Passing the time

Just a heads-up that if you missed the repeat screening of BBC4's Secrets of British Animation, in which I occasionally appear as a sort of beardy linking device, it will be available to UK viewers via BBC iPlayer for the next month or so. Enjoy! It's got dirty bits and all.

With Black Friday moodily skulking around the corner there'll soon be another opportunity to get your mitts on my book Independent Animation: Directing, Producing and Distributing Your Animated Films at a reduced price if you pick it up directly from the publisher. Starting November 29th through to December 2nd it will be available at a whopping 30% off with free shipping on top. Indulge your seasonal consumerism and buy copies for all your independently-inclined animation pals! They'll love ya for it.

This one has nothing to do with me save for being a gushy little fanboy but what. The. Ever. Loving. Fuck. Are Faith No More counting down to? This appeared on their site a couple days ago after years of radio silence and I'm ever-so-slightly losing my mind. Roll on 7pm...
(UPDATE: It's a tour! Hurrah!)

Next Up

A couple of news dribbles - firstly I now have specifics on the participation of Sunscapades in the 18th edition of Magma - Mostra di Cinema Breve in Acireale, Italy. You can catch the film in the first International Competition screening on Friday November 22nd 8:30pm at the Margherita Multisala alongside some brilliant new shorts including Karina Paciorkowska's You Are Overreacting, Justine Vuylsteker's Embraced and Kids by Michael Frei.

The Skwigly events at last week's Manchester Animation Festival went down a storm, and for those who swung by that might want to learn more about the various films that were screened there are a few interviews up with some of the filmmakers involved: Sam Shaw (You Died!),  Sine and Imge Özbilge (#21xoxo), Erin Kim (Revenge Story), Yves Paradis (M52) and Shenja Tatschke (5 Reasons Why I Don't Trust Jellyfish). There are more to come so be sure to keep your eyes on our Interviews section.
Massive kudos to Jen, Steve and Greg from MAF on another brilliant year and much gratitude to everyone who came to the screening and quiz as well as the HOME tech team for getting us up and running.

Lastly it looks like Secrets of British Animation, the BBC4 documentary that occasionally features my big talking head in unnecessarily-full HD waffling on about the virtues of dirty cartoons, will be getting itself a repeat screening this Sunday at 10pm. Pencil it in!

Sunday Threesome

Another wee trifecta of news bits for your waning weekend. Firstly I've learned that Sunscapades has itself another November screening coming up. Just before its outings at the Norfolk Film Festival and Magma - Mostra di Cinema Breve the film will return to Australia again as part of the same Late Night Bizarre programme it had been touring around in over the summer. This time around it will be at the Newcastle International Animation Festival. Again, this is in Australia, so all you Geordies out there can stand down. The event takes place on Saturday November 16th 10:30pm at UoNSOCI. Wish I could be there!

Earlier that week and on our own tumultuous, frothy shores, the fifth edition of the Manchester Animation Festival will take place. Having grown in ambition and scope exponentially each year since it kicked off, the 2019 edition looks to be another belter with three crammed days of animationey doings. Personal highlights include a masterclass with Michaël Dudok de Wit, a showcase from the Tricky Women team as well as behind-the-scenes looks at recent features Klaus and Shaun the Sheep: Farmageddon.

As with previous editions however you'd be a bit daft to miss the cheap-as-free (to passholders, cheap as a measly £6 to everyone else) Skwigly Screening that I've been beavering away on. This is a great opportunity to catch an hour's worth of amazing films you won't be able to catch elsewhere at the fest and as ever it's been an absolute joy to put together. The full line-up is as follows: 

• Getting Started  (Dir. William Crook/Switzerland/2019)
• Five Reasons Why I Don’t Trust Jellyfish (Dir. Shenja Tatschke/Germany/2019)
• Morning (Dir. Vojtěch Domlátil/Czech Republic/2019)
• M52 (Dir. Yves Paradis/Germany/2019)
• Revenge Story (Dir. Erin Kim/USA/2019)
• You Died (Dir. Sam Shaw/UK/2019)
• Creepy Pasta Salad (Dir. Lauren Orme/UK/2019)
• The Last Man on Earth Sat Alone in a Room (Dir. Junyi Xiao/USA/2019)
• Five Minutes To Sea (Dir. Natalia Mirzoyan/Russia/2018)
• #21XOXO (Dir. Imge Özbilge, Sine Özbilge/Belgium/2019)
• Moist (Dir. Greg Doble/Canada/2019)

The screening will take place 5pm Wednesday November 13th at the Event Space in Manchester's HOME. As tradition dictates, right afterwards at 7pm Steve and I will be inflicting another notorious Skwigly Quiz on festivalgoers, so be sure to stick around for that and be in with a chance to scoff up some amazing animation trinkets and doodads.

On the subject of Skwigly, episode 94 of the seemingly-unending Skwigly Animation Podcast went up this past week. In this one we discuss the strong critical response to Farmageddon, the lukewarm critical response to The Addams Family remake, the growing fondness for Laika’s Missing Link, the fight for the South Park streaming rights, more MAF highlights, the British Animation Awards and Autour de Minuit's Rosto graphic novel campaign.
We also welcome special guest Alex Dowding, producer at Amsterdam-based production company Submarine whose projects include the recent Amazon Prime original series Undone, an international co-production with The Tornante Company and Minnow Mountain created by Raphael Bob-Waksberg and Kate Purdy. Prior to working at Submarine, Alex’s work in animation has spanned a range of production management and supervisor roles across such projects as Despicable Me, Despicable Me 2, Minions, The Tale of Despereux and The Lorax.
Direct download this episode here or stream below: