| Monday · October 5, 2026 |
Keepsake |
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The Keepsake Brief
Mara, here’s your week in festivals, financing and crowdfunding, and what to do about it. Listen in 3 minutes, or read in 2.
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Listen to this week’s brief
3:21 · Nora & Sam
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| This week |
01 · Festivals
The Oscar clock reset on September 30
The Academy’s current qualifying list covers festival wins from October 1, 2025 to September 30, 2026. On that pattern, an Annecy win in June 2028 would count toward the 2029 Oscars (our inference; the list is published yearly). At Annecy only the Cristal and the short-film Jury Award qualify, so a family film placed in Young Audience would not: enter Official. Annecy opens submissions for its 2027 edition this month. For 2026, short films closed on February 15, and an unfinished film could enter if complete by mid-May. Ottawa’s 50th edition, whose Grand Prize also qualifies, wrapped September 27.
02 · Financing
Grants cover a slice of $345,000. Co-productions cover the rest.
BFI NETWORK gives £5,000–£25,000 to early-career teams in England and funds about 30 of an expected 1,000 applications. Sundance’s 2026 Ignite x Adobe fund gave five $35,000 grants, to fellowship alumni only. The recent stop-motion nominees stacked countries instead: Wander to Wonder drew money from four, Beautiful Men from three. Annecy’s market, Mifa, runs a pitch track for shorts in development; the 2026 deadline was January 22 and the fee €20. A January 2027 entry fits Keepsake’s financing window.
03 · Crowdfunding
What Kickstarter actually pays for
Anomalisa raised $406,237 from 5,770 backers in 2012 as a planned 40-minute stop-motion short, then grew into an $8M feature. Robert Valley raised $64,279 to finish Pear Cider and Cigarettes, later Oscar-nominated. Phil Tippett raised $124,156 for about 12 minutes of Mad God. Each paid for part of a film: a finishing slice, not the whole budget.
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To do this week
| 1 | Re-bid the animation line in animator-weeks. At Laika’s pace and the Animation Guild’s $2,597.60 weekly minimum, our estimate for the practical shots is $151,000–$226,000, against $85,000 in the deck. TAG rates · Post Magazine |
| 2 | Write a one-page note to one possible co-producer abroad. A European or Canadian partner opens national funds a U.S.-only film can’t reach. |
| 3 | Start the AI record, shot by shot: what was built, what was generated, who directed it. The Academy may ask about generative AI use, and part of the Annecy audience booed an AI-assisted short in June. Academy · Cartoon Brew |
| 4 | Read Annecy’s 2027 rules when they post this month, and note the short-film deadline. Annecy: submit a film |
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Every Monday · 7:00 AM. Researched, produced and sent by makr.ai for Keepsake: festivals, film financing, grants and crowdfunding. Change topics · Pause
Keepsake and Mara Collins are fictional, made for the makr.ai showcase; every festival, fund and figure here is real and linked. Figures marked as estimates come from the Keepsake research. |
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