London International Animation Festival returns to Barbican 4-10 Dec
Skwigly
UPDATED: 11/11/2015
The London International Animation Festival returns to the Barbican from the 4 December with a seven-day programme of forums, workshops and over 200 of the best new, historical and retrospective animated shorts and features from around the world. This year’s uncompromising programme proves once again that animation goes beyond 3D CGI Hollywood blockbusters and shows independent animation as an art form that continues to thrive and develop as a medley of styles, materials, techniques and production.
Missing One Player (Lei Lei)
Guests attending the festival include world-renowned animators Barry Purves and Robert Morgan from the UK and Canada’s Luc Chamberland who will deliver workshops, ScreenTalks and career-spanning retrospective screenings.
Highlights include an Opening Night Gala celebrating 25 years of award-winning work from British animator Barry Purves, the UK premiere of Czech feature film Little From the Fish Shop directed by Jan Balej who uses beautiful stop-motion to tell a sad tale based on the classic fairytale The Little Mermaid, a tribute programme for the recently closed down Netherlands Institute of Animated Film, and two programmes aimed at young cinemagoers from different age groups.
Tik-Tak (Ülo Pikkov)
Over 2,400 films were entered to the festival this year and the best 118 new films have been selected to screen across several categories including among others 6 International Competition Programmes featuring a British Showcase, Into The Dark scary shorts, New Japanese Shorts – Beyond Anime. The winners from each category will also be screened during the Best of Fest Closing Night Gala.
LIAF15 will also screen the UK Premiere of the acclaimed Czech feature film Little From the Fish Shop – (dir:Jan Balej), Czech Republic, which has been scooping awards at animation festivals around the world. Director Jan Balej follows in the footsteps of Czech animation pioneer Jiri Trnka with this sumptuously rich stop-motion masterpiece based on the fairytale “The Little Mermaid”. A tragic and moving parable to touch the hearts of all ages.
LIAF 2015’s opening night gala celebrates one of the giants of British animation – Barry Purves. Barry Purves’ career spans 25 years with over 60 international awards (including BAFTA and Oscar nominations) and many lifetime achievement awards. Equally passionate about his theatre work, Barry’s films embrace the language of stage and his worldwide teaching on animation enhances his reputation as a raconteur. Barry will talk with unflinching honesty about the ups and downs of being an animator, the creative process involved and we’ll get a chance to look back at several of his multi-awarded short films, clips from his TV series and commercials.
Luc Chamberland will present his mini-feature film ‘Seth’s Dominion’, a 42- minute celebration of the Canadian cartoonist “Seth”, best known for comic books such as Palookaville. In his personal projects he transforms his poignant inner life into observant and witty graphic stories. Director Luc Chamberland’s film sheds light on his articulate subject, mixing insightful biography with vivid animation in an artful fusion of filmmaking techniques that perfectly captures Seth’s manifold creative universe.
Robert Morgan is the unsung hero of UK puppet horror animation and he will grace the Barbican with his presence in a special career-spanning retrospective entitled ‘Death-shriek of the Bird-Man’. One of the most visionary genre filmmakers working today. Imagine a fusion between the sensibilities of Salvador Dali, David Cronenberg, Ingmar Bergman, Tim Burton and the Quay Brothers, and you’ll have a partial idea of the sheer brilliance of this man’s work.
Robert is at the Barbican on Saturday December 5th. There will be blood!
Jo Lawrence, Noriko Okaku and Elizabeth Hobbs are the Crafty Women, three animators at the forefront of their profession who come from diverse backgrounds unified by a hands-on approach to filmmaking, a love of great stories and a willingness to experiment with their work. Using a variety of hand-made, craft-based techniques such as collage, classic illustration, animated puppetry, watercolour, ink blots and rubber-stamping the Crafty Women’s work borrows from the past but collectively is very much rooted in the 21st Century. All 3 filmmakers will be in attendance at the Arthouse Crouch End on Monday December 7 to introduce their films and take part in a post-screening Q&A.
Three other British guests – Becky and Joe and Chris Shepherd – present their work at the cult underground venue The Horse Hospital. Becky and Joe met at Kingston University and have made music videos for Tame Impala, Delicate Steve and Unknown Mortal Orchestra, designed window displays for Selfridges and produced the 5 part online internet-sensation series “Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared”. Chris Shepherd is one of the most cherished names in the UK independent animation scene. His work fuses comedy with commentary on the darker side of human nature and he has made numerous award-winning short films that have screened to universal acclaim around the world. Chris, Becky and Joe will take part in an informal onstage chat with LIAF Director Nag Vladermersky on closing night of the festival – Sunday December 13.
The Horse Hospital screenings include Late Night Bizarre – if ever there was evidence that animation is a lot more than cute kids stories, this fearsome collection of the best truly haunted animated visions is most definitely it.
Another LIAF highlight is the NIAF (Netherlands Institute of Animated Film) tribute programme, a poignant look at an utterly unique organisation. Officially opened in September 1993, NIAF was a curious hybrid, intensely focused on supporting animation as an art form through a number of different activities. At its core, however, was its focus on facilitating the production of short, auteur, animated films. This was its unshakable central mission. From the beginning, it set out to achieve this by becoming something that could perhaps be best described as a kind of school without a curriculum.
The Animated Documentaries programme is a selection of stylish, persuasive and compelling short form narratives mixed with some of the most stunning visuals of the festival, and the Abstract showcase is animation in it’s purest form – LIAF’s annual collection of the most impressive and expressive experimental animated films from all over the world.
LIAF will also present two programmes of animation specifically for children – Amazing Animations for 0-6 year-olds and Marvellous Animations for 7-15 year-olds. There’ll be talking animals, seriously fun adventures and tales that spark all those little imaginations.
The University of East London (UEL) will be hosting the ‘UK Animator Focus’ a day-long event on Saturday December 12 supported by Film Hub London, with talks and workshops from acclaimed animators Barry Purves, Robert Bradbrook and Luc Chamberland as well a screening of the British Showcase, an exceptional opportunity to see what British animators are doing, how they’re doing it and how the art form is travelling.
Full details can be found at barbican.org.uk and liaf.org.uk