An enormous crowd of spectators, 30,000, more or less, flooded the streets of St. Petersburg, Russia on August 17 to enjoy the International Art-Forum GraFFFest 2012, a celebration of the synthesis of street and digital art. 'Cats In The City,' viral video entries made within the past five years, had its debut this year and it was a huge success. Here are the winning cat videos...
But first, I'd like to share the great composite video cleverly put together of the event and the winning cat videos by the talented hosts of the GraFFFest....
1. Composite Video of GraFFFest Winning Viral Cat Videos
(That's Zarathustra's image in the still below; he's one of the festival's cat art CRISPticist judges.)
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2. BEST Viral Cat Video (BEST City Cat): Simon's Cat In 'The Box,' by Simon Tofield, UK
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3. SPECIAL MENTION Cat In The City: Meow Mix by Cyriak Harris, UK
4. MOST POPULAR CAT, Hank The Cat, by Matthew Leary, USA
Rrunning for Senate in Virginia won the crowd's Most Popular Cat for his cameo role in The Greatest Land Of All. By the way Hank is selling his own $2 bills for $1.50 to raise money for homeless cats in St. Petersburg, so you Virginians take note: This Cat has international experience.
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5. SPECIAL MENTION, Most Creative Cat (aka Zarathrustra's Award): Nora: Practice Makes Purr-fect, by Betsy Alexander and Burnell Yow, USA
The cat that went from 'shelter to show-biz!'
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6. SPECIAL MENTION, Most Creative Cat (aka Zarathrustra's Award): Skifcha, by Denis Pisarev, Russia
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7. SHORTLISTED: Catvertising, by John St, Canada
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8. SHORTLISTED: Cats With Thumbs, by Cravendale TV, UK
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9. SHORTLISTED: Hank For Senate? No Way!, by Canines for a Feline Free Tomorrow Super PAC
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I tend to agree with the guys at John St; cats are the wave of the future... for just about anything.
With special thanks to the Curator in Charge of the St. Petersburg International Art-Forum GraFFFest, Svetlana Petrova, and her cat, Zarathustra from Fat Cat Art.