London International Animation Festival Back for Live Audiences at 5 London Venues | See What’s On This Year
Skwigly
The London International Animation Festival (LIAF 2022), the UK’s largest, longest-running and most eclectic animation festival returns for its 19th year with a mammoth 10-day celebratory feast of forums, screen talks and 229 of the best animated shorts and features from around the world.
We are really excited to be back screening for our live audiences at 5 London venues – the Barbican, the Garden Cinema, the Horse Hospital, Close-Up Cinema and the Puppet Theatre Barge.
But for those unable to travel to London the programme will also be available online via digital screenings on our streaming platform, bringing the best in animation direct to people’s homes. This means many more people around the country and worldwide will be able to experience LIAF for the first time. Everything our audience loves about LIAF is being transformed into a virtual version; screenings, industry panels, filmmaker introductions and talks.
Screenings and talks will be available daily from 25 November to 4 December, running alongside live and pre-recorded panel discussions with many of the worlds’ leading animators and industry players.
As ever, this year’s uncompromising programme promises to inspire, delight and challenge the notion that animation is merely for the 3D CGI blockbuster genre or cute cartoons for kids. Independent animation is an art form that continues to thrive and develop as a breathtaking medley of styles, materials, techniques and production – from hand drawn, paint on glass, collage, sculpture, cut outs, puppets, abstract, sand/salt, to some of the more interesting developments in CGI – all of which can be seen at this year’s LIAF.
A snapshot of LIAF 2022
- 229 films from 35 countries, 120
- 8 international competition screenings: Including From Absurd to Zany (humorous shorts), Into The Dark (scary shorts), Animated Documentaries and the Abstract Showcase. 87 films of every technique, genre and style from the international indie-animation universe showing that animation is alive and well and thriving.
- The British Showcase: the best, most recent 13 short films the UK. Nobody in the world screens more British animation than LIAF and the British Showcase programme paints a vibrant picture of a spirited and imaginative animation nation. Most of the filmmakers will be onstage to introduce their films and talk about the ideas and processes behind them.
- Opening night special screening: the English premiere of feature length animated documentary A Cat Called Dom by Will Anderson and Ainslie Henderson. Recent winner of the Powell and Pressburger Award for best film at the Edinburgh Film Festival, this is a dizzying mix of live-action documentary and animation. The film shows friends and collaborators Will and Ainslie struggling to shoot a semi-scripted film for Will’s mother, who has been diagnosed with cancer. Whilst alone, Will turns to Dom, the animated cat that lives on his laptop screen and interjects with observations, questions and actions that shed a light on his feelings in a darkly humorous way. A thought-provoking, heartfelt and poignant film, Will and Ainslie will be joining us onstage after the screening to talk about their remarkable career to date in the world of film.
- Special screening – Figures in Focus ‘The Magical World’: A selection of shorts inspirited by the esoteric art of Leonora Carrington. These works share her love of experimentation, symbolism, the spirit world, and it’s creatures, as well as touching on the violence ever present in the human world. Figures in Focus was devised in 2017 in recognition of the under-representation of female and non-binary animators and their stories within the independent animation sector. The programme showcases incredible work crafted by contemporary animators, both in the UK and internationally.
- Special screening – Disrupting the Narrative (Black voices, British lives): A programme featuring 10 exciting filmmakers that are doing just that by using innovative animation techniques to explore a wider framework about and beyond race. The films celebrate the rich cultural diversity of black voices and British lives using animation, documentary and avant-garde experimental techniques to explore themes of identity, race, family, cultural taboos, genre, gender and the shared joy of play that pushes the art form to the outer limits.
- Special guest from Hungary – Reka Bucsi: We are delighted to welcome Reka to LIAF to present a retrospective of her films and commissioned work. Award-winning Hungarian independent animation Reka Bucsi makes poetic, dreamlike short films often drawing upon nature and animals as its subjects with themes that have the potential to convey complex messages through distinct and delightful imagery. Her work has been described as grotesque, sarcastic, dramatic and poetic and can make you laugh and cry.
- Animated feature film: My Love Affair with Marriage, directed by Signe Baumane. Fresh from scooping several awards at film festivals worldwide, My Love Affair with Marriage is a semi-autobiographical musical exploration of love, sex, romance and gender as viewed through the lens of neurochemistry. Using both two-dimensional and stop-motion animation, the film blends earnest vulnerability and dry humour. It’s a film that’s both deeply personal and relatable to anyone who’s ever lost themselves in a romantic relationship.
- Special screening – stop-motion panorama: Since the dawn of cinema puppet animation has provided some of the most mesmerising films ever made and puppet animators have been among the most revered. These 8 thought-provoking, moving and downright bonkers short puppet films have been made by some of the most talented independent animators in the world proving that tangible and physical stop-motion and puppet animation is alive and well and in rude health in the 21st century.
- Music video programme: the worlds best music clips made by the world’s most inventive animators. Animation is an integral element in many of the best music videos and here are some of the hottest bands and creative animators coming together to produce 80 minutes of pure aural and visual pleasures. Gorillaz, The Weeknd, Animal Collective, Mogwai and The Smile are all featured alongside several others.
- Late Night Bizarre: a programme of the weirdest, wildest and most demented films submitted to LIAF this year featuring a bunch of anti-classics guaranteed to be as far away from Disney as it’s possible to get.
- Edge of Frame: 2 programmes of films at the intersection of animation, experimental film and artists’ moving image celebrating this incredibly rich and vibrant, yet often marginalised and hard to define art form.
- The Best of the Next: The 28 best student films from the world’s best film schools made in the last 18 months. The first step on the animation ladder for these talented filmmakers, and the first time their wild and wonderful imaginations have been unleashed.
- 2 childrens’ screenings: for 0-7 year-olds and 8-15 year-olds.
- The Best of the Fest: a roundup of LIAF 2022, where the best films as chosen by audience and industry judges are announced, awarded prizes and re-screened one final time.
- Panel discussions with experts from within the industry on subjects such as how to run a business in the animation industry, what the Metaverse might offer animators, AI tools and their impact on animation, a look back and into the future at the career paths for women in animation and a disability panel looking at animators who are neuro-diverse.
FULL PROGRAMME ONLINE AT WWW.LIAF.ORG.UK
Tickets for in-venue screenings available from cinema box-offices.
Passes for online screenings which allow you to watch everything – (20 screenings and 7 panel discussions)
Full-price – £70
Concessions – £60
Single tickets for online screenings – £7