News from Isolationville

Some sad and inevitable (but 100% understandable given the circumstances) news to kick off with - due to the COVID-19 crisis the Cardiff Animation Festival scheduled for April has been postponed for the foreseeable future. It's a pointedly unfair situation that puts a lot of hard working folks in a tight spot and it's a rotten feeling to not be able to do anything about it, but knock wood it will resume as normal next year.
It always bears repeating that the work Lauren and the CAF/CAN team have done over the years as far as keeping the Welsh (and beyond) animation community alive is absolutely staggering and this was set to be another belter of an event. I'm sure what the future holds will be bigger, brighter and better than ever. In the meantime much love to all the brilliant people working in events organisation who've been unfairly caught in the middle of this storm.
Along with a major festival scheduled for May at which I had hoped to participate on the International Competition Jury, as well as a couple of unexpected final screenings for Sunscapades, said storm includes a number of other upcoming events having to outright cancel that would have featured Speed, and to be honest any planned outings for the film over the Spring or Summer are looking increasingly unlikely.
This of course is a microscopic concern compared to the miasma of anxieties that we're currently facing and knock wood things will be on the up again before too long.

In the latest episode of the Skwigly Animation Podcast we have a go at taking things to a cheerier place under the circumstances by looking back at last week's British Animation Awards, which probably marks the last indoor industry gathering we'll be seeing in the UK for a little while. Having recently been taken over by Helen Brunsdon and Kieran Argo since Jayne Pilling retired, the 2020 event proved to be a success and Steve was able to grab some inebriated green room interviews with a handful of the winners:

• Richard Phelan/Will Becher (Aardman's Shaun the Sheep: Farmageddon, Best Long Form)
• Giovanna Utichi (Blue Zoo's A Whale's Tale, Best Original Short Form)
• Danny Capozzi (Aardman's New Mindset, Best Social Good)
• Sarah Cox (Aardman's Shaun the Sheep, Best Series)
• Peter Lord (Head of Aardman)
• Roxi Linklater (Aardman rigger and winner of the first BAA Lamb Award)

You can stream the podcast below or direct download (you can also check out the full list of winners here):
Not much else to say really, I expect things will be a bit quiet here for a little while. Stay safe, folks.