There's just no sinking the bugger

Yet more adventures for our pal Klementhro coming up this month and next. Firstly there's the Big Cartoon Weekend in Saint Petersburg, another offshoot of Russia's Big Cartoon Festival as its name suggests. Klementhro will play in the third programme 'Borrowed Time' that kicks off 7pm on Sunday July 29th at the Rodina Cinema, rubbing shoulders with some fantastic other films such as The Burden, Catherine and Mr. Madila.

Following that will be an early August screening at Ukraine's Lviv International Short Film Festival Wiz-Art in association with the London Short Film Festival at which the film originally screened back in January of last year. I'm humbled to say it will be screening in a special retrospective of the best British shorts of the past three years to screen at LSFF. The even takes place on August 10th at 4pm and you can watch the programme for updates here.

Now let's never speak of She-Ra again

Another podcast for the podcastey pile. In episode 83 Steve brings us a chat with Trevor Jimenez, director of the short film Weekends that recently won the Jury Award and Audience Award at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival as well as ten other festival awards and counting. Presently playing in competition at Anima Mundi, upcoming screenings include Animation Block Party, Fantoche and Anibar.
Also discussed in this episode: The reaction to She-Ra’s redesign, Annecy and Society for Animation Studies conference highlights, Brad Bird vs. bloggers, the premiere of Chuck Steel: Night of the Trampires and Vice’s bizarre Simpsons article. It's a fun'un, get it in your earholes now or download for later.

That's a paddlin'

After an initially busy June my latest film Sunscapades has hit a bit of a lull, with no upcoming festival screenings confirmed before late August.
Taunting this patchy performance is my preceding film Klementhro, which just won't go away it seems. Following its inclusion in the fabulous Lichtspielklub Short Film Festival - AKA British Shorts - everyone's favourite paddlin' fool will be included as part of a series of special short film screenings tied in with the festival.
The British Shorts Summer Edition will take place at Berlin's outdoor cinema Freiluftkino Insel im Cassiopeia from 9pm on Friday, August 3rd. I don't know the specifics of what else is playing just yet but you can check out the official Facebook event for updates.

To stop your minds from wandering

In episode 82 of the Skwigly Animation Podcast we look back on George Dunning’s iconic contribution to British animated cinema Yellow Submarine some fifty years on.
The film will be celebrating the lead-up to its 50th anniversary this Sunday (July 8th) through a number of newly-restored theatrical screenings across the UK in association with organisations such as Anim18, the BFI, Everyman Cinemas and Picturehouse Cinemas. Keep your eyes on the Anim18 website for future events including a screening at Birmingham’s MAC on the anniversary itself (July 17th) and a number of special interactive ‘singalong’ screenings from August.
This one gave me an excuse to feature a segment with my father Lynn who was among the weekend workers doing cel painting on the film in the mad rush to get it done. Also Laura-Beth speaks with Gillian Lacey, one of the film's Assistant Animators who would go on to set up the Leeds Animation Workshop and teach at the National Film and Television School.
Listen below or direct download:
Also discussed in this episode: The legacy of Smallfilms founder Peter Firmin who passed away earlier this month and whose own body of work (alongside co-founder Oliver Postgate) included such classic UK series as The Clangers and Bagpuss. Peter also guested on the podcast in episode 60 a couple years' back:

Chuck Amuck

Some more festival screenings for Chuck Steel: Night of the Trampires, Mike Mort's high-energy indie animated feature that I scribbled and yelled over last year. Its North American premiere at Montreal's Fantasia Festival is now set to take place 4:45pm on July 21st at Concordia's SGWU Auditorium and you can grab your tickets here.

The following month it's finally screening here in the UK, so all being well I'll be able to catch its national premiere in London as part of Frightfest 2018. This one will be two screenings on August 25th at the Leicester Square Cineworld - 3:45pm on the Arrow Video screen and 4:15pm on the Horror Channel screen. Swing by and give it a look-see, 'cause they definitely don't make 'em like this anymore.