Mad Marchness

So far we're on one post per month in blogland; available time in which to jot down my pithy observations has been scarce, to say the least. Any floating nuggets of assumption that this year would prove less busy than my hair-thinning 2015 have been well and truly flushed away at this point.
I don't think there'll be anything I'll be able to show for the current contract I'm on for a good little while but here's a roundup of what's been happening elsewise.
The last few Skwigly podcasts have boasted some excellent animation guests, including:
Australian indie director Elliot Cowan (The Stressful Adventures of Boxhead and Roundhead) in episode 43...
...Louis Hudson and Ian Ravenscroft of Dice Productions discussing their career and recently released Nickelodeon short DuckManBoy in episode 44...
...not to mention Dan Gray and Tom Brown of Holbrooks, whose wonderfully grim short teeth was one of my top picks of last year, in episode 45:
Treat yourselves and get caught up!
As far as written features go, there are two recent interviews with NFB filmmakers Sarah Van Den Boom whose tremendous film In Deep Waters is an exploration of ‘Vanishing Twin Syndrome’; a constant sense of incompleteness that can stem from our time in the womb. I'm also very happy to once again speak with Theodore Ushev, this time on his latest film Blind Vaysha, an adventurous stereoscopic piece adapted from a short story by Georgi Gospodinov, shortly after its premiere at Berlinale in February.

I'm also incredibly happy to have interviewed Being John Malkovich and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind writer Charlie Kaufman on his first animated feature Anomalisa, a truly atypical stop-motion film that comes out this weekend in the UK. It may not be for everyone but it's such a breath of fresh air midst all the generica doing the rounds. Also interviewed is co-director Duke Johnson, whose acclaimed credits include Community and Mary Shelley's Frankenhole. The film is out tomorrow throughout the UK, I highly recommend you check out the listings to see if it's playing near you.
That's all for now. Hopefully see you again before another month goes by...

Chocolate Substitute

Our Skwigly advent calendar has wrapped up for another year, and what a thing of beauty it has become!
Here's another sampling of brilliant contributions:

Tanya Scott

Ross Butter and Louis Hudson

Rok Predin

Blue Zoo

Charlie Miller

Elliot Crutchley

Robert Kondo and Dice Tsutsumi

Massive gratitude again to everyone who took the time! Until next year, boys and gals.