**"Shadowplay" has just won first place at the Student Emmy Awards. See an article on the event and photos at Animation World Magazine.
See the review of "Shadowplay" at Animation World Magazine
See the article on "Shadowplay" in Asahi Shimbum International, the Japanese newspaper. Click here.
FROM THE LOS ANGELES FILM FESTIVAL SCREENING:
"Among this year's standout shorts are "Shadowplay" by Dan Blank and "Tall Girl" by Amalia Zarranz. The former is a quirky but surprisingly moving stop-motion project (Blank cut his teeth on MTV's Celebrity Deathmatch), detailing the quest of Akio, literally the shadow of a young boy searching for his family after the atomic blast in Hiroshima. The rich, inventive imagery and superb soundtrack (by composer Ryan Shore and sound designer Clilly Castiglia) build to an elegant thesis of "no more soldier games."
--Gregory Weinkauf
FROM THE TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL SCREENING:
"If I were pressed to make a choice, I'd pick Dan Blank's stunning "Shadowplay" as the single best film I would see at the festival. Animated in clay and shot with a digital still camera, this is a child's-eye denial of the horrific: Shadows flashed onto the walls of Hiroshima as their owners burned away become the world of one boy reduced to seared shadow himself, and he flits from wall to wall, trying to find his way home. It's a heartrending sucker punch of a film, made all the more moving by its quietly soothing ending. "
--MaryAnn Johanson
FROM THE STUDENT ACADEMY AWARDS NOMINATIONS:
