Movin' right along...

Before I crack on with the latest round-up, I wanted to make a point of saying that the 30th edition of the Encounters Film Festival was absolutely fantastic. Much love to everyone who voiced their enjoyment of the selection; after a few years of animated shorts not getting their own dedicated strand, it means more than you know. All being well, we'll be back again next year for an even bigger and better edition.

As one festival ends, another is ramping up. It's looking to be another superb Manchester Animation Festival up North this November with a whole host of animationey goodness on offer. Chuffed to be presenting mine and Laura-Beth's book Intimate Animation (6pm 11th Nov, Manchester Central Library) as well as another all-new Skwigly Screening (7pm 12th Nov, HOME). Of course, Steve and I will be inflicting another edition of the Skwigly Quiz on festivalgoers right after (8:30pm 12th Nov, HOME). So get your diaries out and pencil 'em in.

Some nice news on the Intimate Animation front, in the October issue of the rather splendid BFI magazine Sight & Sound it has been selected as Editor's Choice by reviews editor Katie McCabe. I'm sure most of you reading likely already have a subscription, but just in case you can grab yourself a copy of the issue here. If you didn't make the Encounters presentation and missed getting your hands on a copy, the fine folks at the Arnolfini bookshop have held a few copies back at the same discount, so pay them a visit and grab it while you can. Failing that, the publisher currently has a site-wide sale, so if you buy it directly from them you'll get 20% off. Better than a kick in the pants.

If you're in the market for some inspirational podcast listenin', you'll want to check out the latest episode of Animation One-To-Ones featuring absolute legend and stalwart pal o' Skwigly, Joanna Quinn. We mainly discuss her work with the initiative AC4Pal (Animation Community for Palestine) in support of the efforts of Gaza-based educator Haneen Koraz, which recently culminated in the global anijam To Gaza with Love, which brought together 329 short films from over 50 countries. Joanna is always a joy to listen to, so give it a stream, watch or download; she also has a book of her own out now, so give that some love too while you're at it.

A bit of music to wrap up on - in anticipation of a 15th anniversary vinyl reissue of my 2010 album The Book of Women, and as a personal nod to the 40th anniversary of the Mario franchise, I'm putting out an extremely limited (20 copies - I'm a realist) run of the preceding, long-out-of-print 2008 EP Sibling Ribaldry, which will include the titular love-letter to Super Mario Bros. and three extra tracks from the album sessions not available on any other vinyl release. Give it a shufti here.

A'ight, that's all for now. Peace be with you.

More excuses to leave the house

Exciting developments here in Bristol as the briefly-dormant Encounters Film Festival will be returning later this month for its 30th edition. Having worn a bunch of different hats for this event over the years, it was a privilege to take the reins as Animation Programmer and put together five programmes packed with incredible new shorts, as well as consulting on the festival's genre programmes and industry events. More info on each programme below (all competition screenings take place in Cinema 1 at the Watershed and will be followed by a Q&A with any attending filmmakers):

• Animated Encounters 1 (1pm Sep 24)
  From a father grappling with his son's emigration to a woman literally birthing her reproductive organs, these animated stories confront life's awkward realities head-on.
• Animated Encounters 2 (5:30pm Sep 24)
  A European traveller sketches her way through Cape Verde, a cat seeks enlightenment, and a mother weaves memories through colourful sweaters. These contemplative works range from Nordic winter poems to drag queen revelations, united in quiet contemplation.
• Animated Encounters 3 (10am Sep 25)
  The messy realities of minds and bodies under pressure. Characters battle screen addiction, explore their own anatomy, and confront childhood trauma through bold animation techniques. These unflinching stories tackle everything from teenage pregnancy to language identity, using surreal visuals to make the internal external.
• Animated Encounters 4 (2:30pm Sep 25)
  Tender stories celebrating memory, family bonds, and the search for belonging across generations.
• Animated Encounters 5 (12pm Sep 26)
  Eight exciting works push animation into uncharted territory, unafraid to go places live action cannot. Ancient Chinese erotica inspires an Estonian tale of vanity, while nude models battle mosquito stings and a hypersensitive woman navigates a harsh world.

The 25th will also be a dedicated animation industry day, and kicking off proceedings will be a special presentation on mine and Laura-Beth Cowley's new book Intimate Animation, featuring special guests Baz Sells and Ben Jackson of One6th who'll be discussing the production of their recent short Two Black Boys in Paradise (also screening in competition); we'll also be selling books at an exclusive Encounters discount if you haven't yet snapped it up and want to save a few sheckels. Also on the docket throughout the day are presentations from the likes of Dan Ojari, Tanya Scott, Karni & Saul, Dane Winn, Neeraja Raj and Chris Shepherd as well as dog life drawing, a stop-mo workshop and a showcase and reception for the newly-launched UK branch of Women In Animation.

Capping off the day will be another edition of Bristol Animation Meetup (BAM), again teaming up with our pals at Festivus and taking place at the Three Tuns pub from 7pm. 

The next day at Watershed Cinema 3 I'll be hosting an Artist Masterclass with storyboard artist Jay Clarke, discussing his career with a focus on his work for acclaimed director Wes Anderson. Other events you might want to check out include a special screening of the modern classic Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind with director Michel Gondry and writer Charlie Kaufman in attendance, a UK premiere for Gondry's new film Maya, Give Me a Title, the legendary Late Lounge featuring some stunningly twisted animation and a preview screening of Emma Hough Hobbs and Leela Varghese's Australian animated feature Lesbian Space Princess. In fact, there's too much good stuff on offer to list here, so give the programme a peruse and grab your passes now.

Excuses to leave the house

A couple of events next week for y'all to check out.

Our Summer edition of Bristol Animation Meetup (BAM) will be taking place on Tuesday July 8th. This time around we'll be teaming up with the returning Encounters Film Festival for INBETWEENS, a special screening event at The Cube Microplex celebrating contemporary queer animation. The programme was curated by BAM team member Luzie Ilgner, who's done an incredible job of putting together some fantastic films as well as a series of interviews over on Skwigly. There'll also be a Q&A with attending filmmakers on the night and some time in the bar afterwards for the usual BAM millabout-ery.

I'm doubly excited for this one as it serves as the first step in bringing animation back to Encounters (it was sidelined for a while, as I've ranted about), something I'll hopefully be able to do more of in my new role as Animation Programmer for their upcoming 30th edition this September. We also appear to be in an alarming time where unevolved ignorance and narrowmindedness has become concerningly emboldened, and so any opportunity to celebrate and bring the community together is very welcome. You can grab tickets here and the full lineup is below:

• Coming out Autistic by Steven Fraser
• Dear Nana by Han Nguyen
• Doll Searching by Felix Cheng
• Confusion of the Afternoon by Yung-Chieh Lee
• Récit De Soi by Géraldine Charpentier
• 07:00 by Benji Neville
• Pipes by Jessica Meier, Kilian Feusi, Sujanth Ravichandran
• Seasons by Elise Nickerson
• Falling For Greta by Gustavo Arteaga
• The Secret Lives of Lesbians’ Cats by Kate Jessop
• Blooming by Efa Blosse-Mason / Sophie Marsh
• Frogsporn by Rosanna Verdon-Roe
• The Eating of an Orange by May Kindred-Boothby
• Hide and Seek by Junjie Xu
• Two Black Boys in Paradise by Baz Sells

If you can't make it on the 8th, Skwigly and Cardiff Animation Festival will be hosting a repeat screening of INBETWEENS at Chapter Arts Centre on August 23rd - more info and ticket link to follow. 

On Friday July 11th I'll be up in London for Hungarian Animation 111, an event celebrating Hungary's contribution to animation landscape as marked by its selection as guest country at this year's Annecy festival. The evening will be divided into three parts, starting with a shorts programme curated by Friss Hús featuring work from Péter Vácz, Julia Tudisco, Dominika Demeter and Ervin B. Nagy. I'll then be moderating the panel discussion Frame by Frame: The growing influence of Hungarian Animation with Anna Ida Orosz, Jez Stewart and Lydia Reid before the evening closes out with a screening of László Csáki's feature film Pelikan Blue. The evening will kick off 6pm at Liszt Institute London, register for free here and hope to see you there!

Waxing nostalgic

A couple of my Struwwelpeter albums are getting themselves a limited run on vinyl. For the first time in many moons, you can nab yourself a physical copy of 2015's The Birdcage (in honour of its 10th anniversary) and 2022's My Head is Too Small for my Body (in honour of nothing in particular). 

If these two do well enough I'm hoping to reach a little further into the back catalogue and release some earlier albums, maybe even an EP or two. As far as midlife crises go, it's fairly undemanding on my time so worth a punt. 

Of course, if you don't do vinyl, the albums are still available on all major digital/streaming platforms including Bandcamp and Spotify. 

May Days

Got some events for your diaries, folks. Starting with the first Bristol Animation Meetup (BAM) of the year, gonna be a casual one with our pals at Festivus on May 1st from 7pm at The Three Tuns. Swing by BAM x Westivus and we'll all have a nice catch-up.

The following week Laura-Beth and I will be celebrating the launch of our new book Intimate Animation in London on May 7th with the lovely folks at Bar Shorts. From 8:10pm at The Garden Cinema we'll be screening a selection of the major case studies in the book, followed by a Q&A hosted by the brilliant Chris Shepherd. Click here for more info and to get tickets.

That weekend we'll also be at the Fine Lines Illustration and Animation Festival in Cheltenham with a slightly more condensed version of the screening starting  ̶6̶p̶m̶  6:30pm (disregard image above) at the University of Gloucestershire Park Campus, TC014 Lecture Theatre. Grab a free pass here. At both Bar Shorts and Fine Lines we'll be selling copies of the book (as well as some other goodies) at an exclusive discount, so bring your wallets and treat yisselfs.

Toward the end of the month I'm excited to be popping over the river to Chapter Arts Centre for Cardiff Animation Weekender, the biennial mini-festival put together by the Cardiff Animation Festival gang between full editions of CAF. I'll be participating in the Sketch Showdown on Saturday May 17th at 7:15pm (Cinema 1), then the following evening (7:30pm, First Space) Steve and I will be bringing the Skwigly Quiz to Cardiff for the first time in 8 years. Other events worth checking out include a talk with Chris Shepherd about his new book Anfield Road, Aardman modelmaking workshops and a John R. Dilworth retrospective. So come join us, it'll be a fun one.

Bedside Literature

I'm very excited to announce the official release date of the latest Skwigly book - Intimate Animation - by myself and the incredible Laura-Beth Cowley.

In recent years, there has been a surge in animated projects that have pushed boundaries, broken taboos, prompted discussions and wowed festival and online audiences alike through compelling storytelling and unmatched artistry. Join Ben Mitchell and Laura-Beth Cowley of Skwigly Online Animation Magazine and the Intimate Animation podcast as they take you on a tour of the landscape of contemporary animated films that deal with themes of love, intimacy, relationships, anatomy and sexuality – and the incredible artists behind them.

Through research and firsthand interviews with trailblazers such as Signe Baumane, Andreas Hykade, Ruth Lingford, Michaela Pavlátová, Bill Plympton and Joanna Quinn, as well as newer voices including Sawako Kabuki, Renata Gąsiorowska, Will Anderson, Sara Gunnarsdóttir, Michaela Mihalyi, David Štumpf, Levi Stoops, Lori Malépart-Traversy, Anna Ginsburg, Veljko Popovic, Joseph Wallace, Renee Zhan and more, Intimate Animation looks deeply at how animation has been used to present elaborate and complex concepts relating to love and sexuality.

Exploring the role animation has played in sex education, self-discovery, the body, lust and love, as well as how the medium can be used to visually represent emotions, feelings and concepts not easily described in words nor depicted through live-action filmmaking, Intimate Animation is the ideal book for professional animators, filmmakers, enthusiasts, researchers, academic and students of animation and film studies interested in the themes of love and sexuality.

The book will be released March 27th and is available to pre-order now (use code LP96LCNPH at checkout through this month for a whopping 20% off!)

About last year...

After some ruminatin', I think there might still be a few last gasps of life left in this here blog. Ahead of a big announcement coming up next week (that will probably explain why my energy for writing has been depleted of late), here's a roundup of some fun stuff I was involved with during the quiet spell that may be of interest.

Back in May Laura-Beth and I were at the always-wonderful Cardiff Animation Festival to host their brunch sessions and chat with attending filmmakers Tanya J Scott, Gerald Conn, Hannah Fisher, Naomi Crame, Lleucu Non, Josh Hicks, Tova Persson, Hoching Kwok, Gus Andrews, Qianhui Yu, Samantha Moore, Greg McLeod, Robert Brown, Katie King and Faye Craig. For those who weren't able to make it, these were recorded and put out as podcast minisodes, so brew some coffee, grab a croissant and have a listen. It'll be like you were there, boy-howdy.

Animation Podcasts | Skwigly · Skwigly at CAF 2024

Skipping ahead to November, Manchester Animation Festival was great shakes as ever. More of a flying visit this time but I did manage to cram in hosting duties for three events, including an all-new Skwigly Screening, the ever-bloodthirsty Skwigly Quiz and a special event wherein emerging talents from the Ukraine presented their animation projects in development. The event was part of a mentorship initiative brought about by Skwigly's collaboration with the Linoleum Festival and the UK/UA Animation Lab, which also yielded a series of free online lectures seeing industry professionals dispense invaluable advice. I was privileged to host one with producer extraordinaire Helen Brunsdon (below) and you can check out all six here.

To my delight, everyone's favourite stop-mo nightmare-weaver Robert Morgan (of Bobby Yeah and The Cat With Hands fame) had his first feature film Stopmotion released. A live-action/animation hybrid tale of an animator's relatable descent into madness, the film is hideous and horrible in all the best ways and definitely worth checking out. I was very happy to host a special CAF screening and discuss the film with the director himself, which you can check out below:

Robert and I discuss the film further in episode 113 of the Skwigly Animation Podcast, which is still ticking along. Other episodes we put out last year include a British Animation Awards special, a celebration of Cartoon Saloon's 25th anniversary and chats with the talents behind 2024's holiday features and specials.

On the guests front we've also featured Chris Sanders (The Wild Robot) with Nick Park making a welcome return alongside fellow Aardman-ites Merlin Crossingham and Ben Whitehead to chat all things Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl. In our Animation One-To-Ones strand, which has continued to be a fantastic vehicle for our contributors to get some facetime with the movers and shakers of the industry, I also caught up with industry stalwarts Torill Kove and Job, Joris & Marieke. Speaking of contributors, I would be remiss to not shout out the fantastic work being created for the site by our wonderful team including Ryan Gaur, Martyn Warren, Jordan King and Kévin Giraud. 

On the written features side of things, a couple pieces you might want to check out include chats with the fabulous NFB producer Maral Mohammadian as well as Zach Woods (creepy Gabe from the US version of The Office) and Brandon Gardner on their stop-motion NPR tribute sitcom In The Know. More recently I wrote a little summary of the late great David Lynch's own dabblings in animation over the years. Not an easy write as, being such a massive influence and all-around mensch, the news of his death rattled me. But ultimately it was a gratifying exercise and a rare excuse to lump together a bunch of factoids floating around my head that wouldn't necessarily have had much use otherwise.

Throughout the year Skwigly, Rumpus and Sun & Moon also continued our Bristol Animation Meetups (BAM), with four hugely successful seasonal events that included our established industry one-on-one sessions in the Spring and Autumn, a big chunky BAM quiz in the Summer and a seasonal collab event with AnimInspo to cap off the year. We have some fun irons in the fire on the BAM front, so keep your eyes on our socials to not miss out.

As to why I didn't bring any of this up at the time, well...here's the culprit.

Her name is Ivy. She saps all of the time I used to have for blogging because she's so adorable and her demands are both constant and merciless. Kind of lowkey ruined our life at the beginning, but hey, at a certain point you come around and fall in love. Dogs, what are they like? 

So I think you're about caught up now. Stick around, more news a-comin'.

So I forgot to blog for over a year...

 ...and nobody noticed, including me.

I think if anything is going to indicate that the sun has just about set on this blog, it'd be that. But you can catch up/keep up with what I'm up to over on the News section of my website and I don't think that Skwigly is going anywhere for the foreseeable future.

We've also got some fun stuff ahead on the Bristol Animation Meetup front, so keep your eyes on our Insta.

And I'll have a big announcement in March, so this probably isn't goodbye forever.

via GIPHY

December Shmecshmemshber

We've got one last Skwigly Animation Podcast of 2023 before we tap out for the year. In episode 112 we welcome back director Sam Fell alongside producer Leyla Hobart to discuss their much-anticipated Aardman sequel Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (out now on Netflix). We also welcome back director Robin Shaw and producer Ruth Fielding of Lupus Films to hear about their seasonal adaptation Mog’s Christmas, broadcast on Channel 4 this Xmas Eve.

Also discussed: Feature and short film picks for awards season, technological misadventures at MAF and the enduring legacy of last year’s holiday ‘classic’ The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse. While you're queuing up podcasts for that long, anxious drive back to the homestead, be sure to check out episode 11 of Independent Animation featuring Mel Cionco in conversation with Jasmine Yang of viral hitmakers Glitch Productions and episode 27 of Animation One-To-Ones, where Ryan Gaur speaks with ND Stevenson to learn about the protracted, animated feature adaptation of his graphic novel Nimona. If you're in more of a readin' mood then a listenin' mood, some recent articles to check out include Ryan's interview with Aardman's Suzy Fagan Parr, Martyn Warren's review of Hilda season 3, as well as Larry Fried's review of The Peasants and interview with co-director Hugh Welchman.

Chuck Steel: Night of the Trampires, the stop-mo gore-fest on which I animated some retro VFX a while back, is currently available to watch for free over the holiday period. Those of you who have Amazon's Freevee, be sure to gather the kids and grandparents around the ol' tellybox and get 'em nice and traumatised.

Many thanks to all the wonderful folks of the local animation community for coming out to the final Bristol Animation Meetup (BAM) of 2023 last week!

Extra special gratitude to King Street Brew House for having us, our pals at Animation Associates and Toon Boom Animation for the abundance of free drinks and incredible main raffle prize of an annual Toon Boom Harmony license (congrats to winner Elise as well as runner-up winners Olivia, Anna and Mayzey) - not to mention the fantastic Aardman Animations for the bonus prizes, Tova for her hard work keeping everything running organised and on time as well as Luzie for being on hand to take some fabulous photos.

Of course an extra special thanks to our incomparable industry guests Suzy Fagan Parr (Aardman), Jess Brazier (A Productions), Harry Slinger-Thompson (Scribble Room), Erinn Lucas (Sun & Moon) and Joe Wood (Rumpus) for taking their time to offer their insights and advice to eventgoers.We've got some exciting plans for 2024 so be sure to keep your eyes on Skwigly, Rumpus and Sun & Moon for updates and future event info!

November Shmovember

There are a couple new episodes of the Skwigly podcast series Independent Animation (the companion podcast to the book of the same name) available to check out. In episode 9 I catch up with the magnificent Signe Baumane to discuss My Love Affair With Marriage, her incredible second feature following 2014's Rocks In My Pockets, a prominent case study in the book. We last spoke nearer to the start of the film's production, and since its release it's gone on to perform spectacularly with a US theatrical release capping off its festival run.

Episode 10 features a new chat with Joseph Wallace on the inspirational coming-together of his latest short film Salvation Has No Name. The film's complex funding journey is another major case study in the second edition of the book (it also graces the new cover), so it was great to follow up on its eventual production and enormously positive reception which culminated in an online release earlier this year.

While you're over on Skwigly be sure to catch up on some of our recent industry coverage by our incredible team, including Kévin Giraud's review of Chicken For Linda, Martyn Warren's Watership Down retropective and Ryan Gaur's The Tale of The Princess Kaguya retrospective, interview with the team from Scott Pilgrim Takes Off and reviews of Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget and Robot Dreams.

It's the most wonderful time of the year - the time when my publisher lops 20% off the retail price of my book. If you've still not let the wonderment of Independent Animation: Developing, Producing and Distributing Your Animated Films into your lives then go ahead and treat yourselves - or the indie animation fan in your life, aching for that perfect gift - while it's marked down. The sale starts December 5th and goes through until January 5th - and did I mention there was FREE international shipping to boot? Well, there's FREE international shipping to boot. There, I mentioned it. 

Skwigly, Rumpus and Sun & Moon have another edition of BAM comin' at ya in a couple weeks, again at Bristol's King Street Brew House. As with our last event, attendees can book in for some facetime with an assortment of local industry professionals who are keen to share their insight, advice and expertise on all things animation. We also have some festive surprises in store, so keep an eye on the event page for updates, info on who will be attending and how to book a slot, and be sure to earmark December 14th in your calendars.

UPDATE: More event info and full list of industry guests is available here.