Student Receives International Recognition

Animation major, Matt Check '20 has been an artist and musician all his life. When his father passed away during the summer of 2017, he decided to tend to the garden he would grow each year. A month later, the mammoth sunflowers Matt planted looked tall and strong as if they were going to pull themselves out of the ground. At that moment "Mammoth: Primal Thirst" was born.

Matt's 3D animated fantasy short film has now received international awards and accolades. "Mammoth: Primal Thirst" won Best Animation Film in the Montreal International Indie Short Film Awards. His short is an official selection for the First-Time Filmmaker Sessions, a semi-finalist in the New York Cinematography Awards and a finalist in the Toronto Short Film Channel Festival.

"This story explores depression and happiness. The character, which is a sunflower named Mammoth is deprived of what he needs to maintain a healthy life and progressively gets weaker and more desperate to survive. When the character has access to what he needs, he flourishes and lives a better life. To me, Mammoth represents hope," shared Matt.

This animated short was created for his Senior Capstone Animation class at Bloomfield College and debuted virtually on May 8. Click here to view the short film.

"Matt's extraordinary talent in creating animated short films combined with his own music is truly amazing. He went through a very difficult time in his life and created a beautiful short about survival and hope. We are so proud of his accomplishments," shared Animation Coordinator and Professor, Lynne Oddo.