Elton John music video contest enlists PES as animation category judge

Stop motion animation director PES has been enlisted as the animation judge for Elton John’s music video competition, The Cut. The online competition in partnership with YouTube is searching for international creatives to create official music videos for three of Elton’s greatest hits: Tiny Dancer, Bennie and the Jets and Rocket Man.

The American Blinkink director will be judging the videos submitted for Rocket Man, which will be animated. The winner will have full support from YouTube and Pulse Films to turn their idea into the final video, plus $10,000 to help with future projects.

PES is renowned for his stop-motion animation for brands like Honda and citizenM as well as his short films including Fresh Guacamole, which was nominated for an Oscar in 2013. He has over one million subscribers to his YouTube page.

Kurt Hugo Schneider will judge the live action category for Tiny Dancer and Parris Goebel will judge the choregraphy videos for Bennie and the Jets.

“You can animate miniatures, real people, objects, paper… anything you can dream up,” explains PES in a video promoting the competition. “All forms of animation are welcome.” PES will be presenting his shortlist of five films to Elton and a panel including Melina Matsoukas and Barry Jenkins at the end of February.

For more info on how to enter the competition visit The Cut website. The deadline is 23 January.