Manchester Animation Festival Change Rules To Benefit Filmmakers Hit By Covid-19 Lockdown
Skwigly
Manchester Animation Festival (MAF) the UK’s largest animation festival has today announced that its call for entries for its international film competition and industry excellence awards is now open.
The Festival, now in its 6th year, has revealed that it will alter its submission rules to give greater flexibility to filmmakers as films and animation festivals are converting to online events as a result of the Covid-19 lockdown. As with most festivals, films are usually only valid for entry for one year after completion, but MAF is enabling films completed from 27 Jul 2019 to be valid not just for this year’s festival but for next year’s too. The festival is also ensuring that selected filmmakers for 2020 get to experience their work on a cinema screen. Festival Producer & Programmer Jen Hall Said:
If a film is selected to screen in 2020 and the festival has to become an online edition, we will commit to re-screen these films at the 2021 festival as an out of competition screening, and all those filmmakers will still receive a free filmmaker pass for the festival. This will give filmmakers the opportunity to win our competition in 2020 and still have their film celebrated in person on the big screen in 2021 – giving filmmakers the best of both worlds.
The move is a result of the festival consulting with the filmmaking community and festivals sector to find a solution for filmmakers who are missing out on the in-person festival experience with the limited time their film is eligible for its festival run.
The festival also revealled the 2020 poster, designed by Manchester illustrator Hammo
Manchester Animation Festival returns in November 2020 but with no government guidelines in place that far ahead, the festival has multiple plans in place, as Festival Director Steve Henderson explains:
Although we don’t yet know what form the 2020 edition of the festival will take, we want to reassure filmmakers that they are at the heart of what we do as a festival. We are currently planning for many variations of Manchester Animation Festival including in person and online editions, we are monitoring the global situation and advice from official sources and will make our decisions based first and foremost on the health and safety of our audience.
Manchester Animation Festival has opened its call for entries for its international film competition and industry excellence awards which celebrate individuals working in industry, the deadline for both is the 31 July 2020.
You can submit your film for free to Manchester Animation Festival via the website HERE. Manchester Animation Festival takes place from 15-19 November 2020.