In 2011, the first year of The Matt Groening Initiative, the multi-Emmy©-winning creator of “The Simpsons,” selected and generously funded six films by TFT animation students, on themes of social responsibility.

It was Associate Dean Barbara Boyle, then Chair of the School’s Department of Film Television and Digital Media, who had pursued Groening to fund the first year of the Initiative — and it was the sheer excellence of that first batch of films that convinced him to continue his support.

This year Groening underwrote eleven films, and, as Boyle explained on November 2, to a large audience of students, alumni, and faculty assembled at the Bridges Theater, this was purely because he was so impressed with all of the eleven proposals the department submitted to him.

Groening expressed his delight with all of this year’s films, from their innovative concepts to their layered, professional-quality sound design. He had fully intended, he said, to take notes on all eleven, but after writing the single word “sweet” on his notepad during the first, he became so absorbed in the experience that he never wrote another line.

Inarguably one of the most influential figures in modern animation, Groening graciously credited award-winning “Simpsons” directors such as TFT Animation Workshop alums David Silverman ’79, MFA ’83, Mike B. Anderson MFA ’90 and Professor Chuck Sheetz ’83, all of whom attended the screening, for their contributions to his success.

Groening has won twelve Primetime Emmy© Awards, ten for “The Simpsons” and two for “Futurama,” as well as the National Cartoonist Society Reuben Award and a British Comedy Award. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2012.

Groening has also become one the TFT Animation Workshop’s most munificent benefactors, with a major gift in 2011 that created The Matt Groening Chair in Animation, with benefits that include bringing visiting master artists from the field to to teach classes in TFT’s Animation Workshop.

PHOTO:

Left to Right, Top Row: Celia Mercer, Professor, Head, Animation Workshop; Vivian Lee MFA 12; Po Chou Chi MFA ’12; Danielle Heitmuller, Alex Wong, Jing Wong and Yangzi She, first year students.

Second Row: “Simpsons” creator Matt Groening; Arem Kim, second-year student; Rami Kim, first-year student; Jessica Hokanson, thesis student.

Bottom Row: Heng Zhang, second year student; Ariel Goldberg MFA ’12; TFT alumnus Chuck Sheetz ’83, Professor, Vice-Chair Undergraduate Studies, Emmy©-winning “Simpsons” director.

Photo by Juan Tallo

Film Stills, Top to Bottom:

“Recover” (Po Chou Chi)

Terror in a Three-Piece Suit” (Ariel Goldberg)

“The Adventures of Bugsy McKay” (Jessica Hokanson)

“Rainy Day Ducks” (Danielle M. Heitmuller)

“Today’s Headline” (Arem Kim)

“Rietoki” (Rami Kim)

“Baseball Boogie” (Vivian Lee)

“To the Fairest” (Yangzi She)

“Family” (Alex Wong)

“The Secret of the Wardrobe” (Jing Wong)

“The Last Snowcap” (Heng Zhang)