Sesame Workshop, Aniboom Partner on Animation Competition

NEW YORK: Sesame Workshop is collaborating with the virtual animation studio Aniboom for the fourth annual Aniboom Animation Awards, which recognizes creativity among independent animators.

This year’s awards will showcase the work of artists creating animations appropriate for preschoolers in five different categories: School Readiness Skills, Pro-Social, re-make of the Sesame Street classic animation Pinball Number Count, Anything Goes “The Sky is the Limit”, and Community Favorite (to be determined by a voting tool on the Aniboom website). Each category will have one finalist (all but Community Favorite to be determined by Sesame Workshop), and a grand-prize winner will be chosen among the finalists by a panel of celebrity judges. A total of $50,000 in cash and development money is to be awarded to the winners. The grand-prize winning animation will be included in Sesame Street’s 41st season, which begins airing later this year.

Animators registered with the Aniboom Virtual Animation Studio will be able to submit their entries over an eight-week period, starting March 1 until April 26. The top five category winners will be announced on May 10 and the grand-prize winner on May 17.

“This is the first year that the Aniboom Awards have focused on children’s animation and there is no better partner than Sesame Street to be associated with,” said Uri Shinar, the founder and CEO of Aniboom. “We have provided our community of over 8,000 animators in 72 countries with remarkable opportunities to make programming for FOX, music videos for Radiohead and animation for Marvel Comics. But Sesame Street is a uniquely exciting partner for all the animators who are so eager to create for children.”

“Sesame Street has a long history of using animation to teach generations of children all about numbers, letters, shapes and the world around them,” added Carol-Lynn Parente, the executive producer of Sesame Street. “We are thrilled to partner with a community of animators like Aniboom to find unique programming from around the globe to help educate and engage today’s kids.”