Sunny Disposition

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A post shared by Ben Mitchell (@benlmitchell) on Oct 15, 2018 at 5:14am PDT

Getting to see Sunscapades in front of a proper festival audience for the first time at Encounters last month was pretty darn wonderful and a hard one to top. However the massive crowd at yesterday's BFI London Film Festival screening proved to be up to the task. I was also blessed to be among some fab film talent whose work was also screening - including recent Skwigly interviewee Anna Mantzaris - not to mention most of the Sunscapades crew Laura-Beth, Hannah, Fiona and Phil. I appreciate that when men who look like me get sentimental it just comes off as creepy so I'll be brief in once again voicing my love and gratitude to such a fabulous team as well as Elaine and the rest of the LFF gang for letting my creepy little film be part of such a great event. If you missed the Real Horrorshow screening yesterday then you can still check it out this Thursday 6:30pm at Rich Mix, if you act fast there are a handful of tickets still available here.

Having sadly missed the fourth birthday celebration evening for Cardiff Animation Nights I'm excited to be swinging by later in the month for their special pre-Halloween screening Cardiff Animation Frights, curated by the wonderful Dani and at which Sunscapades will again be playing. So let's all go ahead make scare ourselves shiteless at Chapter on the 27th (screening will kick off at 7pm, after which I'm sure there'll be a beverage or several to be had).

That same weekend the film will be getting its hotly-anticipated (in so far as nobody's explicitly informed me that it isn't) Serbian debut at Film Front, or Filmski Front as is more fun to say. These fine folks previously programmed my films Ground Running and The Naughty List back in 2010, nearly eight years ago; that's right, folks - I've mastered basic subtraction. Although they've announced the official selection I don't know exactly when the screening will be, but the festival takes place October 25th-28th at the Novi Sad Cultural Center.
Do sljedećeg puta!

Premature Adulation

The next outing for Sunscapades will serve as the film's Italian premiere at the Fano International Film Festival! This is one is fairly unique as it has announced its award winners and special mentions before the actual screenings have taken place. Can't say that's a practice I've ever encountered over this past decade of festival submissions but I shan't rock the boat as Sunscapades is among the films to get itself a Special Jury Mention! Not too shabby.
The screening itself will take place on Wednesday October 17th (landing slap-bang between its two screenings at the BFI London Film Festival) starting 9:15pm at the Cinema Malatesta in Fano alongside two recent favourites of mine, Britt Raes's Catherine and Rory Byrne's An Island.

Later this month the film is part of the 2018 SoDak Motion Festival's official selection, alongside such sterling work as Animade's Tend, Evan DeRushie's Birdlime and David Chai's Space Butthole. Actually I haven't seen the latter, I just found myself moved by the poetry of its title. Although I don't have exact specifics on times, the screenings will take place October 25th in Brookings SD at the South Dakota Art Museum and on October 27th in Sioux Falls, SD at the Washington Pavilion's Belbas Theatre. This festival also included Klementhro a couple years' back so they're a grand bunch in my book.
That's all for tonight but fret ye not, you fretty little fretting fretters, there'll be more news a-comin' soon.

The gang's all here

 

As Encounters is about to kick off it's an exciting time for my new film Sunscapades and hopefully I'll get to see some of you at either the Wednesday or Thursday screening! To mark the occasion I've put up a new sneaky teaser clip for y'all. This is the third and probably final one as any more would give away one of the main story points, but your appetite for my moving doodles is not yet sated you can see the other teasers here and here.

It's worth mentioning also that tickets for next month's BFI London Film Festival - at which the film will also be screening - are now on sale. The Real Horrorshow screening takes place at the Prince Charles Cinema on Sunday October 14th at 3:30pm, then at the Rich Mix Cinema on Thursday October 18th, 6:15pm. If you're thinking of going it'd be best to act swiftly as they're selling fast, so grab 'em up here.

With its appearance at The Official Twin Peaks UK Festival looming, my earlier film Klementhro continues to charm its way into programmers' hearts or, at the very least, convince them of its value as tolerable filler material. On October 6th it will be part of the shorts programme Animation Bazaar at the inaugural edition of the Margate Film Festival in association with Short Sighted Cinema who gave it some love last year. The screening, taking place at Cliff's, will start at 2pm and tickets are priced very reasonably at whatever-the-hell-you-feel-like. Pretty sweet deal, I'd say.

Meanwhile Laura-Beth Cowley's film Boris-Noris continues its strong streak with today's announcement of its inclusion in this year's Manchester Animation Festival, the fourth edition of which will take place at HOME November 13th-15th. The film will be part of the Student Films Panorama on the 15th at 2:20pm. MAF is always a fun one and you can check out the full line-up (including some of our regular Skwigly events and a screening of Chuck Steel: Night of the Trampires) here.

Following its inclusion in the touring programme Festival Ciné Junior at the beginning of the year, starting this month Boris-Noris is also part of Les p’tites bobines, a selection Ciné Junior highlights that will be screening at events and before feature films at independent cinemas in the French department Seine-Saint-Denis over the course of the next twelve months. You can check out the Ciné Quartier Libre website for more info, though it'll help if you speak that Franceland speak.

In a similar vein the film will precede a special screening of Wes Anderson's Isle of Dogs this Friday at Sinema Sadwrn in the Welsh village Llansadwrn. It's an inspired pairing and should make for a great event, so check out their Facebook page for more info if you fancy checking it out.
Phew! And it's only Monday...

Sunny Side Up

Some fantastic news I've been sitting on can finally be revealed today. On the heels of its first major festival selection next month Sunscapades will be screening in October as part of the BFI London Film Festival!
Not only that, it's in what looks to be one of the most exciting screenings - Real Horrorshow - alongside a mix of animated and live-action shorts that look absolutely fantastic, such as Anna Mantzaris's Good Intentions that, as with Sunscapades, also features music by the excellent Phil Brookes.
All told the film is in damn good company and, given that it's not an animation-focused festival, I'm incredibly honoured to be among the ones that made the grade, including recent work by Chris Shepherd, Evgenia Golubeva and Peter Millard to name a few.
The screening takes place at the Prince Charles Cinema (Downstairs Screen) on Sunday October 14th at 3:30pm, then repeated Thursday October 18th at the Rich Mix Cinema (Screen 1) and tickets go on sale September 13th. I'll definitely aim to be at the Sunday screening so hope to catch you there!