The weeks ahead

The Balkanima European Animation Film Festival kicks off today, with Laura-Beth Cowley's film The Gift among its official selection. If you're checking out the event be sure to catch the film in their Main Competition Program 3 that will be streaming this Thursday October 22nd at 9pm CET. It's been a while but I remember this event as one that gave my films a chance during the earlier days of me putting them out there so it's great to see they're still at it.

Some super exciting news is that the Cardiff Animation Festival have decided to go ahead with their 2020 edition after all, albeit in digital form. As you might recall from earlier this year, both The Gift and my latest film Speed were part of the line-up which remains the case - you can see them as part of the programmes Shorts 2: Body and Shorts 3: Heart respectively, both available from October 24th through the November 1st with special live-stream watch parties on October 27th at 4pm and 7pm.

Laura-Beth and I will also be wearing our interviewers' caps for two Animators' Brunch Q&A sessions you might want to check out. They'll be free to attend and taking place at 11am on October 25th and November 1st. Other events definitely worth taking a peek at include Directing Bob's Burgers with Simon Chong (6pm October 24th) a special Visible in Visuals panel (6pm October 29th) as well as presentations for Moonvalley (11am October 31st) and The Rubbish World of Dave Spud (1pm October 31st). There's a whole heap more on offer so be sure to give the full schedule your attention.

Another event that will be taking place toward the end of this month with be Maniatic - the Fantastic International Film Festival of Manises over in Valencia, Spain. This one will be including a rarer (these days) screening of my 2018 film Sunscapades, which will be part of the Children's Session on October 30th at 5pm. Hopefully it won't give the young'uns nightmares. Check out the full programme and venue/COVID info at the festival's official website. 

Curiously, just over a week later Sunscapades is getting itself another Spanish screening at the Festival BaideFest Roses. This one will be the slightly less kid-friendly screening Horror Geek COVID Block VII that takes place November 7th from 10pm at the Municipal Theatre of Roses. How 'bout that?

Debuting all over the place

If Tesco can get away with pulling the xmas crap this early on, then screw it, so can I! The holiday season starts this month with a trio of international screenings for "The Naughty List"!
As I already blathered about, it'll be part of the Cologne Comedy Festival but now I know that the specific screening is Friday 15th at 8pm, as part of Screens of Comedy. I will be there! I'm usually not as my films tend to get accepted by festivals far, far away, but this one's a special circumstance. It will also at some point be broadcast on WDR, which will be a nice first for me.Before then, though at a time I've yet to determine, I can now confirm that the film is indeed included as part of the animation strand for the IASI International Film Festival. Hurrah!But before any of that I'm pretty stoked to say that it will also be shown at this year's European Animated Film Festival Balkanima, which screened "House Guest" last year! Screening this Wednesday (the 6th) as part of the European Panorama at noon. The following day it will also be screening Sophie Klevenow's superb short "Noesis" which I did some sound work on, so there's two reasons to get your ass over to Belgrade. More info at their official site and Facebook group.

Something to balk at...

'House Guest' will make its next stop in Serbia (Belgrade, to be precise - and why not, I ask you?) on Thursday October 8th at Balkanima '09 - 6th European Festival of Animated Film. It's part of the Student Competitive Programme 4 which begins at 4pm. The full festival runs from the 6th-10th and includes a lot of very interesting films, including Laura Ratta's (who recently graduated from the same MA that pulled 'House Guest' out of me like a gooey, screeching infant last year) elaborate and highly-polished piece 'The Legend of Geb & Nut'. The full program can be downloaded here.