Still from one of the winning animations from the 2014 BFX Competition

The BFX Competition, a seven week residential competition where student teams will go head-to-head to create visual effects or animation based films for two charities, has begun in Bournemouth.

The competition invites students and recent graduates from around the country to to create short animated content under the watchful eye of industry practitioners from some of the best visual effects companies in the world, including Framestore, MPC and Double Negative, who won the Visual Effects Oscar this year for their work on the film Interstellar.

This year, the BFX team have partnered with media accountants Kingston Smith, who in turn found two charities to be recipients of the winning animations; Anthony Nolan and Dyslexia Action.

Eight teams have been chosen to work on briefs designed by the charities, from institutions such as Bournemouth University, Arts University Bournemouth, Ravensbourne and the University of West England (UWE) in Bristol.

The teams will live on BU’s campus for the duration of the seven-week competition to create a short animation that fulfils the briefs given by the charities. Their work will be conducted under the watchful eye of professional mentors, who will be on hand to give advice and review their progress. Other mentors involved in the competition are from studios such as Blue Zoo, The Mill, Hibbert Ralph Animation, OutpostVFX, Animal Logic and Chaos Group.

The BFX Competition starts Monday, 8 teams mentored by some amazing studios – check them out here! http://t.co/YWU0jHTlRR #vfx #animation

— BFX Festival (@BFXFestival) July 10, 2015

BFX Festival Director Sofronis Efstathiou said, “This is one of my favourite times of the year, as we see teams descend on our campus, roll their sleeves up and begin working on their animations. I am always really impressed by the quality and creativity of their work.”

“This is also the first year the BFX Films will be made to directly benefit two fantastic charities. It gives the competitors an amazing opportunity to work on a live brief whilst being mentored by some of best studios from around the world. We are very excited and can’t wait to see what our teams create this year!”

Bournemouth University scriptwriting students also worked on the briefs to create a number of scripts that will make the basis of the animations, made in line with the charities’ brand guidelines, ethics and creative concepts.

The competition is run as a part of the BFX Festival, which takes place each year in Bournemouth. This year, the Festival boasts talks on films such as Mad Max; Fury Road and will take place in the Bournemouth International Centre (BIC) between 28th September and 3rd October 2015.

The BFX Competition winners will be announced at the Festival itself.

For more information about the BFX Competition, the BFX Festival, or to book tickets for the Festival, visit www.bfxfestival.com.

BFX

The BFX Competition Is On!