Judging Panel Set for Aniboom Awards 4 Sesame Street Competition

NEW YORK: Sesame Workshop has signed up a host of top-name celebrities, including How I Met Your Mother‘s Neil Patrick Harris and Grey’s Anatomy‘s Sandra Oh, as well as a number of industry experts and opinion-makers for the Grand Prize judging panel in conjunction with the launch of the Aniboom Awards 4 Sesame Street competition.

Also on the roster are Good Morning America’s news anchor Juju Chang; co-executive producer and Sesame Street’s Elmo, Kevin Clash; co-director of the National Center for Children and Families at Teachers College, Columbia University, Dr. Sharon Lynn Kagan; and original Sesame Street “Pinball Number Count” animator, Jeffrey Hale. Animators of all levels—amateur through professional—can register with the Aniboom Virtual Animation Studio to submit their entries over an eight-week period from March 1 until April 26.

This year’s awards will showcase the work of artists creating animations appropriate for preschoolers in five separate 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. Sesame Workshop will first chose a finalist in each category, except Community Favorite, which will be determined by a voting tool via Aniboom’s website. The top five category winners will be announced on May 10. The panel of celebrity judges will then determine the Grand Prize winner from the five finalists who will be announced on May 17. A total of $50,000 in cash and development funding is to be awarded to the winners. Additionally, the Grand Prize winning animation will be included in Sesame Street’s 41st season, which begins airing later this year.