"The Thief of Always," a book trailer short film directed by Matt Killian of The Digital Arts and Visual Effects (DAVE) School, has been nominated for two Suncoast Regional EMMY® Awards and will be featured at the Orlando Film Festival.
"The Thief of Always", is an animated feature based on a 1992 fable by Clive Barker. It is a book trailer, a film genre similar in structure to a movie trailer, designed to entice readers to a particular book. Director Matt Killianobtained an EMMY® nomination in the Graphic Arts-Animation category. Killian, Executive Producer Dave Penn and Producer Ángel González, Jr., also seized a nomination in the Children/Youth/Teens Program category for inspiring youth readers. Students of The DAVE School made up the film crew.
"We're honored by these nominations and thrilled to share this beautiful animated movie and book with film lovers and youth from our community," said Penn, who is also the former executive director of The DAVE School.
The Suncoast Chapter of The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to excellence in television. It hosts The Suncoast EMMY® Awards every year for television markets in all of Florida; the Louisiana markets of Alexandria, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Lake Charles and New Orleans; Mobile, Alabama; Thomasville, Georgia and Puerto Rico.
"These nominations speak volumes about the high quality learning environment that we strive to offer at The DAVE School," said Gonzalez Jr., also The DAVE School's academic director. "We make it central to students' experience here that they acquire real hands-on, television and film industry experience as part of their formative process,"
For those interested in seeing the film on the big screen, "The Thief of Always" will play this Saturday, Oct. 22, at 12:30 p.m., at the Cobb Plaza Cinema Café, at 155 South Orange Ave. in Orlando. This showing is part of the Orlando Film Festival's program. The feature tells the story of 10-year-old Harvey Swick, who follows a stranger that comes to his window one night to a mythical Holiday House. In here, children can eat all the candy they want at their leisure. It is also Halloween every night and Christmas every morning, complete with lavish gifts. But soon enough, it becomes evident that things in the house are not as delightful as they may look on the surface as someone becomes the "thief of always" by stealing the fun and imagination from the children who visit over time. Harvey must make hard choices to make things right.
"The book is a personal favorite of mine and I hope that our trailer motivated more children to read it," said Killian, the film's director and film instructor at the DAVE School. "I read it when I was growing up and it sparked my imagination and inspired me to follow this career path. It's a beautiful story with an universal lesson about the importance of making decisions wisely because they may impact not just one's life, but that of those who we love as well."
Additionally, the trailer aired this summer on Orange TV, Orange County government's informational channel. The DAVE School also donated copies of "The Thief of Always" to all 10 locations of the Boys and Girls Club Middle School Summer Zone program in Central Florida and to the Orange County Public Library system.
Registration for the DAVE School is now open for campus classes and online classes. For information, visit www.daveschool.com or call 855-328-3839. For campus admissions, call 888-690-5833 and for online admissions, call 888-928-8612.
About The DAVE School (Digital Animation and Visual Effects): The DAVE School, located on the backlot of Universal Studios Florida in Sound Stage 25, includes a 35,000-square-foot facility that offers three labs, a shooting stage with a 65' x 25' green screen and a motion capture system. The DAVE School, which offers comprehensive training in 3D modeling and animation, game production, motion graphics creation, 3D visual effects production, and production programming, places graduates in the visual effects and gaming industries. The DAVE School is a division of Florida Technical College, an EduK Group institution. For more information, go to www.daveschool.com.
