: Best Documentary Feature, Best International Feature Film (the second Non-English-language animated film after Ari Folman's 2008 Israeli war documentary Waltz with Bashir[111]) and Best Animated Feature (becoming the first animated film ever to be nominated in all three of those categories).
Australia[edit]
Bill Kroyer's 1992 feature debut Ferngully: The Last Rainforest, featuring the voice of comedian Robin Williams as Batty, was also made independently (under his own studio Kroyer Films, which also made the 1988 Academy Award-nominated Technological Threat) as an Australian-American co-production later to be distributed by 20th Century Fox.[134]
Independent animation entirely from down under includes the works of Felix Colgrave[135] and acclaimed stop motion animator Adam Elliot,[41] known for the Oscar winner Harvie Krumpet (2003) and his feature film Mary and Max (2009).[113][111]
Canada[edit]
Outside of NFB, independent animation entirely from Canada also includes Marv Newland, who is best known for his 1969 cult animated short Bambi Meets Godzilla.[136]