Encounters: 2026 Programme Unveiled

Passes are available now for this year's edition of the Encounters Film Festival, which has announced its full programme. I'm pleased to say that we've expanded our animation competition programme to six competition screenings, with animation a significant presence across two kids programmes, the documentary category, DepicT! and Late Lounge, individual tickets for all of which are also available: 

• Full Programme
• Animated Encounters 1
• Animated Encounters 2
• Animated Encounters 3
• Animated Encounters 4
• Animated Encounters 5
• Animated Encounters 6
• DepicT!
• Late Lounge
• Documentary Encounters
• Kids Shorts (5+)
• Kids Shorts (10+)

The inevitable "Bitching about AI" episode

In episode 121 of the Skwigly Animation Podcast we welcome the team from the upcoming animated series Ghostbusters: Night Shift – Ben Hibon, Elliott Kalan, Jason Reitman, Gil Kenan and Amie Karp.

Also discussed: CAF highlights including Julia Pott’s masterclass, Sketch Showdown antics and The Midnight Walk, festival karaoke traditions, beating the heat at Annecy, teasing Wildwood with Travis Knight, Richard Williams’s posthumous final film Lysistrata, Ricky Gervais’s Alley Cats, Ben’s attempt to get through Charlie Kaufman’s stop-mo-themed novel Antkind, the rise of both AI and the vehement pushback against it through projects including Jorge Gutierrez’s abandoned project Punky Duck and the Annecy furore around Hisko Hulsing’s Danse Macabre.

Animation Podcasts | Skwigly · Skwigly Podcast 121 - Summer 2026

'Speed' released online

Following a festival run that included showings at Pictoplasma, Encounters, Hiroshima, MAF, CAF, Festival Anima, Sommets du cinéma d'animation, PÖFF Shorts and interfilm Berlin among others, my sixth animated short film Speed, produced during my time at Shy Guys Studios, is now available to watch online in full.

The usual film platforms don't seem especially interested in helping push this one out there, so any views and shares much appreciated.

Let's Do Brunch

Excited to again be involved in another edition of Cardiff Animation Festival, which this year takes place April 23rd-26th at Chapter Arts Centre. I'll be there with Laura-Beth to present a few Skwigly brunch events including a book presentation 10am Friday 24th (talking Intimate Animation alongside Joanna Quinn, Les Mills and Greg McLeod discussing their own recent literary ventures) and filmmaker Q&A sessions on the 25th and 26th. See you there! 

• Animators Brunch: Skwigly Book Club
• Animators Brunch: Q&As with Skwigly 
• Full programme

Podding Along

In episode 120 of the Skwigly Animation Podcast we welcome Ugo Bienvenu, who joins us to discuss his film Arco, out this month in UK cinemas. 

Also discussed: The increasing sneakiness of AI creators passing their content off as animation, adult fandoms of popular children’s shows, pleasing Oscar and BAFTA outcomes with wins for The Girl Who Cried Pearls (Dir. Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski) and Two Black Boys in Paradise (Dir. Baz Sells), Aardman‘s upcoming Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom, upcoming Cardiff Animation Festival highlights, the ‘social experiment’ of Konstantin Bronzit’s Oscar-nominated short The Three Sisters and we review the recent BBC series Small Prophets featuring animation by Ainslie Henderson and Will Anderson.

Animation Podcasts | Skwigly · Skwigly Podcast 120 - Spring 2026

Bunny Dropping

To mark 20 years since its release, I've put out a special vinyl edition of my 2006 Struwwelpeter album Agnosticaust. This follows on from last year's vinyl reissues of Sibling Ribaldry EP (2008), The Book of Women (2010), The Birdcage (2015) and My Head is Too Small For My Body (2022), essentially wrapping up the Struwwelpeter vinyl rollout until I start releasing new music (or get some older music in a presentable state). You can get yourself a full-on collection goin'!