New film and TV recipients include animated shorts - Bit Film’s ‘Little Bird,’ Westworld’s ‘The Silent Sea,’ and Chromosphere’s ‘Mall Stories;’ since its inception 4 years ago, 1,800 recipients across 6 continents have been awarded grants.
Epic Games has just published a recap of the year in Epic MegaGrants, announcing new recipients across independent games, film and TV, education, and tools development. Since its inception four years ago, the program has helped more 1,800 recipients across six continents.
A new Perks Program for MegaGrants recipients past, present, and future has been introduced, offering free resources from the Epic ecosystem (including free licenses/premium accounts for Capturing Reality and Sketchfab) as well as partners (including Intel GPUs and AWS Activate credits).
Four years in and the Epic MegaGrants program is still going strong!
See some of the most impressive 2022 MegaGrants projects and hear about the new Epic MegaGrants Perks Program inside.https://t.co/3mVKxMvCkL#UnrealEngine #EpicMegaGrants— Unreal Engine (@UnrealEngine) December 13, 2022
Check out some of the highlights from 2022 – the complete list of recipients is available here.
FILM & TV
Little Bird - BIT FILMS LLC - United States
Written and directed by Chris Perry, Little Bird follows a brave young astronaut as she wrestles with a heart-wrenching choice. The non-photorealistic film premiered at Short Nite and was recently nominated for a Children’s & Family Emmy Award for Outstanding Short Form Program. The same plugin the creators developed to enable real-time compositing of multiple render passes, a customizable projection paint system, and special lighting tools in Unreal Engine, is also available now.
The Silent Sea - Westworld - Republic of Korea
Now on Netflix, The Silent Sea is a sci-fi mystery thriller where most of the action takes place on the moon. By using virtual production techniques, LED walls, and Unreal Engine, Westworld was not only able to give actors realistic environments to play against but designed a hyper-realistic crash landing.
Mall Stories - Chromosphere - United States
Meet the endearing staff of the fictional food court eatery Atilla the Grilla in this documentary-style short. More than just a creative exercise, director Elizabeth Ito’s (City of Ghosts, Adventure Time) characters are drawn from real people working at a Mongolian Grill in Burbank Town Center, grounding the interviews in the real-world minutiae of mall life.
Life Rendered - Anonymous Content & Evil Monster Dog - United States
A hybrid live-action and virtual production short film directed by Unreal Engine Fellow, Emma Needell, Life Rendered is set in the near future. The film follows a young gay man who leads a double life: one as caretaker to his disabled cowboy father; another in virtual reality, where he builds epic worlds and finds romance. Since the film debuted at the 2022 Tribeca Festival, it won the Best US Drama award at SF Indie, screened at HollyShorts, Spark Animation, and many other leading film festivals, and has qualified for the Academy Awards.
Kaia's Discoveries - Hype - Brazil
The preschool series is about the curious Kaia. Each episode is like a fresh day in a kid's life: full of discoveries! Through music and simple melodies, Kaia and her friends show a new world to everyone that jumps along with them into this adventure. How does the sun shine? Why doesn’t the moon fall to earth? Who invented the computer? What is the Internet? By exploring these themes, Kaia and her friends transform learning into a fun adventure.
Source: Epic Games
Debbie Diamond Sarto is news editor at Animation World Network.
