Two YVFF alumni are giving us yet another success story. We say it every year: YVFF is about more than screenings and accolades.
Paul and Avery first met at the Yucca Valley Film Festival in 2023, when both were showcasing their animation work, and three years later, they have joined creative forces to create ROBO DAD: The Future Is Family, a trailer for a feature film project now competing in the Future Vision XPRIZE.
The $3.5 million global competition challenges filmmakers and storytellers to imagine a hopeful, technology enabled future, with the winning concept receiving $2.5 million in production funding to develop the project into a feature film.
The competition’s judging panel includes astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, Google technology and society executive Mira Lane, and Rod Roddenberry, CEO of Roddenberry Entertainment.
We caught up with YVFF Alumni Avery Rouda and Paul Hollingsworth to learn more about their journey, ROBO DAD, and their vision for the future.
So, how did you two meet?
Avery – We met at Yucca Valley Film Festival in 2023 when we both had our films Bloom in and Weirdos in the kids’ animation program. We then proceeded to bump into each other at other stops along the film festival circuit, finally realizing that the universe was conspiring in our favor for us to become best friends and ultimately work together.
Paul – When I saw Bloom In at YVFF, I was blown away by the writing and storytelling. Avery is so capable of digging to those deep emotional layers, that I wish I could get to.
She’s a master storyteller and I instantly knew that Avery would be a creative force of nature to be unleashed and needed to find the right projects to hire her on at Digital Wizards Studios.
We’ve worked together on brilliant branded content for clients.
Avery – We’ve been working together as a writing team on some really cool commercial animation projects, and once we realized we gel really well together we decided to funnel that creativity further into this feature film project that is currently in development and in consideration for the Future Vision XPrize.
Three years later, you are joining forces for a very special project. Tell us, what is the Future Vision Contest? Did you decide to enter the contest and then come up with the idea together, or did you already want to collaborate on something and the contest gave you the opportunity?
Paul – The concept for Robo Dad was a small leap from my film Weirdos, which I’ve been developing into an animated series with Nathan Ondracek. Weirdos is about 2 best friends who use science as a superpower to capture monsters and save their town from a monster invasion.
I had heard about FutureVision from a good friend, James Shechet and we all got excited about the potential for a Weirdos adventure that is a little more grounded, but explores the power of possibilities with science and technology. I brought Avery on as co-writer for the script. Which has already been a fantastic partnership. The script is a fun feel-good family adventure that isn’t afraid to ask tough questions. Avery masterfully layers nuance on every page.
Avery – With Robo Dad, we wanted to ask: how can AI help a broken family dealing with divorce, Multiple Sclerosis paralyzing a parent, and Coach a team to win the Pond Hockey championship? How does a young girl navigate being the best hockey player, daughter, and lil genius?
About the project, The Future Is Family: your approach looks very different from most of the other contestants. Many participants are interpreting the future quite literally, while you are applying the idea of the future to something much more human and personal: a family.
Paul – We are both animation writers and directors, and for us it made sense to create more of a 3D / 2D approach for ROBO DAD, which puts technology in the hands of our youth.
We see this technology as a tool that curious youngsters can learn, build with, and use to solve real-world problems. It’s true a lot of our competitors in the Future Vision contest are thinking about how this technology affects society and, although we have elements of that at play in our story, our focus has always been on how these breakthroughs in tech can lead one family closer to love, and at its core it’s a message that teaches us all how to be more human.
ROBO DAD celebrates the idea that the future belongs to the people bold enough to build it and shows a new generation that science is a superpower they can use to uplift our families, communities, and our world – all while making our biggest dreams come true!
How can the supporters of the YVFF help push your project to the next step?
Avery – If you could like, share, and comment on the trailer on YouTube, and support our journey as we continue bringing this story to life for all beings in this vast universe of science, technology, and education in kids animation, that would be HUGE!