Cardiff Animation Festival Brings New Animation Events Online During Lockdown
Skwigly
Lockdown might have put a stop to Cardiff Animation Festival’s physical 2020 edition, but it hasn’t stopped the Cardiff Animation Festival team. Since restrictions on gathering were introduced, Cardiff Animation Festival have sprung into action, taking events to online platforms like YouTube Live, Slack and Zoom to keep audiences and animators connected during social distancing. Now Cardiff Animation Festival have four new online events to bring animation fans from around the world together – an online masterclass with Cartoon Saloon Animation Director Lorraine Lordan, an online workshop with Welsh animator Kyle Legall, and curated online screenings of some of the best independent animation from around the world for families and adult audiences.
Previously unreleased award-winning animated shorts on YouTube Live
Cardiff Animation Nights, the CAF team’s free bi-monthly independent animation screenings, takes to YouTube Live for a second time on Thursday 30th of April at 8:15pm, with 12 brilliant new animated short films. The team took Cardiff Animation Nights online for the first time earlier this month, reaching nearly three times their usual audience numbers – over 500 people from around the world tuned in to watch independent animated short films together apart.
Independent animation for kids on Saturday morning
On Saturday morning, young animation fans can swap the usual cartoons for an hour of family-friendly independent animation. Cardiff Animation Kids will stream live on Saturday 2nd of May at 10:30am, including the world premiere of stop-motion animated short film Sum of its Parts directed by Alisa Stern.
A masterclass with Cartoon Saloon Animation Director Lorraine Lordan
On Saturday 2nd of May at 4pm, Animation Director Lorraine Lordan joins Cardiff Animation Festival live online from Ireland for a masterclass sharing insight from her varied and international career in animation, presented in collaboration with ScreenSkills. For much of her career Lorraine has worked at renowned Irish studio Cartoon Saloon, including as Animation Supervisor on the Annie-nominated TV Series Puffin Rock, Sequence Animation Supervisor on Oscar-nominated The Breadwinner and Assistant Director on the new Puffin Rock feature film; her work in animation has taken her around the world, to studios in the Czech Republic, Germany, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Cambodia and the UK. Lorraine talks life in lockdown, how she’s been able to balance making a short film with lead roles on features, and shares what she’s learned along her impressive career journey.
Welsh animator Kyle Legall runs a character design workshop
Aspiring animators and those looking to brush up on their skills can join an online character design workshop with Welsh animator and multi-disciplinary artist Kyle Legall on Tuesday 5th of May at 6pm, presented in collaboration with Cinema Golau. Kyle began his career making animated films about black history and his community in Butetown, Cardiff, writing, directing, designing and animating short films for Channel 4 and S4C. Having since worked extensively across numerous different art forms, including spoken word, live music, performance art, graffiti and clothing design, Kyle is now bringing his eclectic skills back to animation. Emerging and aspiring animators can draw along with Kyle as he shares tips on evoking emotion through character design.
Cardiff Animation Festival is funded by Arts Council Wales, Ffilm Cymru Wales, Film Hub Wales as part of the BFI Film Audience Network (FAN), BFI NETWORK Wales, and Ymddiried through the Owen Edwards Scholarship Fund, and sponsored by Cloth Cat Animation, Picl Animation, Creative Europe Desk UK – Wales, the University of South Wales, Cardiff Metropolitan University, Jammy Custard Animation, the British Animation Awards, S4C and by the ScreenSkills Animation Skills Fund with contributions from UK animation productions.
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