Manchester Animation Festival – overview
This year the North West opened its doors to creatives from all over the globe for the first ever Manchester Animation Festival, which took place November 17th-19th. With its rich history in animation coupled with the boom in new companies taking root over the last few years, Manchester’s a thriving community of creatives was highlighted by the festival, itself an action packed three days consisting of screenings, competitions, networking opportunities and informative talks all surrounding the industry’s past, present and future.
MAF Volunteers
The highlight of the festival was the Fellowship Award for the great Brian Cosgrove, which consisted of a retrospective of the company’s work, how Cosgrove Hall was created and the great adventures it went through, gaining talent and momentum until it sadly closed its doors. The company produced many beloved shows such as Danger Mouse (1981), The Wind in the Willows (1983) and Roald Dahl’s The BFG (1989) gaining great success globally. During the presentation it was evident just how far the company had come over the years; improving the rigs for their stop motion puppets, refining their designs and creating better acting in their animation. What was most evident was Cosgrove’s considerate and energetic manner towards his staff and this was reflected in Peter Saunders’ speech when he presented the fellowship award.
Brian Cosgrove (left) talking to Steve Henderson
Joanna Quinn’s life drawing workshop got everyone involved as it delved into the knowledge of an animation genius, showing how she uses life as a reference for her animation. Quinn shared great tips on weight of line and how this can be used to draw the viewer’s eye whilst also highlighting the heaviest parts of the body. The session also had all participants create a series of images from the life model while Quinn spoke about how she would bring these to life adding anticipation, exaggeration and making sure to avoid mistakes that would make the animation seem unnatural. Overall a great incite into the process and thought behind great works such as Girl’s Night Out (1986) and Britannia (1996).
Joana Quinn’s life drawing workshop
From Paper to Puppet was a workshop presented by Animation Toolkit who built a puppet in just less than two hours, going through each stage and showing how to produce a puppet using both a wired armature and one of their pre-made armature kits. It was a great hands-on experience where each puppet was passed around for the audience to get a closer look, sharing tips and tricks that could only be picked up with years of training.
Tomm Moore’s masterclass focused on Cartoon Saloon’s latest production Song of the Sea (2014). Delving into the film’s production process, Moore’s passion came through as he spoke about how he came up with the idea for the film, looking into Irish folklore with Celtic influences leaking into the artwork, as well as the importance of keeping the identity of the film Irish. In a bid to stay independent the film was produced in collaboration with a number of studios across Europe and Moore highlighted the difficulties of such a production and how these were overcome.
Tomm Moore
There were many other great talks from companies such as Blue Zoo and masterclasses from animation professionals such as Will Becher and Tim Searle. Many stand out films where shown at the festival with winners including best graduation film Edmond (2015) and best short film Guida (2014) showing some incredible talent from all over the world. Making it in Manchester was a panel made up of representatives from Manchester-based companies Mackinnon and Saunders, Factory and Flix, who highlighted the growth within Manchester and how companies are embracing technology and taking risks in a rapidly changing industry.
Festival team. From left to right: Steve Henderson, Jen Hall, Deb Singleton, Bill Lawrence
The festival was a celebration of British animation and camaraderie between companies who are keeping the industry thriving in the UK whilst beginning to look at the possibilities of global co-production. The legacy of Cosgrove Hall was a massive presence throughout the festival, with many people reminiscing about the company and crediting it as the catalyst for the birth of many of the studios across Manchester that are still producing new work today. With a booming industry Manchester is quickly becoming the UK’s hub of animation and this was the beginning of a great festival which can only grow bigger, attracting more people to the North West over the coming years.