Festivities approach...

You like films? Of course you do, you're not a creep. In celebration of liking films and not being a creep then, I bring you the news that the Encounters Short Film Festival have unveiled their Official Selection and, having been a little more involved on the animation preselection side of things than usual this time around, I can attest it's a belter of a line-up. Among some of my personal highlights to watch out for are Marine Blin's What Resonates in Silence, Marie Valade's Lolos, Ida Melum's Night of the Living Dread, Renee Zhan's Soft Animals, Marnik Loysen's Brunch, Urška Djukić's Granny's Sexual Life, Michael Cusack's The Better Angels and Franck Dion's Under the Skin, the Bark as well as work by recent Skwigly interviewees Joanna Quinn (Affairs of the Art), Anna Ginsburg (A Love Hate Relationship), Claude Cloutier (Bad Seeds), Cliona Noonan (Wet & Soppy), Michelle Kranot (The Hangman at Home) and Daniel Gray (Hide).

While I had to recuse myself from selecting it personally (although I would've without hesitation or the tiniest pang of guilt) I'm pleased to see that Laura-Beth's new film Crafty Witch will also be among the selection. I did the post-production on this one but it's the brilliant concept and process Laura-Beth came up with, along with some fantastic animation pre-vis from retro whizkid Sam Shaw, that really makes it.

This year's edition of Encounters will take place online through the entire month of September and you can grab your festival passes here. Fingers crossed there may be some physical events also, so watch this space.

Another event I'll be pitching in on is the British Animation Awards which has opened the Call for Entries for its next edition that will take place March 10th 2022. Be sure to get your new work submitted by October 29th if it falls into any of the following categories:

• Best Undergraduate Student
• Film Best Postgraduate Student Film
• Best Short Film
• Best Design
• Best Voice Performance
• Best Use of Sound
• Best Music Video
• Best Children’s Pre-school Series
• Best Long Form Animation
• Best Children’s Series
• Best Animation in a Commercial
• Writers Award
• Best Original Music
• Social Good Award
• Best Immersive Animation
• Lamb Award
• Cutting-Edge Award
• Factual Award
• Wildcard Award (new for 2022)

The BAAs will also present their Public Choice category – for which audiences can vote – in the lead-up to the ceremony.