ITI Articles

A group of Media Design School students have had a lot to celebrate recently, winning third place at the prestigious Hamburg Animation Awards in Hamburg, Germany.

‘Time to Fly’ is a team production from the MDS Graduate Diploma of Advanced 3D Productions students.

The awards ceremony took place on Thursday 25 June and Advanced 3D Productions graduate Cameron Smith was on hand to accept the award. In partnership with Film Auckland, Auckland City Council arranged for Cameron to attend the award ceremony and collect the 2000 Euro prize money on behalf of his team.

The Hamburg Animation Award attract entries from top schools and universities through Europe, past winners coming from acclaimed academies such as Germany's Film Academy Baden-Württemberg and Denmark's The Animation Workshop.

Auckland City Council formed a strategic alliance with Hamburg in 2007, encouraging best practice learning and supporting opportunities for key sectors, particularly in the areas of creative industries, biotechnology and education. The Hamburg Animation Award, open to entries from tertiary institutes in the Auckland area, is an example of one of the initiatives to have come out of the alliance.

“The strong turnout of Auckland city entries, and the success of ‘Time to Fly’ showcases the skilled workforce and high calibre of tertiary education currently working and being developed within Auckland. Congratulations to Cameron and his team. We’ve all known the film sector in New Zealand is thriving, especially in Auckland, but an award like this goes some way to verifying the talent we have around us,” says Councillor Aaron Bhatnagar, chairperson City Development committee.

Watch the award-winning short film here: Time to Fly