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  • Filipe Abranches

    AFTERMATH touring animation programme

    I have had the pleasure of co-curating AFTERMATH, a thematic animation programme with filmmaker Elizabeth Hobbs, who I co-produced I’m OK with (and the National Film Board of Canada). AFTERMATH is a programme of short animations exploring the Great War at its centenary, and themes of conflict and loss. The programme is inspired by I’m OK about…

  • Mogu & Perol © dwarf

    Japanese Animation Creators Talk

    On Tuesday 25 September, I will be speaking with renowned animators Tsuneo Goda and Hirokazu Minegishi of dwarf animation studio at Cuzon Soho in an event organised by Japan Foundation London. The event is free, but booking is essential. Tsuneo Goda is a Japanese animation creator best known for creating Domo, the lovable monster mascot of Japan’s biggest…

  • DOOZY, Richard Squires

    London Film Festival selection

    I am so delighted to share that Richard Squires’ DOOZY will have its World Premiere at the BFI London Film Festival, screening as part of the acclaimed Experimenta strand on Saturday 21 October, 9pm, at the BFI Southbank. As a long form creative documentary it combines live action footage, interviews, archive material, and animation to create…

  • Seder-Masochism, Nina Paley

    Festivals round up

    Last month I was fortunate to be able to journey to Annecy Festival and Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) with two shorts that I’ve just finished working on, I’m OK (which screened at both) and Brexicuted (which premiered at EIFF). We had good comments from audience members from both festivals, even after Brexicuted was shown…

  • I’m OK selected for OIAF

    After an exciting couple of screenings of Elizabeth Hobbs’ I’m OK at Annecy and Edinburgh festivals, it’s brilliant to now discover that the film has been selected for the official competition of Ottawa International Animation Festival 2018. This will be the North American premiere for the film, which is very fitting given that I’m OK was a co-production with the…

  • Edinburgh International Film Festival premieres

    I’m pleased as punch to share that two films I’ve been co-producing recently will be screening at Edinburgh International Film Festival in the same McLaren Award programme on Wednesday 27 June. Chris Shepherd’s Brexicuted will have its World premiere, and Elizabeth Hobbs’ I’m OK (pictured) will have its UK premiere. Both films are in competition for The McLaren Award for Best…

  • Female Figures Q&A video

    London International Animation Festival have recently posted online the Q&A from the Female Figures screening that took place at the festival in December 2017. The speakers are left to right: me, Dr Steve Henderson (editor & co-owner of Skwigly Online Magazine and founder & director of Manchester Animation Festival), Alys Scott Hawkins (artist and animated documentary…

  • Dance/Film: Experimental Approaches

    On 30 April I’ll be joining Curator Portland Green at Close-Up in Shoreditch, to discuss a range of approaches to dance in moving image genres such as experimental film, animation, dance for camera and artists’ moving image, exploring where dance has been a subject of enquiry, a subject of the image or a means of…

  • I’m OK to premiere at Annecy

    I am thrilled to share that I’m OK by artist Elizabeth Hobbs has been selected for the official competition at Annecy Festival 2018, which will be the film’s world premiere. I’m OK is one of 130 short films selected out of more than 3,000 entries. Director Elizabeth Hobbs and I have just finished the post…

  • Sea Change Weekend

    I am delighted to have been invited by Jen Skinner at Screen Argyll to participate in the Sea Change: Powering Women in Film Weekend, reflecting on the state of the industry alongside some exceptional women working in film today. Speakers include: Catharine Des Forges, Director of the Independent Cinema Office; Terry Wragg, founder of Leeds…

  • London Art Fair talk

    I will be taking part in the ‘Quick, quick, quick – take a long look at short film‘ talk on Thursday 18 January at the London Art Fair. More details about the session below. With a nod to the theme of this year’s LAF screening room, the panel discusses how artists working in a variety…

  • British Animation Awards 2018 Public Choice Programme

    Great news for Chris Shepherd’s Johnno’s Dead and Yours Faithfully… which have both been selected for the British Animation Awards 2018 Public Choice programme which is touring the UK from January. Here’s a list of venues screening the programmes on the Skwigly site. Yours Faithfully… screens in Programme 1 alongside first-rate films by Anushka Naanayakkara, Ben Wheele, and Joseph Wallace,…

  • Moms on Fire, Joanna Rytel, photo Tim Maarse

    Female Figures introduction

    Here is the introduction I penned for the London International Animation Festival catalogue about the Female Figures screening and discussion event I produced and hosted at the Barbican on Wednesday 6 December. As an antidote to the misogyny and male sexual fantasy rife in animation, here is Female Figures. In this programme you won’t find any silent women…

  • Another win for Johnno’s Dead

    Johnno’s Dead has just won Best Animation at the Crystal Palace International Film Festival 2017 which came to a close on Saturday 18 November. Writer-Director Chris Shepherd was there to receive the award, which as you can see, is a very fetching, specially designed trophy based on the famous Crystal Palace transmitter. Thanks to the judges of the Crystal…

  • Animations at Leeds IFF

    Here are a few of the fantastic shorts that screened at the World Animation Competition at Leeds IFF earlier this month. Firstly the films the my co-jurors animators Alice Dunseath and Anushka Kishani Naanayakkara and I selected… Special mentions It would piss me off to die so yoooooung… by Filipe Abranches (Portugal)  “A stunning, hallucinatory animation filled with hand drawn…

  • Double whammy for Johnno’s Dead

    Over the weekend Johnno’s Dead was awarded two prestigious festival awards: Best Animation at the 7th edition of the Aesthetica Short Film Festival in York, and The Shorts TV Award – UFO Competition at Brest European Short Film Festival, one of the largest short film festivals in France and in Europe.  Writer-Director Chris Shepherd was at…

  • Female Figures at LIAF 2017

    On Wednesday 6 December, I will be hosting a screening and discussion event at the Barbican for London International Animation Festival 2017. I have selected a collection of shorts that feature complex and compelling female characters, their dreams, frustrations, and dark desires. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion about on screen representation,…

  • Jury duty at Leeds IFF

    I am pleased to have been invited to be part of the Animation Jury at Leeds International Film Festival, and to assist with selecting the winner of their World Animation Award alongside animators Alice Dunseath and Anushka Kishani Naanayakkara. Across Leeds IFF’s three World Animation Competition programmes there are thirty animated shorts, half of which…

  • Astounding Animation at This Way Up

    British Council Film is presenting a series of short films programmes at the This Way Up film exhibitors’ conference on Tuesday 7 and Wednesday 8 November in Hull. Sharing the shorts in the wonderful Vintage Mobile Cinema. I have been assisting with the programming for this event, and have curated a selection of exceptional British animations that…

  • Pitching at Regiofund in Poland

    On Friday 6 October I will be pitching a long-form film, currently in development, at the International Co-Production Forum Regiofund in Katowice, Poland. This will be a great opportunity to meet producers, funders, broadcasters, and distributors from across Europe. The project that I will be presenting is The Deathless Woman by artist Roz Mortimer, which tells the story…