Members of the ScreenSkills team were at the Manchester Animation Festival this year to help mark its tenth anniversary. We caught up with ScreenSkills' Animation Production Liaison Executive, Kieran Argo, to fill us in with details from the festival.
Happy Birthday Manchester Animation Festival!
The Manchester Animation Festival celebrated its 10th birthday in style, running from 10-14 November, with something for everyone in animation.
Over five days, the festival delivered an amazing array of screenings, workshops and panel events. These included 12 feature films (five in competition) and seven special screenings (previews, premieres, galas, anniversaries), plus 120 short films from 32 countries. The festival also offered 18 panel discussions, 11 industry talks, seven workshops, seven social events, and three Making Of sessions. The programme was rounded out with two book signings and two award ceremonies.
Highlights included a visit from Aardman's Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham to talk about their latest Wallace & Gromit film Vengeance Most Fowl.
The festival demonstrated its commitment to industry development through 54 pre-booked portfolio reviews and 57 business-to-business meetings at the Animation Nation Forum Connect, alongside a leadership roundtable and an Enterprise Ireland partnership dinner.
I was joined by members of the ScreenSkills team - Head of Film, Animation and Future Skills, Emma Turner, and Matt Brothers, Film and Animation Coordinator, and had the opportunity to catch up with many companies and individuals who work with ScreenSkills to help upskill the animation workforce in the UK.
Several Animation Skills Council members were also in attendance including the Chair and Deputy Chair Tom Box from Blue Zoo and Greg Boardman from Three Stones Media.
ScreenSkills hosted a dinner celebrating the new expanded range of ScreenSkills animation activities with current and prospective Skills Fund contributors including Tiger Aspect, Snafu Animation, Wild Child Animation, Karrot Animation, King Banana, Lupus Films and BBC Children's.
Please contact us to find out more about the Animation Skills Fund and how we can help with animation production and training and skills needs.
Congratulations and thanks to Steve and Jen and the hard-working MAF team for another incredible festival and we're already looking forward to number 11.
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