Electrifying animated work and the making of…

This month I’m taking part in two events where I’ll be talking about great contemporary animation and profiling the work and careers of young animation professionals.

Living your life at 25 frames per second panel discussion

First up, I’ll be at the BFI Future Film Festival on Sunday 17 February. The FFF is a festival dedicated at ‘building future filmmakers’ and is aimed at 15 to 25 year olds who are passionate about film. For the FFF’s day dedicated to animation, you’ll find an Animate Projects curated screening of Random Acts, a masterclass with their makers, and a panel discussion, in the BFI Southbank’s Blue Room.

In association with Underwire Festival, I’ll be chairing the panel discussion with some talented, young, female animators at 4pm. We’ll be discussing their careers and examining how they balance their commercial work and personal projects (very much a follow on to the panel that I produced at Underwire Festival last year). I’ll be speaking with animators Kate Jessop, Ginevra Boni and Kris Hoffman about their diverse practices and will be encouraging them to share their stories of life after graduation, which I imagine will be a heady mix of heart warming and horror.

Ars Electronica Animation Film Festival Special Screening

I was invited by the Austrian Culture Forum London to present a selection of films from the 2012 edition of Ars Electronica. As Ars Electronica is one of the foremost festivals for animation, and recognises the creative talent in gaming, advertising, VFX and motion graphics, on a par with art film, music video and animated documentary, I was delighted to oblige. For this screening programme, I watched the majority of films screened at the festival, discovering many visual gems in the process.

At the screening, I’ll be showing twenty handpicked films that shone out from the competition, by brilliant makers such as Jeff Desom, Marielle Tollis and Erick Oh. Come along on to the Austrian Culture Forum on Thursday 28 February at 7pm if you’re interested in seeing great creative talent from across the globe.