Our Mission
GLAS Animation is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization founded in 2014. Our core mission is to cultivate and promote the art and science of animation. We provide a unique platform for independent animation, champion diverse and underrepresented voices, and emphasize exceptional directors and artists that push visual, conceptual, and narrative boundaries within the cinematic artform. We are a community-driven organization that not only exhibits animated films, but creates a context and language for a shared understanding and appreciation of animation in the United States.
To accomplish this we have launched two programs within our organization: the GLAS Animation Festival and the GLAS Animation Grant. The GLAS Animation Festival creates a unique culture and community for artists, filmmakers, and film enthusiasts in the US, and more specifically the Bay Area, to critically engage with animation as an artform. The GLAS Animation Grant program allows for the artists in this community to create work and express their visions across the world.
We feel that in order for us to fulfill our mission it is important not only to provide a platform for groundbreaking independent animation, but also to help artists working in the United States create it. The two programs are designed to compliment each other directly; the artists and films we bring to the festival inspires the community while the grant supports the creation of new pieces of work from within that community that will then be exhibited internationally.
Independent animation is an important part of the art and filmmaking community that has been, in the United States, greatly overlooked. Providing a platform to showcase these underrepresented works is important as it enriches the American cultural landscape in a way that is new, fresh, and different.
By creating a space for a diverse community of artists and enthusiasts to discuss and share new ideas, we are able to fulfill our mission to cultivate and promote the art and science of animation.
Our Programs
GLAS Animation Festival
In March 2016 we launched the first annual GLAS Animation Festival in Berkeley, California. GLAS takes place over four days across Downtown Berkeley at various prestigious cultural institutions including theaters, galleries, media centers, and educational institutions.
GLAS exhibits films from local and international artists and filmmakers across the animation spectrum, creating a community and space for industry veterans, historians, animation enthusiasts, and emerging talent from diverse backgrounds to come together, share, learn, and appreciate the animated art form in a critical context. We started GLAS to showcase the most exciting animation being made around the world and expand the scope of how animation is understood as an artistic medium in the United States.
At the heart of the festival is the international competition, which showcases five curated programs of the most exceptional contemporary animated short films. These programs are the highlight of the festival as they demonstrate most fully the expressive abilities of animation as a medium. Created oftentimes by an individual artist or small team, these films push the boundaries of film itself through a singular vision not possible in any other medium.
We also host retrospectives, special-curated programs, workshops, panel discussions, performances, and installations. We invite a diverse range of national and international guest speakers and presenters from various sections of the filmmaking community to come share their works, their knowledge, their expertise, and to facilitate discussion. The speakers and presenters we invite represent a multitude of aspects of the animation community including industry veterans, notable independent animators, curators, performance artists, and installation artists.
Film festivals do not simply show films, but create communities, bringing filmmakers to the festival, sharing knowledge, uniting the international filmmaking community, inspiring aspiring filmmakers, and sharing works with the general public. It’s our belief that this work should be accessible to as many people as possible, and that cultivating and promoting independent animation in the United States will expand the culture of American animation, film, and art, for many generations to come. We also just think if more people are given the opportunity to see these films, they’ll really love them!
GLAS Animation Grant
GLAS aims to fund gifted, innovative, and innovative animation across the country. GLAS enables independent animators to realize their visions by providing grants. We believe it is essential to provide independent animators with the resources to pursue their art, and in turn, advance not only the animation medium, but the film community and general public as a whole. Animation is a limitless and evolving medium and we aim to allow filmmakers to truly expand the scope of animation.