July 14, 2012 • Sydney Convention Centre
Tom
25 December 2010
From all of us at SMASH! we’d like to wish each and everyone of you a very Merry Christmas!
We’ll be away until the new year, but we’ve been working hard til now developing some very exciting things for 2011 and we hope to share them all with you next month (think of it as a late Christmas present).
Have a happy and safe holidays and we’ll see you all in 2011!
Alexia
1 December 2010
Anime Matsuri was a great success!
All three films (incase you forgot, Time of Eve, Tokyo Marble Chocolate and Obvilion Island: Haruka and the Magic Mirror) as well as the precious clip was incredible and really showed the quality of anime being produced today.
Q&A with Naoyoshi Shiotani was incredible! Naoyoshi Shiotani Answered the audience’s great questions about Tokyo Marble Chocolate and also gave some advice to people who want to also direct Anime.
Cosplayers were great and we were happy to see you come down and show us what you have put together. We really wish to see you at SMASH! 2011.
We would like to thanks Mike Morris for coming to host the show and the Japan Foundation for putting on a great film festival and for giving us the opportunity to organise it with them. Hopefully we can work with them a lot more because we had a blast!
Alexia
20 November 2010
Only 7 days left until Anime Matsuri.
As part of the whole Japanese Film Festival, SMASH! and the Japan Foundation are proud to work together to provide our viewers with an evening of fantastic anime films and activities called Anime Matsuri.
This will feature a marathon of films in two sessions, which includes, Time Of Eve, Tokyo Marble Chocolate, Precious and the nominated film from Japan, Obvilion Island: Haruka and the Magic Mirror.
We are proud to announce the exciting news that the director of both Obvilion Island: Haruka and the Magic Mirror and Tokyo Marble Chocolate, Naoyoshi Shiotani will be coming down under for the Anime Matsuri! He will be answering your questions about his work and involvement in the anime industry.
Finally, we will also be having a competition for the best cosplay on the night! So get ready to dress up for an evening of fun.
Tickets are selling fast, so don’t miss out. Pre-buy your tickets through Event cinemas to secure a seat at the Anime Matsuri.
The first session for this exciting event will commence at 2:00pm and will feature the screening of Time Of Eve and Precious which will last two hours and will be followed by a separate event at 4:45 which will feature a screening of Tokyo Marble Chocolate, Obvilion Island: Haruka and the Magic Mirror., cosplay competition and a Q&A with Naoyoshi Shiotani. Please note both events are sold separately.
Alexia
22 October 2010
The Japanese Film Festival is fast approaching.
The festival is jam packed with films from November 22 – 28. As part of the festival, SMASH! is proud to co-host an evening of anime films and activities on Saturday November 27, called the Anime Matsuri.
This will feature a marathon of films in two sessions, which includes, Time Of Eve, Tokyo Marble Chocolate, Precious and the nominated film from Japan, Oblivion Island.
We are proud to announce the exciting news that the director of both Oblivion Island and Tokyo Marble Chocolate, Naoyoshi Shiotani is coming down under for the Anime Matsuri! He will be answering your questions about his work and involvement in the anime industry.
Finally, we will also be having a competition for the best cosplay on the night! So get ready to dress up for an evening of fun.
Tickets are on sale soon, so keep an eye out as this is going to be BIG. In fact, so big that we’ve had to split it into two shows.
The event will commence at 2:00pm and will feature the screening of Time of Eve and Precious which will last two hours and will be followed by a separate event at 4:45 which will feature a screening of Tokyo Marble Chocolate, Oblivion Island, cosplay competition and a Q&A with Naoyoshi Shiotani. Please note both events are sold separately.
Check out the Japan Film Festival website for more information.
CLICK HERE for Information on Session 1
CLICK HERE for Information on Session 2
Tom
27 September 2010
In support of the Japan Foundation’s 14th annual Japanese Film Festival, SMASH! is delighted to help bring you an evening full of many things we know you all love (namely anime, cosplay, and winning stuff).
As a part of the festival, which spans across 20 films between November 22-28, the Japan Foundation is having a special celebration of anime on Saturday November 27. The event includes a premiere screening of the feature-length film Time of Eve, set in a futuristic Japan where humans and androids coexist.
Starting a 5pm, the “Anime Matsuri” will feature a marathon of several anime films and OVAs as well as fun and games hosted by SMASH! There are prizes to give away for best dressed, so it’s the perfect excuse to dust off your cosplay outfits and have some fun. So bring your friends to the city on November 27 for a fantastic evening of festivities!
Tickets go on Sale October 29. Last year the festival attracted an audience of over 10,000, and with a whole host of filmographic delicacies to sink you teeth in to, it’s the perfect November treat.
Be sure to check out the Japanese Film Festival website for more information (and did we mention prizes?) http://14th.japanesefilmfestival.net/
Tom
10 September 2010
You already know that for the first time ever SMASH! will be held in Darling Harbour’s Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre. (Maybe you didn’t know. But you know now. Let’s move on.)
But what does that mean?
SCEC is a venue with more rooms than I could bother to count before writing this post. The layout is varied and you could run hundreds (read: not hundreds) of different kinds of events in the building. There are big empty halls, auditoriums, restaurants, classrooms – you name it, SCEC has it.
We will not be in a big open hall however. SMASH! is proud to host our 2011 event on two whole levels of Convention Centre Bayside, featuring:
The building itself is also a short walk from:
You can find more photos at the SMASH! Flickr page: CLICK HERE.
If that hasn’t got you excited yet, you can now count down the days to SMASH! as we are proud to say that next year we will be on July 16th.
Wait — July? Yep, in 2011 SMASH! will move to July. We’re going to miss August but, let’s face it, August sucked. Here are the things that are better about July:
We’re pretty excited about it and we’ve restarted our countdown. So keep your eyes peeled for a new website and more announcements soon!
Nadia
23 August 2010
Another year gone, just like that. You might have heard the news already, but if you haven’t, SMASH! is moving to the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre next year! To have come from our humble Roundhouse roots to Sydney’s premier convention venue in five years is really something, and we look forward to seeing you at the biggest SMASH! ever next year.
Every convention has its ups and downs, the good and bad, and that’s why we’d like to hear your feedback! Got an idea for next year and want to share it? We’ve got that covered too!
• SMASH! Ideas – Post your ideas, comment on others, or vote for what you like the sound of. No idea is too crazy (except the ones we don’t have money for)
• SMASH! online survey – How did you hear about us, and how do you rate this years events? These exciting questions and more are just waiting for your (multiple choice) answers!
After much ooh-ing and ahh-ing over the fabulous entries for the Home Made Hype competition, we’ve finally decided on the winners; First place went to Sugarplumneko’s “Veritas“, and second place went to Elaine-sensei’s “Identity“. We want to thank everyone who entered, and we hope you had fun with the competition! We’d also like to thank Smith Micro and guest artists Endling and Ms. Rosek for contributing to the exciting prize packs (and helping us pick the winners). There were a lot of great entries so be sure to check them out in the competition folder.
Of course, there were plenty of on-the-day winners at SMASH!, so we want to congratulate all the contestants who fought hard and came out victorious in our many competitions.
Karaoke
Male Winner: Hee-chan Jang
Male Runner Up: Ganesh V
Female Winner: Nafi Bin-Isaret
Female Runner Up: Johanna Thompson
ITG
Winner: Christopher Tolevski
Runner-Up: Joshua McKinnon
Cosplay
Best Cosplay: Clare (as Sakura from Tsubasa)
Runner up: Will (as Tidus from FFX)
Best Group: Gentou (as FFXIII)
Runner up: Evangelion 3.0 (as Neon Genesis Evangelion)
Best Skit: Another World Breathing (as Loveless)
Runner up: Evangelion 3.0 (as Neon Genesis Evangelion)
Judges’ choice: Scarlet Devils (as Touhou Project)
BJD Photography
1st Place: Jacqueline Trang
2nd Place: Morgenne Kemp
3rd Place: Christi Scappatura
Next Top BJD
Winner: Jo
Super Street Fighter IV
1st: JC S.
2nd: Wilson
Tekken 6
1st: Rendy
2nd: Josh
Trivia
Group 4channers
Fanfic
Senior winner: Corinne
Junior winner: Joy Chen
Encouragement award: Narelle Bailey
Wacom Doodling Competition
Best Senior: Hyae-Na
Best Junior: Ayasemn
Special Mention: Maddison Leach
Special Mention: Lamice Ali
Themed Art Competition
Winner: Ryan
Runner up: Juliet
Best Junior: Catherine
Special Mention: Pete
AMVs
Best Action: Joe Duong
Best Comedy: Dianne Beatty
Best Drama: Keith Harrison
Judge’s Choice: Keith Harrison
People’s Choice: Anna Khaov
BAKUC
MAIN CATEGORY – OPEN CLASS
1st: Cheuk Lun Yau
2nd: Scott Taylor
3rd: Da Su
MAIN CATEGORY – JUNIOR CLASS
1s: Darryl Chow
2nd: Jaspur Ross
3rd: Quinito Gonzalez
SECONDARY CATEGORY – BEST SD/BB
1st: Scott Taylor
2nd: Jenny Wu
3rd: Tim Fung
SECONDARY CATEGORY – BEST 1/144 HIGH GRADE :
1st: Jonathan Domingo
2nd: John Kwan
3rd: Chee Loong Yung
SECONDARY CATEGORY – BEST 1/100 NO GRADE / MASTER GRADE
1st: Wai Yin Vivien Lau
2nd: Thomas Young
3rd: Brian Lew-Kee
Tom
16 August 2010
So, after all that – SMASH! is over for 2010!
It’s hard to describe what an immense pleasure it has been to plan and coordinate this year’s event. I truly believe, and I hope that you will agree, that this was our best year yet.
There are a number of people who deserve a great deal of thanks for their support to SMASH!
Yuko Miyamura, Tiffany Grant, Matt Greenfield, Shaun Healey and Mikiko Ponczcek were fantastic as our guests and made the entire event one unlike any other. If you’d told me two years ago that we’d be bringing 5 overseas guests to SMASH! in 2010, I’d have told you you were dreaming. But they were really here and so incredibly gracious and willing to help us out. We hope you enjoyed their presence as much as we did.
Our sponsors Madman Entertainment, HobbyCo, the City of Sydney, Wacom, Adobe, Kiseki Manga and Smith Micro Software helped us take the event to a whole new level this year. We don’t have the budget of a professional convention and we can do what we do only because companies like this provide incredible support. The event would not be what it was if it weren’t for sponsors who are willing to donate money, prizes, time and effort.
Our partners and friends at Supanova, Timezone and the Sydney Opera House helped get the word out out about the event. It’s hard to believe this is only Year 4 but we’re still a young event and there are plenty of people who’ve never heard of us. Thanks to our partners, that number is rapidly diminishing!
The staff of the Sydney Town Hall went above and beyond anything we could have expected. If it weren’t for the restrictions on the number of people you can physically put in the building (more on that below), we’d love to stay in Town Hall for a lot longer. Nothing was ever too much trouble and we especially would like to thank Sandra Domelow and Danielle Buckley who were kind, patient and understanding no matter how weird our requests were (Maid Cafe).
The SMASH! Management and Staff have worked on this event for almost 12 months. The event might only be for a day but I can assure you that the level of effort that was put in was incredible. No matter how unreasonable my requests were (run sheets!), the Management and Staff did it. And the event ran better because of their hard work.
The SMASH! Crew were the best group of helpers we could have ever asked for. We had a great response from people volunteering to be of assistance this year and Geelong and Kirsty spent two weeks whittling them down to the best of the best. I have only heard great comments about the Crew and I think that’s a testament to their resolve to provide the best service they could — whether that was to a staff member or a member of the public.
Speaking of which, our attendees! You blew the doors off the place! What a terrific response. At the end of the day this is really about you and your enjoyment. We’re putting on the show that we hope you enjoy and the only thing that makes it worthwhile is hearing that someone had a great time and can’t wait to come back next year.
It goes without saying that there were people who were unhappy last weekend. The two biggest issues were the venue selling out and the confiscation of weapons at the door.
I’m disappointed that anyone who wanted to come to SMASH! was unable to. All I can say is that we honestly weren’t sure that we’d get as large a turnout as we did. This was our first year in a new venue and after being two days last year we just weren’t sure what a step back to one day would mean. For emergency reasons, the venue has a limit to the number of people that are permitted inside at any one time and we were under an agreement to stop selling tickets once the maximum capacity had been reached. I’m incredibly sorry to those that travelled to SMASH!, line up and weren’t able to get in on the day. We announced the move to the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre on Saturday because we didn’t want this to ever be an issue again. I realise that’s small consolation for people that felt like they wasted their day this year but we hope you’ll be with us again next year. We’re working to making it even better than this year
In regards to the weapons confiscation, we apologise for the manner in which it was conducted. Unfortunately, a few cosplayers carried realistic looking firearms into the city and concerned members of the public called the police. I met with several officers on Saturday morning and was instructed to enforce a stricter weapons policy than normal. We’re looking at how we can best deal with this for next year but we apologise for everyone who was inconvenienced.
The things that went wrong this year fortunately seemed to be eclipsed by those that went right and we are incredibly excited about 2011. If you’ve got an idea, we’d love to hear it. We’ve created a special website at http://ideas.smash.org.au/ where you can submit, vote and comment on the ideas for next year. Please let us know what you’d like to see and we’ll do our best to make it happen =)
6 August 2010
SMASH! is on tomorrow and you know that feeling where you’re filled with dread and excitement all at the same time? That’s what it’s like at the moment. Everyone was hard at work setting up the venue today and it’s looking really nice. Of course, when the building looks as beautiful as it does, you don’t need to do that much.
Our guests have all arrived and are raring to go and they’re really looking forward to meeting you all. We think you’re going to hit it off. And let’s not forget the Bandai Action Kit Universal Cup. By this time tomorrow two people will know they’re going to Hong Kong to represent Australia. What legends those chaps from Hobbyco are.
People don’t use the word ‘chaps’ enough any more.
And now I’m at that point where you wonder if it’s worth going to bed or if you should just stay up all night. Can’t wait for tomorrow.
Nadia
5 August 2010
SMASH! is just a few days away (we’re trying not to panic). For you guys it’s easy-breezy. All you have to do is rock up to Town Hall on Saturday morning and enjoy all the awesome things, like…
• Five international guests. Where else are you going to meet voice actresses Yuko Miyamura and Tiffany Grant, artists Shaun Healey and Mikiko Ponczeck, and ADV film’s Matt Greenfield? Nowhere else this Saturday, that’s for sure.
• The first Australian BAKUC tournament, with its super special prize, a trip to Hong Kong! Check out all the awesome entries in the BAKUC showcase, or try your own hand at modelmaking with the HobbyCo Gundam Workshop.
• Artist market, Art workshops, Art panels, Art competitions. It’s all things art at SMASH!, really. Learn from our professional guests or peruse the works of local creators!
• Cosplay competition, gaming tournaments, guest signings, and much more!
Doors open at 9am for you lucky Advance Ticket holders, with an earlybird guest signing at 9-10am. For the rest of you folk, tickets go on sale on the day at 9:30am.
See you all at SMASH!
Sydney Opera House GRAPHIC festival
As if one guest-filled animation and comics event wasn’t enough this weekend, the Sydney Opera House is pulling out all the stops for GRAPHIC – Neil Gaiman, Kevin Smith, a live-score screening of AKIRA, workshops, panels, and more. They’ve even got a booth at SMASH!, so there’s no excuse not to buy your tickets!
Courtesy of the cool people at the Sydney Opera House we also have some free tickets to give away! Fill out our survey on the day for the chance to win double passes to Neil Gaiman’s live reading, whilst the winning team in our Trivia competition will take home two double passes to AKIRA.
Reel Anime: Evangelion 2.0 Premiere Screening
Those of you lucky enough to catch tickets to this sold-out show are in for a treat this Thursday with the premiere of Evangelion 2.0: You Can [Not] Advance at Dendy Newtown. Courtesy of SMASH!, the premiere will feature a special introduction by English voice actress Tiffany Grant, who portrays Asuka from the original Evangelion TV series, as well as Yūko Miyamura, the Japanese voice behind Asuka in both the Evangelion TV series and the Rebuild of Evangelion movies.
Missed out on a ticket? You can still enjoy Eva 2.0 and many other anime films on the big screen when Madman’s Reel Anime festival officially kicks off in September.
