Women, they're absolutely everywhere

I just received some good news regarding Lendas Animadas, the Brazilian pre-school series I worked on a little while ago - one of the episodes I animated just picked up the Audience Award for Best Children's Short at the FESTin Portuguese Film Festival in Lisbon. Turns out the kids are alright.
On top of this the series is also a finalist for the 28th Prix Jeunesse International festival and competition which will take place in Munich from May 25th-30th.
Congrats and kudos to the team, most of all to Art Director Adriana Meirelles who was my immediate supervisor on the series and did an amazing job in keeping me on track, especially considering I don't speak any Portuguese.
Speaking of amazing women in animation, if you head on over to Skwigly's Twitter feed I've been corralling some coverage from the past year in honour of International Women's Day. There are some fantastic articles and insights - not to mention films - worth checking out there if you missed them the first time around.
While we're on the subject here's a rundown of the industry's inspiring female talents I've had the pleasure of personally interviewing since my days at the magazine began:

• Abigail Addison
• Anete Melece
• Anita Kwiatkowska-Naqvi
• Ann Marie Fleming
• Anna Ginsburg
• Becky Sloan
• Britt Raes
• Chintis Lundgren
• Chloé Alliez
• Claire Blanchet
• Corinne Merrell
• Corrie Francis Parks
• Desiree Stavracos
• Diane Obomsawin
• Emilie Timmermans
• Emmanuelle Loslier
• Emma Burch
• Eva Cvijanović
• Fatima Yasrebi
• Francesca Adams
• Haley Mancini
• Hilary Audus
• Isabel Peppard
• Isabelle Favez
• Janet Perlman
• Janice Nadeau
• Jeanette Bonds
• Jelena Popović
• Jessica Borutski
• Joanna Hepworth
• Joanna Quinn
• Karni (and Saul)
• Kirsten Lepore
• Laura-Beth Cowley
• Lisa Hanawalt
• Lori Malépart-Traversy
• Loup Blaster
• Lucy Izzard
• Magdalena Osinska
• Manuela Leuenberger
• Marie-Josée Saint-Pierre
• Melissa Johnson
• Michèle Cournoyer
• Michelle Kranot
• Nina Paley
• Nora Twomey
• Rebecca Wallace
• Réka Bucsi
• Ruth Fielding
• Ruth Lingford
• Sally Arthur
• Sarah Matthews
• Sarah Phelps 
• Sarah Van Den Boom
• Signe Baumane (2013)
• Signe Baumane (2017)
• Tünde Vollenbroek
• Veronica L. Montaño
• Yvonne Van Ulden

To be perfectly honest it should be a longer list, though I have some personal goals toward the gender parity of our coverage in the years to come that should hopefully amend that.

As for the present, the latest addition to our interviews section is the splendid Julie Roy who I had the pleasure of interviewing at last year's Annecy festival. This week saw her win her second Canadian Screen Award as a National Film Board of Canada producer (her main role is Executive Producer of the NFB's French Animation Studio). The winning film, directed by Matthew Rankin (an interview with whom went up a few months' back), is The Tesla World Light, which documents a troubled period of the renowned inventor Nikola Tesla’s life through a combination of exquisitely performed pixilation and experimental filmmaking techniques. Julie's producer filmography also includes some absolute crackers such as Paula (Dir. Dominic Étienne Simard), Kali, the Little Vampire (Dir. Regina Pessoa), In Deep Waters (Dir. Sarah van den Boom), Pilots on the Way Home (Dir. Priit and Olga Pärn), Inspector Street (Dir. Emmanuelle Loslier) and The Head Vanishes (Dir. Franck Dion) among others, so it was a real privilege to get to learn about her career path and process, as well as some insight into how the NFB approach the marketing and distribution of their films once they're done.

One last thing that, again, involves some super brilliant animation ladies, chiefly Lauren Orme, Dani Abram et al who have been working like mad on the first edition of the revived Cardiff Animation Festival. Having curated and hosted the animation strand of the Cardiff Independent Film Festival for a few years, as well as the city's regular meet-up Cardiff Animation Nights, the team have outdone themselves with an amazingly high-quality inaugural official selection for this year's event. I'll be involved in the festival in various capacities that I'll elaborate on when they've all been cemented but until then be sure to to get your hands on festival passes so you won't miss a thing.
That's it for today, I'll leave you with this new piece by Anna Ginsburg that I had nothing to do with but absolutely love: