A seasoned new media vet, Daniel Paul headed up entertainment marketing efforts at Apple from 1986 to 1994. Currently he works at Joost in content acquisition trying to bring great content to a new delivery platform. He likes animation because, "of where it allows the creator to take the audience with almost no limitations. It represents the greatest creative expression of an idea." We heartily agree.

Some of you might be a little confused because when you click the submit link, it takes you to the movie upload page. If you've already uploaded animated movies to the website, you can still enter them in the competition. All you have to do is go to your BoomZone, and click edit on the "My Movies" boom. Under your movies is a link that says "Add to Competition". Just click on it. FYI: Showreels are not eligible to compete.

There seems to be a serious dearth of UNPOLISHED category movies entered so far. Since we recently changed the name of that category from the somewhat insulting "Crappy", it seemed like a good idea to clarify.  Unpolished animations are exactly that - unpolished. For whatever reason, they are less than professional in quality, but they still have something appealing about them. (Student work, just for fun projects etc.)  Bottom line, don't be afraid to classify your film as "Unpolished". There's a prize for those movies too. :-)

A lot of people involved in making animation have an idea they'd like to see produced. However they simply don't have the resources to do it on their own. The Grand winner of the Aniboom Awards will be given a budget of $25,000 plus the professional and marketing power of the Aniboom Creators Studio to make their animated series happen. Not too shabby!

It's hard to believe a whole year has gone by since the 1st Annual Aniboom Awards back in 2006. Since then so much has happened. Aniboom moved offices, Shapeshifter was born, the Boomzones expanded, and you can't forget Micro-Smotion...and now its like we've come full circle.  It's kind of emotional *sniff*.  Anyway, get ready to watch, rate and get down with some great animation!