Encounters: 2026 Programme Unveiled

Passes are available now for this year's edition of the Encounters Film Festival, which has announced its full programme. I'm pleased to say that we've expanded our animation competition programme to six competition screenings, with animation a significant presence across two kids programmes, the documentary category, DepicT! and Late Lounge, individual tickets for all of which are also available: 

• Full Programme
• Animated Encounters 1
• Animated Encounters 2
• Animated Encounters 3
• Animated Encounters 4
• Animated Encounters 5
• Animated Encounters 6
• DepicT!
• Late Lounge
• Documentary Encounters
• Kids Shorts (5+)
• Kids Shorts (10+)

The inevitable "Bitching about AI" episode

In episode 121 of the Skwigly Animation Podcast we welcome the team from the upcoming animated series Ghostbusters: Night Shift – Ben Hibon, Elliott Kalan, Jason Reitman, Gil Kenan and Amie Karp.

Also discussed: CAF highlights including Julia Pott’s masterclass, Sketch Showdown antics and The Midnight Walk, festival karaoke traditions, beating the heat at Annecy, teasing Wildwood with Travis Knight, Richard Williams’s posthumous final film Lysistrata, Ricky Gervais’s Alley Cats, Ben’s attempt to get through Charlie Kaufman’s stop-mo-themed novel Antkind, the rise of both AI and the vehement pushback against it through projects including Jorge Gutierrez’s abandoned project Punky Duck and the Annecy furore around Hisko Hulsing’s Danse Macabre.

Animation Podcasts | Skwigly · Skwigly Podcast 121 - Summer 2026

'Speed' released online

Following a festival run that included showings at Pictoplasma, Encounters, Hiroshima, MAF, CAF, Festival Anima, Sommets du cinéma d'animation, PÖFF Shorts and interfilm Berlin among others, my sixth animated short film Speed, produced during my time at Shy Guys Studios, is now available to watch online in full.

The usual film platforms don't seem especially interested in helping push this one out there, so any views and shares much appreciated.

Let's Do Brunch

Excited to again be involved in another edition of Cardiff Animation Festival, which this year takes place April 23rd-26th at Chapter Arts Centre. I'll be there with Laura-Beth to present a few Skwigly brunch events including a book presentation 10am Friday 24th (talking Intimate Animation alongside Joanna Quinn, Les Mills and Greg McLeod discussing their own recent literary ventures) and filmmaker Q&A sessions on the 25th and 26th. See you there! 

• Animators Brunch: Skwigly Book Club
• Animators Brunch: Q&As with Skwigly 
• Full programme

Podding Along

In episode 120 of the Skwigly Animation Podcast we welcome Ugo Bienvenu, who joins us to discuss his film Arco, out this month in UK cinemas. 

Also discussed: The increasing sneakiness of AI creators passing their content off as animation, adult fandoms of popular children’s shows, pleasing Oscar and BAFTA outcomes with wins for The Girl Who Cried Pearls (Dir. Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski) and Two Black Boys in Paradise (Dir. Baz Sells), Aardman‘s upcoming Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom, upcoming Cardiff Animation Festival highlights, the ‘social experiment’ of Konstantin Bronzit’s Oscar-nominated short The Three Sisters and we review the recent BBC series Small Prophets featuring animation by Ainslie Henderson and Will Anderson.

Animation Podcasts | Skwigly · Skwigly Podcast 120 - Spring 2026

Bunny Dropping

To mark 20 years since its release, I've put out a special vinyl edition of my 2006 Struwwelpeter album Agnosticaust. This follows on from last year's vinyl reissues of Sibling Ribaldry EP (2008), The Book of Women (2010), The Birdcage (2015) and My Head is Too Small For My Body (2022), essentially wrapping up the Struwwelpeter vinyl rollout until I start releasing new music (or get some older music in a presentable state). You can get yourself a full-on collection goin'!

Wholesome Holiday Content

Our last podcast of the year is now live over on Skwigly (or basically anywhere you get your podcasts). In this episode we're joined by Liane-Cho Han and Maïlys Vallade, co-directors/writers of the celebrated animated feature Little Amélie or the Character of Rain. Stream below or download here.

Animation Podcasts | Skwigly · Skwigly Podcast 119 - Winter 2025

Also discussed: The launch of Skwigly pal Gareth Cavanagh's Square Window podcast, The Simpsons x Fortnite crossover and the cursed history of Simpsons video game tie-ins, Mike Judge’s laudable reboots of King of the Hill and Beavis and Butt-Head, recent festival funtimes at Encounters, Overlap, MAF and LIAF and we preview the year’s animated holiday specials. We also review Michel Gondry’s Maya, Give Me a Title, Common Side Effects, Smiling Friends and Beryl, the new book from Joanna Quinn and Les Mills.

On a fittingly seasonal note, a new animated take on Lucy Cousins's My Friend Maisy has launched this month on Sky. I had a lovely time working on this a couple months' back at Bristol's A Productions. So if you're in a snowy mood, check it out on Sky Go. 

Update 05/01/26 - the full launch episode Snowy Day is now up on their official YouTube channel:

Couple quickies

This week you can get 15% off all of my recent vinyl reissues - Sibling Ribaldry (2008), The Book of Women (2010), The Birdcage (2015) and My Head is Too Small for My Body (2022) - with code BLACKFRIDAY15 at checkout. You can check them all out here. 

Our final Bristol Animation Meetup (BAM) of 2025 will take place Dec 3rd at Bristol’s Golden Guinea. Hobbyists, students, professionals and everyone in between, if you're part of our wonderful animation community then be sure to swing by from 7pm for festive frolics, fun chatter, mirthful merriment and a big ol' sexy* raffle!

*Sexiness unlikely

Arts and/or Humanities

Many thanks to those of you who bought a copy of Intimate Animation at MAF (and Encounters, for that matter), we hope it proves educational. If you missed out on our exclusive festival discount I have some good news - the publisher's Black Friday sale will run until December 3rd, through which you can get both Intimate Animation and my previous book Independent Animation at a whopping 25% off (plus free international shipping).

The next event you should pencil in to check out is Figures in Focus: Skin Shows + Screentalk, a special programme curated by Abigail Addison where "animators lay bare sexuality, queerness and the body on screen" as part of the London International Animation Festival, Saturday November 29th 6:20pm at the Barbican. The screening will include Laura-Beth Cowley's BBC Arts film The Gift (on which I did some animation and sound) and is followed by a Q&A with Laura-Beth, Lizzie Watts and May Kindred-Boothby. Earlier that day, our friends at Women In Animation UK will be hosting a get together up the street at Two Brewers from 3pm-6pm.

I'm putting out one more vinyl reissue before the year is through. Coming up to fifteen years since its original release, The Book of Women is probably the closest I ever came to making an outright pop record (and the only one to get some real airplay). You can sample/buy it here - it's also still available on Spotify and Bandcamp if you prefer your music to be airborne and intangible rather than big, flat and plastic.

To end on, my fellow animationperson Gareth Cavanagh has started up his own podcast The Square Window, discussing children's programmes from the 80s and 90s. Fun listening with guests so far including myself and pals Jane, Steve, Dani and more. Give it some love on YouTube, Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

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.