Triomphe

Some good news on a day where one might be feeling, I dunno, without a paddle: My new film will get its French debut at this year's edition of Croq'Anime Animation Festival in Paris. I don't think anything of mine's played in that fair city, if my memory serves, so lovely news indeed. The fest takes place September 9th-13th, as ever I'll post more specific info when I get it. In the meantime keep your eyes on their official site, Twitter and Facebook page. Merci mes amis!

Meanwhile in Skwiggletown I've put up a written version of my chat with the very cool Lisa Hanawalt, artist behind a number of webcomics, graphic novels and the Netflix animated series BoJack Horseman. The show's second season (which was in production at the time of the interview) went up in full a few days back so it seemed like an apt repurposing, plus it has to be said it was one of my favourite interviews from last year and a joy to revisit. Have a read of it here and check out more of her work at lisahanawalt.com

Pipped

Quickie update, just to amend my own presumption that my latest film will be premiering in Denmark on August 24th. This has turned out to be a heinous fallacy and it will in fact get its world premiere at the Anonimul International Independent Film Festival which runs from August 17th-23rd. So the lovely folks of Odense were just pipped to the post, there. Or pipped at the post, however that goes. Honestly, who do you think you are, the pipped police? Leave me be.
Specific dates/times/venue info to follow.

The Toys Go Winding Down

Today the thirtieth episode of the Skwigly Podcast went up, featuring a trio of stunningly talented animation heroes. I speak with fellow Canuck and stalwart NFB director Cordell Barker (The Cat Came Back/Strange Invaders/Runaway) on his new film If I Was God, while Laura-Beth Cowley catches up with Australian 'clayographer' Adam Elliot to learn about his wonderful new film Ernie Biscuit. Meanwhile Julia Young, who has been absolutely killing it for us on all fronts (in particular with some extensive coverage of this year's Annecy festival) talks to Cartoon Saloon co-founder Tomm Moore, director of the amazing feature film Song of the Sea which has been mesmerising international audiences for months and is now finally out in UK cinemas. For more on the film you can have a read of Julia's review and another written feature from a conversation I had with producer Paul Young on the fascinating and unique circumstances that led to the film getting off the ground.

Back to the podcast, it is of course all tied together with myself and Steve's usual onslaught of cartoon wafflage, delving into such territory as festival highlights, reboot remorse and the Manchester Animation Festival which Steve has been involved with of late. Midst the decline of animation-centric festivals the world over such events are a precious commodity indeed, so if you have an animated film to submit then make sure to get it in before August 15th.
On a more sombre note (not really), the podcast in its current state has come to an end with this episode. After three years and thirty great big gigantic episodes it's just not feasible to continue to produce them as I have done, and I'm not crazy about the increasing gaps between each one going up. Therefore I'll be taking a revised approach that will make for more frequent episodes and better structure overall, getting our Skwigly community of writers and contributors more involved. Quality and quantity! That's the hope, at least.
Until then you can subscribe, stream or download episode 30 and a billion thanks to all of you who've supported the podcast and kept it going. I had no possible idea when it first started that it would last this long but it's largely been a joy and, truly, one of the main reasons I've maintained such enthusiasm for the industry as a whole. So here's to the upcoming Skwigly Podcast v2.0!

Good gravy...