Update

Sorry for the long silence. Mila has been very active on facebook and twitter and there are so many hours in a day :) We are modeling away and close to our first modeling deadline for sequence one.
The team grew to approximately 70 people spread around the world. We have two large groups, here in Los Angeles and in the U.K. Some of the artist are also in Italy, France, Australia and lately Russia.
We started taping tutorials and lectures for the team to look at so that everyone is on the same page even if far away. Here are a couple of tutorials on modeling by Philippe Brochu, Mila modeling supervisor.
Enjoy!
Mila Modeling Tutorial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEhek-JLvBw
Mila Character Modeling Tutorial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APFUb7ntqHc

Mila makes the news on RAI International!

Press Release

This is Mila's first Press Release!
http://www.prweb.com/releases/yyyy/MM/prweb4700064.htm

Mila Character Design

This is Mila's character design by Luis Grane
When Luis showed me this first sketch, I knew I found my character.

"Mila" a socially relevant animated short film

My name is Cinzia Angelini and I’m directing an animated short film that is quite different from the standard cartoon. It’s socially relevant. While it’s a difficult challenge to take the non-commercial, independently funded route, what follows may explain why I chose to pursue this goal.

The tragedy of War unfortunately did not end with the children of World War II. Even today, children continue to suffer from the ravages of conflict in many places around the world.  It is their current plight that moves me to take action. To that end, I strive to produce "Mila", an animated short that presents the most tragic collateral damage of War as its theme – the youngest civilians. Though often overlooked and rarely mentioned by the media, civilians are the first to be hit, and their children, the last to be remembered.

The animated short is a great medium for bringing a message to the world, a message that speaks to both children, and adults. It's also an artistic way of delivering a strong statement not just to the masses, but decision makers too, with great visual power. "Persepolis" and "The Waltz of Bashir" are examples of animated features that have successfully addressed strong, even controversial themes such as the Islamic revolution and the massacre of Palestinian refugees. The short, meanwhile, has the potential of reaching an audience at the fraction of the cost and time necessary to produce a feature. 

As “MILA” was inspired by true stories that both my mother and grandmother told me growing up, it is the tale of a child caught in the middle of War. The plan is to  present "Mila" at film festivals world-wide, and focus attention on the forgotten collateral damage.