----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Jeremy-- I hope that you will consider running all or at least a significant part of this announcement of the Society for Animation Studies' first scholarly publication awards. --Richard J. Leskosky, President, SAS ***FIRST ANNUAL MCLAREN/LAMBART AWARDS PRESENTED*** The Society for Animation Studies and the National Film Board of Canada are pleased to announce the winners of the first annual Norman McLaren/Evelyn Lambart Awards for the Best Scholarly Book and the Best Scholarly Article on Animation. The writings of animation scholars from around the world were judged by panels of animation scholars from the Society for Animation Studies, and the National Film Board of Canada provided award certificates designed and hand-lettered by its animation artists. The Norman McLaren/Evelyn Lambart Award for Best Book on Animation has been presented to Russell Merritt and J. B. Kaufman for "Walt in Wonderland: The Silent Films of Walt Disney." The jury for this award reached their decision based on the quality of the authors' research and the illumination they cast on a little-known area of Disney history: Disney's Kansas City animation studio and his early days in Hollywood working on cartoon series and characters which laid the foundation for his better-known work in sound cartoons. The jury also praised the authors' lucid writing style and the book's superb presentation of written and visual documents (especially photographs, stills, frame enlargements, story sketches), both of which establish it as a vital resource for future scholarship on this subject in particular and on both silent animation production and Disney in general. Russell Merritt teaches and writes on film in the San Francisco Bay area. He has published widely on D. W. Griffith, silent film, animation, and fairy tales. J. B. Kaufman is an independent film historian living in Wichita, Kansas, who has written extensively on Disney animation and silent film history. Merritt and Kaufman's book was originally published in Italy, with both Italian and English text, in 1992 (Pordenone, Italy: Giornate del Cinema Muto) and in the United States, with English text only, in 1993 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press). The Norman McLaren/Evelyn Lambart Award for Best Scholarly Article on Animation was presented to Mark Langer for "The Disney-Fleischer Dilemma: Product Differentiation and Technological Innovation," which appeared in the British publication SCREEN, vol. 33, no. 4 (Winter 1992). The jury for this award noted that Prof. Langer's article was singular among the essays under consideration in its ambitious goals and its capacity for stimulating thought. His comparative analysis of Disney's and Fleischer's development and exploitation of competing three-dimensional animation processes and equipment both enlarges the general discussion of animation and advances comparative scholarship in our field through its innovative application of game theory to institutional animation history. Mark Langer is Professor of Film Studies at Carleton University, an associate editor for the international journal FILM HISTORY, and the current Vice-President of the Society for Animation Studies. He has curated animated film programs for numerous festivals and museums, including the Museum of Modern Art and the Cinematheque Francaise. The McLaren/Lambart Awards are named after master animator Norman McLaren, who founded the animation branch of the National Film Board and remains its most celebrated artist, and Evelyn Lambart, Canada's first woman animator and a frequent collaborator with McLaren from the 1940's to the 1960's. The initial McLaren/Lambart Awards are presented for works published during the two year period 1992/1993; subsequent Awards will be made for single calendar years.