Puppet Masters Animation Conference 2024
CIT and the Cosgrove Hall Films Archive present this annual conference for fans, students and practitioners of animation, puppetry and character design.
This event features a series of masterclass talks from creative visionaries who are responsible for a new generation of animated works, helping to keep both stop-motion and hand-drawn animation alive and showing how practitioners can develop meaningful careers in animation.
Our lineup includes:
Ellie Land
Ellie is an award-winning animator and filmmaker known for her innovative work in animated documentary, particularly on health-related topics.
In her presentation, she discusses her unique approach to combining animation with documentary storytelling, using it as a tool to explore complex, sensitive, and often personal health issues. She shares insights into her creative process, from research and collaboration with experts to the ethical considerations she navigates when portraying real-life experiences through animation.
Her short film, Plunge, was produced by Tyke Films and supported by the BFI. Plunge is an animated documentary about Katie who found empowerment, friendship and healing from plunging into the frigid waters of the North Sea.
Georgia Madden
Georgia is a stop motion animator based in Liverpool. Her most recent short, Divination Dave was commissioned by BBC Arts as part of their New Creatives programme and has gone on to see festival success, winning ‘Best Animation’ at the BFI Future Film Awards 2022. Her next stop motion short Rubberleg is a coming-of-age, cosmic adventure currently in development, and will follow a boy’s journey through past lives to grow back a missing limb.
One 6th – Baz Sells & Ben Jackson
One6th is an award winning, Stop-Motion animation studio, founded in 2018.
Born from a love of filmmaking at a scale of 1:6, One6th is an ever evolving stop-motion studio, with an appetite for keeping it fresh. They’re committed to creating captivating animation, gravitating towards bold ideas and exploring new perspectives. At their studio in central Manchester, the company creates everything from props, sets and puppets all the way through to animation and principle photography.
Laura Tofarides
Laura is a stop-motion director, animator & puppet maker. She studied animation at UWE Bristol then completed the Certificate in Character Animation through NFTS and Aardman Academy.
She has been animating professionally since 2014 on features, shorts, commercials, TV specials & TV series with directors such as Nick Park and Wes Anderson. She also makes stop motion puppets, helps to organise and curate a number of animation festivals. Laura also gives talks & run animation workshops in-person & online.
Anastasia Papadopoulou
Anastasia is a stop motion creator from Greece, living the last 2 years in the UK. Her first personal short film “Elevator Alone”, has received 33 awards and has been selected in 160 festivals such as Leeds young Film Fest, Bolton Film Festival, Fantoche Animation Film Festival, Manchester Animation festival, LIAF, Kaboom etc. It’s a graduation stop motion film which she wrote, directed, animated and constructed the sets and puppets.
Her passion for model making led her working with stop motion studios on various projects such as adverts, short movies and music videos as a prop maker/set dresser and puppet maker. What she loves the most, is to find and add the small details in props that pop and bring sets to life.
Joseph Wallace
Joseph is a BAFTA Cymru nominated director, writer and producer. His work has won awards, received Vimeo Staff Picks and screened at festivals around the world.
His acclaimed music video for Sparks led Wallace to create sequences for Edgar Wright’s doc feature The Sparks Brothers which premiered at Sundance and Wallace’s segments were described as ‘dark wonders’ by Guardian’s Mark Kermode. His last short Salvation Has No Name won the Grand Prix at Animage in Brazil and Animario in Spain, was long-listed for both BIFA and BAFTA and received the Jury Special Mention at the Unifrance Prix du Court Metrage at Cannes 2023.