Listen up

This week sees a new episode of Visible In Visuals in which previous panelist Steff Lee chairs an informative and enlightening discussion on what it is like to be a parent working in animation, with topics that include coping as new parents, balancing work and family life and how the industry responds to parenthood. The panel features Emma Fernando, Jim le Fevre, Evgenia Golubeva, Myles McLeod, Robert Nelson, Marcia Rojas and Rachel Thorn - check it out below or download here.

If that hasn't fully whetted your appetite for insightful content we've also instigated Animation One-To-Ones, a new video/podcast strand that will be more interview-focused in the vein of some of our earlier podcast minisodes, kicking off with a chat with Oscar-nominated Erick Oh, director of Opera. There's a bunch more already in the chamber so be sure to subscribe to both our podcast feed wherever you get your podcasts as well as our YouTube channel to keep abreast of whenever these go up.

If you'd rather just curl up with a book then some news that's sure to make you vibrate with glee is that my book Independent Animation: Developing, Producing and Distributing Your Animated Films - 450+ pages of incredible insights from some of the animation scene's best and brightest that's sure to get you all fired up to make your own film and take the world by storm - is on sale this month. If you pick it up directly from Routledge you can get your mitts on it for a chonky 20% off until May 2nd - with free shipping, no less. You can't say we don't treat ya right.

Monday Mindfulness

If you're after something to help break up the day then there's a new episode of Visible in Visuals to watch/listen to. This time around the subject is mental health, marking the first (and possibly only) panel to include myself, alongside organiser Tanya Scott, director Evgenia Golubeva, psychotherapist Sarah McCaffrey, animator Mohamed Orekan and Steff Lee of Kino Bino Studio.

Animation Podcasts | Skwigly · Visible In Visuals 07 - Mental Health in Animation

In this episode we discuss the realities of taking care of yourself while working in a competitive and often stressful industry, and how we can improve our understanding of mental health at work. Swing by Skwigly for some additional resources and be sure to keep in touch with Visible In Visuals if you have any feedback or are interested in getting involved with them down the line.

It's been pretty quiet on the festivals front, with the only news being it's about to get quieter as the Brussels Independent Short Film Festival: Courts Mais Trash (which this year includes Speed) will be postponing its March dates to instead take place April 21st-28th as a hybrid event. Honestly it's anyone's guess what will or won't be able to go ahead by then but I'm keeping my fingers crossed as they're a lovely bunch. Updates when I have 'em.

The Brunch Bunch

It's been a week since the Cardiff Animation Festival wrapped and when all's said and done it was an absolutely brilliant first edition, with some of the best overall energy and enthusiasm among the attendees that I've encountered doing the ol' festival rounds. It was a real honour to have been as involved as I was and I have nothing but gratitude and massive respect for the team who pulled it off so well.
For those of you who weren't able to make it, once you've scrubbed the stink of shame off you Laura-Beth has a great write-up on her personal highlights you can check out, while Steve and I will be going through ours in the next podcast due out this week.

In the meantime I was also able to get recordings from the Filmmaker Brunch sessions in which festival guests whose films were playing in competition were able to chat a bit about their work. These included:

• Phil Brookes – Composer, Enough
• Roos Mattaar – Animator, Sparks: Edith Piaf (Said It Better Than Me)
• Myles McLeod – Marfa
• Oscar Barany – Thirsty
• Christina S. Nerland – Leave A Print
• Dotty Kultys – The Hunchback and the Swan
• Thomas White – Cretin
• Yoni Salmon – Niggun
• Ilenia Cotardo – Lemon and Elderflower
• Evgenia Golubeva – I Want to Live in the Zoo
• Sophie Dutton – Lost
• Jake Harvey – Lost
• Anna Eijsbouts – Hate For Sale
  
• Somnath Pal – Death of a Father

What a haul! You can listen to the three-part podcast minisode series I've produced from these below: