Wide World of Animation : CSUN festival offers boarder view of a thriving international industry.

Animation is a huge and thriving cultural world. Unfortunately, the average viewer is exposed to only a fraction of what’s out there.

But local residents will get a glimpse into that wider world Saturday during the second annual California SUN International Animation Festival at Cal State Northridge.

An invitation-only gala opens the festival tonight at the Museum of Television and Radio in Beverly Hills.

But the public is invited Saturday to the CSUN Campus Theatre for the animation marathon, which runs from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., including workshops, an awards ceremony and other events.

Among the films to be shown is the 1998 Oscar-winner “Switchback,” by Kyle Clark and noted German animator Heiko Lueg’s “Sandlot.” There will also be a presentation by Seth McFarland, who created FOX-TV’s animated series “Family Guy.”

The festival began humbly enough as an extension of student film screenings hosted by a CSUN-based group Vidimation, Ink. Their faculty advisor, Jack Reilly, is a CSUN art professor who teaches digital and video art.

Reilly encouraged his students to include international animation. Growth came with surprising ease, thanks to the Internet, and Reilly became the increasingly busy festival director.

This little-but-mighty festival has become an animation haven in the United States since most such festivals are in Europe and other parts of the world.

“Everything in the United States is so commercialized,” Reilly said. “A lot of the animations that we get are not commercial material. They’re by artists who work in animation.”

Last year’s inaugural festival was successful in terms of its international involvement and audience. This year’s run has brought in a new contingent of sponsors, including Animation Magazine and the Animation Network.

The festival also has aroused the interest of Hollywood’s animation industry, which historically has been based in Burbank and other Valley spots.

“The industry is hovering around this festival,” Reilly said. “It’s very interesting to hear from some of the companies who want to get a hold of some of these artists before anybody else does. Last year, we were kind of new, and we were essentially outsiders. But this year, the animation world has embraced us.”

Being in a sparsely populated field has its advantages, said Lani Daniels, head of the Entertainment Industry Institute at CSUN, one of the festival’s sponsors.

“Part of the reason we’ve gotten such support from the animation community is because there really isn’t any competition here,” Daniels said. “There’s a major festival in Belgium, and one in Brazil--and the people from that are coming to ours. Animation is, in some ways, supported more heavily in other countries where you have government subsidy of the arts.”

The variety of animation in the festival, particularly from outside the United States, exemplifies the medium’s creative energy and offers lessons about differences in global cultural.

“The American animators are more interested in stories while the Europeans are interested in style and connections to European art,” Reilly said. “The work coming from Asia, though, is more commercially and technically oriented.”

As the festival grows, Reilly said it “has the potential to become very big, especially as sponsors keep jumping on.”

BE THERE

Campus Theatre, Cal State Northridge, 1811 Nordhoff St., Northridge, presents California SUN International Animation Festival, Saturday, April 10, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tickets are $18 general admission and $7.50 for students and for a “late pass” to attend only from 7 p.m. on, including the post-screening party and awards ceremony. Call (818) 382-4545.