Art of the Title is pleased to announce that Ian Albinson will be returning as a juror for the 2012 SXSW Film Design Awards.

A SXSW Announcement

As part of the SXSW Film Design Awards, the Excellence in Title Design Competition aims to discover the best in contemporary title sequence design.

Eligibility for the Title Sequence Design Competition is open to any film or television title sequence completed in 2011 or later. The title sequence can stand alone, and does not have to be related to a feature or short film submitted to the festival.

Applicants will be informed of the status of their project no later than February 9, 2012.

Submit Your Title Sequence Here

SXSW Film Design Awards "Excellence in Title Design"

For the second year in a row Art of the Title served on the jury for SXSW's Excellence in Title Design competition, allowing us to share the stage with a terrific group of designers and producers.

Design Awards organizer David Horridge brought together Jenny Lee (Smith & Lee Title Design), Kurt Volk (Troublemaker Studios), Ron Pippin (Shiny Object), and Tommy Pallotta (Submarine Channel) for an evening of show and tell on March 14th at the Vimeo theater.

The evening event started with our previously mentioned "A Brief History of Title Design" video, led in to IFC's Matt Singer and Stephen Saito discussing five sequences from their recent "The 50 Greatest Opening Title Sequences of All Time" article - Vertigo, Fahrenheit 451, Saturday Night Fever, The Naked Gun and Watchmen - and then finished off with a viewing of the 17 nominations for the year, listed below.

After the screening we retired next door to the Hilton bar where we fairly quickly came to an agreement on the jury choice for this year. On an unrelated note our gathering was also interrupted numerous times by local talk radio host Alex Jones (he "happened by" to visit Tommy) and ended with Kurt leaving for the Highball bowling alley to do karaoke with Jon Hamm (aka Don Draper of Mad Men.)

The following evening it was then Kurt's pleasure to present Blue Valentine with the 2011 Jury Award, and more remarkably the popular-vote Audience Award, for Best Title Sequence. The film's editor and title designer Jim Helton wasn't able to attend unfortunately but we messaged him during the event and he was thrilled to learn of the win.

Films

A huge part of the festival are the films, both large and small. A brief rundown of our favorites:

• Super - dark and awkwardly hilarious. Amazing animated titles, soon to be featured here.
• Being Elmo - is it possible to be MORE emotional when watching a film? Heartfelt and completely honest.
• Attack the Block - Assault on Precinct 13 meets Gremlins. Throw in the greatest practical monster effects since An American Werewolf in London and the best amalgamated editing and soundtrack since Fight Club and we're talking an amazing feature debut from writer/director Joe Cornish.
• Hobo with a Shotgun - the title pretty much sums it up. Another terrific genre piece.

As with last year we was able to attend some great panels, some great short films, meet some great people and eat a lot of great food. We can't wait to return.

- Ian Albinson, Editor-in-chief

Here’s a short film we put together for the opening of the SXSW “Title Design Finalists Screening” – an event that happens tonight in Austin, TX at the Vimeo theater in the convention center.

Very much looking forward to seeing our fellow jurors Jenny Lee (formally of Shadowplay Studios,) Kurt Volk (Troublemaker Studios,) Ron Pippin (Shiny Object,) and Tommy Pallotta (representing for Watch the Titles.)

- Ian Albinson, Editor-in-chief

We were honored to be there the first year, and are excited to return in 2011.

We had a terrific time in Austin meeting and working with our fellow "Excellence In Title Design" jurors and were incredibly humbled to be among such a talented group of people. The title design competition was exceptional, with all 18 finalists bringing something fresh and interesting to the table. In the end after many hours of discussion...