(Image: British Animation Awards)

The British Animation Awards, the UK’s leading celebration of animation – known as the ‘BAAs’ – is set to return to London in 2028, marking a new chapter for the industry awards after a hiatus.

First launched in 1996, the BAAs are being brought back under new leadership by respected animation industry leaders Tracy Shaw and Anna Lord, who will steer the organisation into its next era while retaining its founding commitment to championing the very best creative work and talent across the sector.

Shaw, whose career spans Warner Bros., Universal Pictures and DreamWorks Animation, and Lord, who has held senior roles at Nexus Studios, Locksmith Animation and Passion Pictures, bring decades of experience across the international animation landscape. Together, they will shape a renewed BAAs programme designed to recognise the breadth, creativity and innovation of a sector that is central to the UK’s creative economy and continues to evolve at pace.

L-R: Tracy Shaw and Anna Lord (Image: British Animation Awards)

The BAAs will continue to operate as a benchmark of quality and creative excellence, bringing together the companies, creative talent, and producers behind the UK’s most distinctive animation work, while providing a platform to showcase British animation and opening opportunities for other countries to compete in new categories.

Since its launch, the BAAs have recognised work across the full spectrum of the medium, from feature film and television to short films and emerging formats. Held biennially, previous nominees and winners include Lupus Films for Kensuke’s Kingdom, Gutsy Animations’ Moominvalley, Aardman’s Shaun the Sheep, 20th Century Studios/Locksmith Animation’s Ron’s Gone Wrong, and Hasbro Entertainment’s Peppa Pig.

The 2028 Awards will build on this legacy while reflecting the changing landscape of animation and the UK’s position as a major international creative hub. The ceremony will spotlight groundbreaking projects, exceptional talent and innovation across the industry, with a refreshed category structure to be announced in due course.

The return of the BAAs comes at a pivotal moment for the UK’s creative industries. While the sector continues to face economic and structural pressures, British animation is demonstrating significant momentum, with the UK strengthening its position as both a home for original creative ideas and an increasingly attractive production base for major international animated features and television series. Global studios are drawn to the country’s world-class creative talent, state-of-the-art facilities and thriving ecosystem of independent studios, producers and specialist talent, reinforcing the UK’s position as a leading force in the global animation landscape.

Anna Lord and Tracy Shaw said:

The British Animation Awards have played an important role in recognising and championing the extraordinary talent and creativity within our industry for almost three decades. We’re honoured to be bringing the BAAs back at a time when British animation is making such a strong impact both nationally and internationally. The UK has an exceptional animation ecosystem, from ambitious independent creators and studios to major international productions, we will ensure the Awards reflect and celebrate that breadth.

Helen Brunsdon, who led BAA for the past eight years, said:

It has been a great privilege to lead the BAA team and deliver the last three iterations of the awards. We were proud to expand the BAAs reach across the British regions, areas that contribute so significantly to our industry. I’m delighted to be handing over stewardship to Anna and Tracy, who share a passion and enthusiasm for the artform, the people and the industry. I’m now ready to dive into some new creative adventures.

As part of the relaunch, the BAAs will also unveil a new website and refreshed digital presence, while its existing archive of winners and award history will remain available, preserving a record of the work and talent recognised by the Awards over almost three decades.

The BAAs will also open up new sponsorship and partnership opportunities, offering brands and industry organisations a platform to connect with the animation community, showcase their own brand and build meaningful visibility around the UK’s most established animation awards.

Further details on the 2028 Awards, including categories and entries, will be announced in due course at britishanimationawards.com

The post The British Animation Awards set to return in 2028 appeared first on Skwigly Animation Magazine.

© Blackbear & Laika

Ambition is at the heart of Wildwood. The latest film from Laika looks to stand out amongst cheaply, quickly made sequels to give the world something expertly crafted by some of the world’s most dedicated and talented stop-motion artisans. Set in a fantasy version of the studio’s hometown of Portland, Wildwood bites off more character, landscape and movement diversity than most productions could handle. 

The inspiration for this tale of two kids, Prue and Kurtis, being thrust into a magical forest, comes from the Collin Meloy and Carson Ellis’ book of the same name, as well as director Travis Knight’s lifelong admiration of fantasy. “Wildwood breathes the same air of these classic fantasies and fairy tales that I loved since I was a child, things like Tolkien and C.S. Lewis and L. Frank Baum,” Knight tells Skwigly. “This felt like it was painting in those same colors, and yet it had its own unique and idiosyncratic flair because it was brought to life by these two amazing, strange and beautiful artists in Colin and Carson. And then when you bring another group of strange and beautiful artists into the mix at Laika, it starts to develop its own unique flavor.”

The first challenge for Knight was to establish a fantasy realm that felt of Laika’s own creation, rather than something overly familiar to audiences, “Because we know these worlds so well, you can start drawing from the details of them and then you put your own prism of stylization on top of that, and it starts to feel like a place we haven’t seen before. One of the joys for me was reimagining this place that I was born in, that our studio is based in, reimagining that place as a fantasy realm on a par with Westeros or Oz or Middle Earth. It was a strange thing to imagine, but it was an absolute joy to bring to life.”

Another early task was to decide on the look of the characters, something costume designer Deborah Cook was key to. “I was aware of this book for a long time in advance before we set about making it, so I had a few ideas,” Cook tells Skwigly. “I talked with Travis about what ideas he had for the characters, and what he wanted from them, and we set some creative guardrails that reveal the characters.”

Those guardrails then expand out to the rest of the crew. Production designer Nelson Lowry tells us about how Wildwood is a true culmination of the studio’s work, “We really couldn’t have made this film any earlier than we did because of all the technical challenges and our working relationships together. The character designs and the costumes come first and they’re the purest form of stylisation, and then I build a world around that. The shape language and the textures and style of the clothing are reflected in the environment.”

Head of character and practical effects, Oliver Jones’ first move was to translate the character designs into fabricated puppets, “We have to start learning about the iconography of the characters and these signature details that we can extrapolate across other areas of the movie,” Jones tells Skwigly. “I’m trying to take those cues and make sure that it’s coherent when we’re moving from Prue, let’s say, and she’s got a couple of little flicks that are breaking the silhouette, that you’re seeing those same ideas come across in a coyote or in an eagle or something like that. Those rules become very important.”

© Blackbear & Laika

For Brad Schiff, head of character animation, the rigging side of the project was an initial concern, “Rigging used to be for suspending characters in midair because we’re fighting gravity all the time, but now we’re able to develop our own performance rigs that allow for even more precise, nuanced movement. Every film has been R&D for the next one. We started to use reference all the time, and animators are now committed to being better performers, better actors, and that really played a hand in the naturalism in this movie.”

For as much as Wildwood is a technical feat, one of Knight’s biggest jobs was to ensure that the audience is immersed into the world, not thinking about the technique, “I think the process of creating art leaves fingerprints on the art, and what you’re seeing with a movie like this is the collective humanity of everyone involved bringing these things to life. I do think it enhances the story that we’re telling, but in the end, it’s not the point. The point is the story that you’re telling, the themes that you’re exploring, the characters that you hopefully have grown to love over the course of the movie. You hope that people forget about technique and they don’t see these things as inert assemblages of steel and silicon and fabric. That’s the miracle of stop motion, you take something that has never lived, and because somebody else gives that thing a piece of their life, it springs to life.”

© Blackbear & Laika

The actual world of Wildwood is fraught with political angst. We see useless bureaucrats, a fascist queen and a rebellion of bandits fighting for freedom. “There are so many different layers within the film,” states Knight. “It’s a political satire, it’s an eco fable, it’s a grand adventure story, but what we never lose sight of is the primary question that’s driving the entire narrative, which is how far would you go for someone you love? In life and in our movie, love asks you to hold on, but life sometimes forces you to let go and this film deals with the cost of that. It deals with the cost of loving someone and losing someone.”

Big ideas require a big scale, and every department on Wildwood delivers on making the film feel huge. “There are 136 unique locations, which is double what we did on Kubo,” says Lowry. “It’s the largest film for us ever, and it’s about spreading resources and attention to detail across all of those, and the environments actually become characters. It was a large volume of work at a much higher frequency of detail and finish in the film. People say it’s more realistic, I think it’s more naturalistic, because it’s still stylised.”

For Cook, the idea of scale applies to making sure smaller puppets still feel like full sized people, “Fabric is woven for our scale and our world, our sense of gravity. But when you move that onto a character that size, 1/5 scale, it still moves in the same way. So we have to engineer everything from underneath the costumes. All of these costumes that you see have a certain amount of understructure to them that enables them to move in scale with the puppet. There’s a follow-through movement that you would get for free on a human, they don’t need their clothing engineered from underneath because their body moves it. But for the animators, they have to follow along to make it look like a realistic movement, like the costume movement is being propelled by the body underneath it.”

© Laika & Blackbear

Jones had the pleasure of working out how to fabricate Septima, a tiny mouse who often sits on Kurtis’ shoulder, “The tried and tested way of producing something like that is to produce an overscale asset, which is more akin to the scale of our puppets, something around 10 inches tall. But we spent a long time developing the smallest animatable puppet we’ve ever produced, which is barely an inch tall, and it has a fully articulated armature that’s made out of bronze cast chest block. It has animatable ball and socket shoulders, and then it has waterjet cut limbs, and it’s completely animatable. But these guys have to use tweezers to get the performance.”

The scale of the film was also grand in the number of shots put on screen. There are 2700 shots in Wildwood , with only 20 of them needing to be reshot. “This movie had about 1000 more shots than Missing Link had, which was our biggest prior to this, and 900 of those were a second or less,” explains Schiff. “The sheer amount of work that an animator has to do because the shots are so short, they’re owning multiple units, so they’re bouncing between four different units at any given time. Often, there’s not a beginning and a middle and an end to every shot. Wildwood is shot like a live-action film, so there’s quick cutting and so many shots are just middle. Getting your head around that sometimes for an animator is a really difficult thing.”

© Laika & Blackbear

Laika is a studio committed to original storytelling, even as the cinematic landscape around it becomes less conducive to originals existing and thriving. Knight wants to hold on to that aspect of the studio for as long as humanly possible, “You can try as much as you can to fight against the tide, but it’s interesting because we’re increasingly seeing consolidation in our business, we’re seeing fewer and fewer people making movies, we’re seeing few opportunities to get films made. Oftentimes, those films have to have a Roman numeral behind them, or they will not be considered. It’s so difficult to get anything made, and yet that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. 

“We’ve always tried at our shop to try to tell interesting and beautiful and original stories that connect with audiences, but it’s not easy. I believe this because I’ve devoted my life to it,  art needs advocacy. It needs champions. It needs people who believe in it, who try whatever they can to keep these things alive. I think about my own life, and it’s only some of these types of stories that connected with me as a lonely kid growing up in Portland, Oregon, that actually made me feel less alone. Those are the types of stories that I want us to tell. I’m hopeful that this movie will connect with some kid like I was and make them look at the world in a slightly more hopeful way. That’s what we do, and we will continue to do it until we can’t do it any longer.”

The post “We will continue to do it until we can’t do it any longer” – the team behind Wildwood break down their latest adventure appeared first on Skwigly Animation Magazine.

Image: Portrait of Masaya Inaba courtesy Masaya Inaba

From Manga inspirations in Brazil to the prestigious Studio 4°C in Tokyo, Masaya Inaba will share the journey that led him into Japanese animation and his pursuit of it becoming a traditional craft in Japan. Through production examples and personal reflections from his work on ChaO, Berserk: The Golden Age Arc 3, All You Need is Kill, and MUTAFUKAZ he will offer a rare behind-the-scenes look at the making of complex animated sequences. This includes working with traditional anime painters, and the relationship between hand drawn animation, background art, and CGI—showing how digital tools can extend, rather than replace, the traditions of Japanese animation.

For me, working in anime production as a CGI artist is not simply about creating 3D assets or using technology. It is about understanding how different people work, connecting their skills, and helping their work shine—it’s a way of expressing stories and emotions through moving images.

Masaya Inaba

This talk forms part of Artificial Kreativity’s Kreative Talks, a platform sharing the stories behind the creatives shaping the world. It is designed for animators, illustrators, filmmakers, designers, students, and anyone interested in anime, Manga or Japanese visual culture and the craft of moving images.

The afternoon will feature

• Exclusive talk with Masaya Inaba including a question and answer session
• Informal networking reception to meet the creatives in the gallery after the talk

Tickets: https://app.tickettailor.com/events/artificialkreativity/2468805

Event details

Event Title: Kreative Talk with Masaya Inaba + Japanese Animation
Date: Nov 07, 2026
Time: 12pm
Venue: art’otel London Hoxton. 1-3 Rivington St. London, EC2A 3DT
Tickets: £15 (General) £12 (Concessions)

The post CGI Artist and Japanese Animation Director, Masaya Inaba joins Artificial Kreativity for a Kreative Talk appeared first on Skwigly Animation Magazine.

From Manga inspirations in Brazil to the prestigious Studio 4°C in Tokyo, Masaya Inaba will share the journey that led him into Japanese animation and his pursuit of it becoming a traditional craft in Japan. Through production examples and personal reflections from his work on ChaO, Berserk: The Golden Age Arc 3, All You Need is Kill, and MUTAFUKAZ he will offer a rare behind-the-scenes look at the making of complex animated sequences. This includes working with traditional anime painters, and the relationship between hand drawn animation, background art, and CGI—showing how digital tools can extend, rather than replace, the traditions of Japanese animation.

Biography

Born in Shizuoka, Japan, Masaya Inaba is a CGI artist, compositor, and animation director whose work combines hand drawn animation, background art, and computer graphics. Inaba previously worked at Studio 4°C in Tokyo, where he contributed to a range of films and animation projects. Credits include films by director Toshiyuki Kubooka and Takashi Nakamura as well as animation films, Children of the sea, Pouelle of Chimney Town, ChaO, Berserk: the Golden Age Arc III, All You Need Is Kill. He currently lives in London and is a member of the collective Sankaku, which produce art direction for short and long films focusing on visual expression through animation.

Speaker: Masaya Inaba
Image: Portrait of Masaya Inaba courtesy Masaya Inaba

The post Kreative Talk | Masaya Inaba + Japanese Animation appeared first on Skwigly Animation Magazine.

© Blackbear & Laika

Wildwood is obsessed with impressing you instead of immersing you. Its marketing has emphasised the 16 year journey to make the film, the meticulously crafted puppets, sets and outfits and the idea that Laika had to become worthy of making it. All of this serves to put you in the cinema in a position to fawn over Wildwood’s technical brilliance, while paying no mind to the film’s underwhelmingly hollow story. A film should earn your investment in its world and characters, Wildwood takes it for granted.

Like many modern fantasy stories, Wildwood sees a pair of unassuming kids thrust into a world beyond their comprehension. Prue and her classmate Kurtis are forced to uncover the secrets of Portland’s forests after the former’s baby brother is kidnapped by a murder of crows. The film opens with such a dark and sincere tone and when the kidnapping happens, you’d expect it to be treated as a heavy, traumatic event. Instead, we burst into a jaunty, slapstick opening credits sequence and the film leaves behind any of the emotional heft it hinted at being interested in.

Once we arrive in the magical forest, we’re introduced to myriad factions and provinces. There’s the bureaucratic government officials whose role is ambiguous and there’s the Avian Principality, a mini society consisting only of birds. But the most consequential factions are Queen Alexandra, a fascist warlord wreaking havoc on the forest, and the freedom fighting bandits who want to take her down.

A story about revolt against a dictator could have been a timely comment on our current political landscape if Wildwood was committed to getting into the weeds of their strife. We’ve seen such conflicts on the big screen dating back to Star Wars, and so Wildwood asks us to get the gist of the ideological battle rather than fleshing it out. Alas, that might distract us from how pretty the puppets are.

© Blackbear & Laika

Wildwood wants us to have the feeling of seeing a storybook unfold in front of us, but presents us a sanded-down, generic fantasy realm that is without any of the quirks a place that actually might exist would possess. The character of Prue is an outsider to this world too, we should be seeing its bizarreness through her eyes, but that wonder and whimsey is far too manufactured to be effective.

A director’s ‘perspective’ is a difficult thing to define, but it’s glaringly obvious whenever a film doesn’t have one. Let’s take Spirited Away as an example, a film that’s clearly a massive influence on Wildwood. When Chihiro is thrust into a fantasy world, her fear and sense of hopelessness is palpable because of Miyazaki’s intensely specific perspective. The design of the spiritual realm in that film is something only he could concoct. Does Travis Knight have the same conviction to craft something unique, not just through his puppets, but on the page?

Wildwood’s worldbuilding and story is disappointingly risk-free, not breaking anywhere near enough eggs to make its omelette. Thankfully, the same thing cannot be said for the visual side of the film.

© Blackbear & Laika

If Wildwood’s aim is to be a piece of eye candy for the audience to fawn over, then it hits that target with aplomb. Laika’s set design and costuming has been pristine since their inception and there is no change here. Where their biggest evolution comes is in the animation performance. Characters have such elastic expressions and smooth mouth movements, it’s so seamless and expressive that you forget you’re not watching CGI.

Another wonderful visual perk of Wildwood is its lighting. Every scene is either bathed in a gorgeous golden light, or wonderfully moody blue-black nighttime aura. Both settings help to bring out the very best in the myriad environments we trot through in Wildwood, all of which are designed beautifully.

The standout set piece in the film is a massive blowout final battle which is the technical pinnacle of Laika’s entire project. The way the camera moves, the number of moving characters on screen, the complexity of their movement and the clarity with which the action is presented are all astounding. Again, you’re watching it thinking about how impressive it is rather than the stakes of the battle, but it’s a thrilling sequence nonetheless.

It feels greedy to ask for more after watching Wildwood. The craft on display is a testament to some of the most dedicated and talented below the line staff in the world. However, it’s because of all of the effort they put in that the script and story feel so hollow. If anything, the animation team have been let down by a story that is a rote regurgitation of fantasy epics past that asks us to be satisfied with an approximation of whimsey rather than putting in the effort to sincerely whisk us away. Wildwood is hollow, but at least the puppets are pretty.

The post ‘Wildwood’ Review: Was Laika’s 16-Year Journey Worth the Wait? appeared first on Skwigly Animation Magazine.

Hosted by Ric Michael, this year’s event features in-person talks and discussions with Grammy-winning animator Em Cooper, BAFTA-nominated animator Lizzy Hobbs, SXSW Special Jury award winner Sophie Koko Gate and award-wining animation cinematographer Dave Alex Riddett, along with a new video interview with Mexican animator and director Nayelli Ojeda, following up on her wonderful talk at Waterside back in March.

The event is a chance to hear from leading figures in the animation industry and an opportunity to get your questions answered about how work is made and how to advance your creative career.

The post Meet The Puppet Masters Animation Conference 2026 appeared first on Skwigly Animation Magazine.

Lusitania Grand Prix, went to Ayce Kartal’s Who Killed Narin G***?

The programme featured 22 films in the professional category and 15 in the student category, evaluated by separate professional and student juries. Audiences also voted for their favourites, including the winner of the festival’s MOCK<anima>DOC category.

An additional eight films were presented in the Panoramic View from the Command Deck programme, while the festival hosted live discussions with directors Žoel Kastelic (Coming Back with the Waves), Beaux Salix (The Hermit Crab) and Helena Stańczyk (I’m Painting a Self-Portrait, But All I See Is My Sister’s Face).

Another highlight was the Polish premiere of Aria Covamonas’ The Great History of Western Philosophy.

The festival’s top honour, the Lusitania Grand Prix, went to Ayce Kartal’s Who Killed Narin G***?*, while Uliana Gromyko’s Error: Connection Lost received both the professional jury’s Rising Award and the Students4student Award.

The full list of winners, special mentions and jury statements follows.

Professional Jury Awards

Jury: Maja Markowska, Vahram Mkhitaryan and Urszula Morga

Lusitania Grand Prix Award – Best Professional AnimaDoc

WHO KILLED NARIN G**?**
France, 2025 | 04:42
Director: Ayce Kartal

Jury statement: For the masterful use of animation to create a world of boundless imagination, and for the courage to pose questions without imposing easy answers.

Special Jury Award – Best Professional AnimaDoc

UNLEARNING MOTHERHOOD
Netherlands, 2025 | 10:45
Director: Juliana Erazo Gómez

Jury statement: For opening the door to a motherhood that can be lived out without one’s own child. For creating a rounded, pink world that offers refuge in the midst of an internal struggle against fear.

Rising Award – Best Student AnimaDoc

ERROR: CONNECTION LOST
Netherlands, 2025 | 05:02
Director: Uliana Gromyko
School: HKU – University of the Arts Utrecht

Jury statement: For a minimalist form that translates a deeply personal story into a universal experience of loss, and of love for our near ones whose fate and health we tremble for.

Special Jury Award – Best Student AnimaDoc

I’M PAINTING A SELF-PORTRAIT, BUT ALL I SEE IS MY SISTER’S FACE
Poland, 2026 | 10:45
Director: Helena Stańczyk
School: Lodz Film School

Jury statement: For the extraordinary tenderness in portraying the bond between Alicja and Bożena Wahl, twin sisters and artists. For weaving a deeply personal story of closeness, shared creativity, and lives intertwined with art from a rich archival record.

Special Mentions – Creative Approach to the Topic

AS THE CROW FLIES
France, 2025 | 29:59
Director: Clara Lacombe

Jury statement: For giving a refugee a voice, involving him in the creative process, and portraying a young man who retains his sensitivity and hope despite difficult experiences.

OUR WALLS
Czechia/Slovenia, 2026 | 07:35
Director: Živa Divjak
School: FAMU – Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague

Jury statement: For an intimate portrayal of an intergenerational relationship and a visually accomplished exploration of caring for loved ones, raising questions about the limits of personal freedom.

RAPTUS
Cuba, 2025 | 10:16
Director: Ivette Ávila Martín

Jury statement: For a genuine testament to violence, hand-sculpted into a symbolically beautiful, visual narrative.

Personal Mention – Maja Markowska

THE AUTOHARP CRUSHING ON HOT GUYS
Czechia, 2026 | 08:23
Director: Antonie Zavadilová
School: FAMU – Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague

Jury statement: For a tender tale of mundane anxieties, inviting the viewer to a café table for a deeply satisfying, brilliant discussion on the follies of love.

Personal Mention – Vahram Mkhitaryan

THE IN-THE-HEAD FILM
Germany, 2026 | 11:24
Director: Konstantin von Sichart

Jury statement: A compelling self-portrait that reveals the artist’s creative process, the impossibility of escaping one’s own thoughts, and a sense of helplessness in the face of the stimuli flooding in from a constantly changing world.

Personal Mention – Urszula Morga

MEALITANCY
Belgium, 2024 | 12:07
Directors: Marie Royer, Zinia Scorier

Jury statement: For an uncompromising story of resistance to consumerism and for portraying the world from a non-human perspective.

Student Jury Awards

Jury: Magda Brzezińska, Julia Rutkowska and Jagoda Woźniak

Lusitania Student Award – Best Professional AnimaDoc

H.R. 4405
Lithuania, 2026 | 03:17
Director: Tylus Kinas

Jury statement: The Student Jury would like to award this film for its synthetic form, which aptly engages with the difficult topic of sexual violence, adopting and presenting the audience with the perspective of the victim, which also presents a metaphor for the fragmentation of consciousness resulting from trauma. For its overwhelming narrative, which leaves the viewer with a feeling of unease and incomplete understanding of the situation until the very last second.

Special Mention – Best Professional AnimaDoc

MEALITANCY
Belgium, 2024 | 12:07
Directors: Marie Royer, Zinia Scorier

Jury statement: The Student Jury commended the film for its exploration of a universal issue within a local context, as well as its potential to inspire viewers to launch similar social initiatives. Furthermore, the film stands out for its cohesive, charming colour palette—built upon primary colours—as well as its excellent compositions and an apt comparison of the activists’ efforts to the tireless, never-ending labour of ants.

Students4student Award – Best Student AnimaDoc

ERROR: CONNECTION LOST
Netherlands, 2025 | 05:02
Director: Uliana Gromyko
School: HKU – University of the Arts Utrecht

Jury statement: The Student Jury wishes to award the film for its compelling approach to the poignant subject of the war in Ukraine. The animation fluidly guides the viewer through the protagonists’ story, highlighting the close bond between a brother and sister—a connection that flourishes as they share the use of a computer. The theme of technology—serving not merely as a tool, but as a space for building relationships—is reflected in the film’s visual style. This approach underscores the profound significance of the computer for the younger sister, establishing it as a vital element of the narrative.

Audience Awards

Audience Award – Professional AnimaDoc

NONNA LUCIA
Switzerland, 2026 | 06:59
Director: Marcel Barelli

Audience Award – Student AnimaDoc

THOUSANDS OF HOURS
Czechia, 2026 | 06:20
Director: Barbora Vanická
School: FAMU – Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague

Audience Award – MOCK<anima>DOC (Make-Believe Award)

SHOULD VIRTUAL PETZ DIE?
Italy, 2024 | 12:00
Director: Carlo Galbiati

The post Rising of Lusitania AnimaDoc Festival 2026 Winners: ‘Who Killed Narin G**?’ Takes Grand Prix appeared first on Skwigly Animation Magazine.

DELETE TV is inviting animators worldwide to submit short films for its thirteenth season. The independent underground video-art festival welcomes distinctive animated work that experiments with form, technique and storytelling.

Films can be up to 10 minutes long. Selected works will be broadcast in Austria and livestreamed worldwide, bringing experimental animation to audiences beyond the festival screening room.

The call is open internationally. Entries must be in English or subtitled in English where applicable.

Regular deadline: 31 December 2026 — US$20 per film.
Extended deadline: 17 February 2027 — US$35 per film.

Full entry requirements, terms and submissions: https://filmfreeway.com/DeleteTV

About DELETE TV

DELETE TV explores experimental film and moving-image art, welcoming unconventional approaches from artists and filmmakers around the world.

The post DELETE TV Open Call 2027: Welcomes Experimental Animation appeared first on Skwigly Animation Magazine.

Adding to this year’s festival line-up, the highly anticipated French feature LUCY LOST, based on the acclaimed book by Michael Morpurgo and produced by Xilam Animation, will receive its UK premiere, followed by a Q&A with director Olivier Clert and writer Helen Blakeman. The programme will also feature a special screening of Warner Bros. Pictures Animation and DNEG Animation’s The Cat in the Hat, followed by an exclusive behind-the-scenes session exploring how the iconic Dr. Seuss story is being reimagined for a new generation, featuring Jean-François Leroux, DFX Supervisor at DNEG Animation. Further highlights include a session from Spud Gun Studios, the creative force behind the wildly popular Mashed, one of the biggest animated channels on YouTube, boasting millions of fans and billions of views worldwide.

On Tuesday 10th November Fix the Animation Nation, MAF’s new TED‑style rapid‑fire session, invites the industry to put forward the most pressing challenges facing animation today – and the solutions that could help shape its future. Selected participants will take to the stage alongside global storytelling strategist and Collective Moxie founder and CEO Julie Ann Crommett for a fast‑paced exchange of ideas designed to spark action across the sector. The Animation UK Annual Meeting will take place as part of the Tuesday ANF offering, adding another key moment for industry collaboration and sector‑wide discussion. ANF Connect has expanded this year with three sessions running throughout the day for attendees looking to grow their business and build industry relationships. ANF Connect is the Forum’s must‑attend B2B meeting event, offering 15‑minute one‑to‑one meetings with leading figures in animation – ideal for pitching ideas, forming partnerships and advancing projects. Portfolio reviews will also run throughout, giving creatives direct access to studios and recruiters.

Animation Nation Forum returns on Wednesday 11th November to Bridgewater Hall, supported this year by Manchester City Council, the Forum will bring together industry leaders for a programme of key discussions and networking opportunities, addressing the most pressing issues and challenges facing the animation sector today. Opening with a special Forum Welcome Breakfast, offering delegates an opportunity to reconnect with peers before a packed day of discussion, insight and networking.

The first panel, Where Is the Next Generation of Talent Coming From, asks how we ensure today’s uncertainty doesn’t become tomorrow’s skills gap. Our speakers will unpack what good practice looks like, share practical approaches, and explore the bigger questions around attracting, nurturing and retaining the next generation of talent. The conversation, which is sponsored by ScreenSkills, will be led by Tom Jenkins Creative Director of Spud Gun Studios, with a panel including Kieran Argo, Animation Production Liaison Executive at ScreenSkills Shelley Page, Key Talent and Artist Liaison at Locksmith Animation and William Grave filmmaker and Founder of The Human Made Mark.

A second panel on UK Feature Production examines the growing spotlight on feature animation creatives and the readiness required from studios to meet both the opportunities and the demands of long‑form work. How can the UK develop the skills, infrastructure and creative ambition needed to compete globally? The Meet Your Producer session is a guided networking mixer that brings together creatives and producers, creating opportunities to spark new collaborations and ideas into future projects.

The afternoon programme features a range of new and innovative formats; The Super Summit, a free-to-attend ticketed event, brings together Heads of Department from across the industry, including Leanne Loughran Senior Manager – Talent Connection at Industrial Light & Magic, David Park Managing Director Animation Studio at Dream Games, alongside other representatives from the industry for a knowledge‑exchange session focused on leadership, culture‑building and practical advice for both emerging and established HODs. State of the Animation Nation, supported by Liquid Violet, sees some of animation’s most influential voices come together for a roundtable discussion examining the current health of the industry. Tackling hard-hitting questions and reflecting on both the challenges and successes of recent years, the session will explore what lies ahead for the sector – featuring Kate O’Connor, Executive Chair and Strategic Lead, at Animation UK and Crosby Clyse, Managing Director of DNEG Animation. Making Characters Work explores how character can be a powerful driver of engagement, brand building and commercial growth. Speakers include Tom Judd, Associate Creative Director at Duolingo and co-founder of Animade and Kenny England, Director of Digital, Social and Communities at Aardman Animations.

The animation industry thrives when people come together to share ideas, discover new work and build relationships that help move the sector forward. ANF’s Industry Day and our industry activity throughout the festival is an opportunity to do exactly that – bringing together established and emerging voices alongside a programme that celebrates the creativity and ambition of the sector. With the welcome support of Manchester City Council, our guests and delegates can provide a moment in the industry calendar: a place to make connections, spark conversations and look ahead to the future of animation.

 Steve Henderson, MAF Festival Director

The Bridgewater Hall marketplace, which is free to attend, will facilitate networking between studios, recruiters and animation professionals, offering portfolio reviews, IP and legal advice, funding guidance and more.

Manchester Animation Festival is presented with the support of Higher Education Partner University of Salford, Festival Partner HOME, and Festival Patrons BBC Children’s, Blue Zoo Animation Studio, Channel 4, DNEG, Epic Games, Industrial Light & Magic, Manchester Metropolitan University, Nottingham Trent University, Sue Terry Voices and Universal Pictures. Additional Event Supporters include Aardman Animations, Animation UK, Leeds Arts University, Liquid Violet, Locksmith Animation, ScreenSkills, Spud Gun Studios and TVPaint, alongside Marketplace Supporters Marks & Clerk, Wacom and HUE. Animation Nation Forum is supported by Manchester City Council.

Tickets for Animation Nation Forum are now on sale. For full programme details and updates, visit manchesteranimationfestival.co.uk/industry/anf-programme/

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The new comedic pre-school series from Karrot Entertainment in London and Kavaleer Productions in Dublin announces its full cast, ahead of its broadcast premiere on 19th October on CBeebies and RTÉJr.

Louisa Harland (Orla in Derry Girls, and star of Hamnet and The Walsh Sisters) plays Ma-Mae, mother of main characters Mae and Bee, and Mathew Baynton (Ghosts, Horrible Histories, Taskmaster) plays Da-Nono, Mae and Bee’s gnomad father.

Further Ghosts alumni play a selection of comedic Green Garden residents, with Martha Howe-Douglas as Minni the firefly, Laurence Rickard as Burt-Bird the robin, and Jim Howick playing ‘King’ Gob, a gnome who believes he is a king, when he absolutely is not…

Derry Girls alumni are also out in full force with Ian McElhinney and Julia Dearden as Granda-Bill and Grand-Mae, and Tara Lynne O’Neill starring as Ma-Mouse, the head of the scurrying Mouse Train.

Ann Droid star Kathryn Hunter plays Great Grand-Mae, lending her unmistakable voice to the fourth generation in Mae’s family lineage, and The Thin Blue Line’s Mina Anwar plays Lesley, a snail with a magical bakery inside her shell!

West End and Broadway star Trevor Dion Nicholas (Aladdin’s Genie) plays Lionel the Frog, who gives wonderfully skewed life advice to Mae and Bee. He actually used to be a human, but was turned into a frog by Witch Linda, played deliciously by Clare Perkins (Silo, The Outlaws).

Comedian Fern Brady plays mischievous wood sprite Fossy, whilst Bec Hill stars as Marsha, the quirky Turtle Ferry (and co-wrote her introductory episodes!).

Guest appearances come from Sandra Dickinson (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy), Philip Jackson (Poirot), Colin McFarlane (Doctor Who), Marjolein Robertson (Marj) and Darren Foreman, AKA Beardyman.

L.A. Davis plays a blind tabby cat called Tiger who Mae and Bee adore riding around the neighbourhood on, as they meet a wide community of gnomes and creatures brought to life by the stage and screen talents of Maanuv Thiara, David Monteith, Katie Leung, Ayesha Antoine, Louis Martin, Hildur Magnusdottir and Sarah Lam.

Last but certainly not least, leading the child cast, we introduce seven-year-olds Elle McNicoll as the small-but-mighty Mae and Abeer Desai as Bee, who is a loveable fuzzy oddball! Both young leads make an exceptional debut, matching the charm and appeal of this fantastically experienced assembly of acting talent.

MaeBee is created by Tim and Rebecca O’Sullivan, and series produced by Jamie Badminton. A preview adventure will premiere at the BFI London Film Festival this weekend, before 24 episodes land on BBC iPlayer and RTÉ Player on Monday 19th October, just in time for half term.

It has been an enormous pleasure to work with so many of my favourite actors and comedians on MaeBee, rendering myself directorially star-struck on numerous occasions. Matching voice to the character is such an integral part of the show, many of which we had fantasy cast right from the start. So, we were thrilled when they agreed to come aboard the Mousetrain and bring so much heart and humour to the Green Garden.

Tim O’Sullivan, Series Director

I am in love with our cast for MaeBee! They each completely embody the characters they play with such vibrancy. It’s amazing to see the voices fitting the characters I designed so perfectly! We hope audiences will love Mae, Bee and their world too.

Rebecca O’Sullivan, Series Designer

MaeBee is a co-viewing delight that parents and caregivers will enjoy watching just as much as their young gnomes undoubtedly will, and the calibre of this cast make for a comedic treat that viewers of all ages will fall in love with.

Jamie Badminton, Series Producer

“MaeBee is packed with warmth, humour and imagination, and this exceptional cast brings the Green Garden to life with real charm. From beloved comedy talent to outstanding young performers Elle McNicoll and Abeer Desai, every voice helps create a world that families will love. We can’t wait for audiences to discover Mae and Bee’s adventures on CBeebies.

Kate Morton, Senior Head of Commissioning for CBeebies

The series was made possible with funding by Screen Ireland, Coimisiún na Meán, Government of Ireland, France Television Distribution and the UK Global Screen Fund.

MaeBee airs on CBeebies from Monday 19th October at 9:20am, with all episodes available on BBC iPlayer the same day.

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© DreamWorks Animation

Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado have been key figures in that charge for change. Their collaborations are frequent throughout their time at DreamWorks, but reached a new level with 2020’s The Croods: A New Age where Crawford served as director and Mercado as head of story. Then came Puss In Boots: The Last Wish, one of the crowning achievements of the studio on which Crawford and Mercado shared the director’s chair.

That same chemistry is reprised on Forgotten Island, a pastel-textured dive into Filipino folklore centred around two best friends, whose relationship is modeled after Crawford and Mercado’s own. We caught up with the pair to discuss the process of crafting a visually distinct world, the tradition of animated mythology and the space DreamWorks now occupies in the industry.

Crafting a completely unique world from scratch can be a huge challenge. What guided your design philosophy?

Crawford: Telling a story that was truly fresh. One of the great things was starting with Filipino mythology, which has never had the center stage in animation, and it’s one of those things that it’s familiar but different. There are so many movies pulling from European mythology and folklore, you’ve got witches, werewolves, vampires, but then in Filipino mythology there’s similar things, but just with a slight difference. For example, there’s no werewolves, there’s were-dogs, because there’s no wolves in the Philippines.

Crawford: One of the most iconic Filipino legendary creatures is the Manananggal, which is one of the villains in our story. Being able to showcase this iconic Filipino creature was really cool. She’s a vampire demon that separates its body in half, its torso from the legs and flies around and that was exciting to everybody on our crew from the character designers to the rigging department. It was essentially about making two different models because the legs move on their own and then we found out later that these wings are the most complex rig that DreamWorks has ever had.

Mercado: They’re not just typical bat wings, they can make that shape, but they’re actually separate digits and they can act like ribbons. Once the animators and modelers and riggers figured it out, then it was a beautiful thing.

© DreamWorks Animation

Crawford: Picking a reference source that hasn’t ever been shown, in Filipino mythology, created an opportunity to create something people haven’t seen. They’re in the fantastical world of Nakali, this magical island where most of the story takes place. Going with the mythology, we have seven moons in the sky. We have this Filipino sun that looks like the sun on the Filipino flag, so when you get a lens flare, sometimes you get that shape hitting the lens. Our production designer, Ryan Carlson played with the idea of what happens with shadows, what’s science in this world, and you get these interesting almost black light highlights on characters. We were only limited by our imaginations.

Mercado: It became a running joke where we’re setting up lighting and we’ve already set up the show for the sun to be in a certain place but it’s like, ‘seven moons bro!’ It doesn’t have to make sense, you just have to suspend disbelief.

Crawford: With all of the fantastical pushed, stylised elements of this, none of it matters if you don’t have a story that is grounded in very relatable universal human emotions. We started with the relationship of two lifelong best friends and pulled so much from our own friendship as well as the strong women in our lives. My wife is Filipina and we have three kids together…

Crawford: So we took that opportunity to write who we know and create this story about lifelong friends and about memories and the opportunity to be grateful for the people in your lives. We grounded everything around that and then built out this fantastical tale.

Mercado: I’m Filipino-American and I was inspired by my relationship with my sister, my cousins, and my nieces…

© DreamWorks Animation

Mercado: With that theme of memories, that evolved into the look that you see now. We knew it would be perfect for 2D and those vivid colours and textures because memories have that dream-like quality where they’re changing and fluid.

Crawford: There’s a treatment on some of the imagery when we do flashbacks for the main characters, but then there’s these supporting fantastical creatures on the island and we do a little bit of a drunk history-type retelling. We have a lot of fun with that.

There’s a great tradition in animation of adapting folklore from all around the world. Is it a challenge to take these stories that were expressly made for scaring children into behaving into fun adventures?

Mercado: When we were doing our research and digging into folklore, we were like, ‘oh, this stuff is pretty dark,’ but it was easy to just lean into the fantasy of it. Vampires and werewolves are murderers but they’ve been shown in media and entertainment for so long that you could interpret it the way you want and be creative.

© DreamWorks Animation

Crawford: Similar to Puss In Boots: The Last Wish, we had a very scary antagonist in The Wolf, death itself, but that’s a big comedy and a big adventure. Horror and comedy are cousins, horror builds tension, comedy releases it. We reference things like Kung Fu Hustle where you have these clashes of tone that make for a very full experience. One second you’re laughing, next second it’s a scare, next second you’re in this adrenaline-pumping action scene.

Mercado: It’s very similar to anime where you have this very pushed, silly expressions and animation but then the same show will have these very dark moments.

DreamWorks has changed a lot in the past 10 years and has become one of the leading voices in the western industry. How has that change been for you guys?

Crawford: We’ve had a wonderful experience with Margie Cohn, the president of DreamWorks, and Kristen Lowe, the chief creative officer. This is now the third movie we’ve made at DreamWorks within six years and there’s a great trust we have which allows us to move quickly. We’re always so clear and we always challenge our stories so much. One of the coolest things about DreamWorks, going all the way back to The Prince of Egypt, is that there’s no house style. You’re not limited or put in a box that you have to break out of on each movie, you’re finding what’s right for that movie, and I think that’s one of the most exciting and dynamic things about DreamWorks Animation,

Mercado: The talent of artists is so top tier as well. We pride ourselves in communicating very well. It’s important for us as humans and our values and I think that helps continue the trust with the executive leadership as well. We always say it takes a village, and it’s great to be on a world tour, but we have to acknowledge that the movie could not be made without this village and this community that you cultivate.

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Before Bluey took over as the top blue dog of preschool television, Blue had dominated households through a show that had not been seen at the time, which only saw Nick Jr eventually grow and be able to stand equally tall among the animated hits and comedies that made Nickelodeon a household name. Leading the way to educational as well as entertaining multiple seasons, what made it such a hit for preschoolers around the world in the 1990s and early 2000s? And who was responsible for cementing its success? We’ll just have to follow the clues to find out.

Steve with Blue and the characters of their house. Image sourced from IMDb.

In the summer of 1994, the executives at Nickelodeon decided to hire fresh, young talent to initially create a game show for their preschool audience on a small budget, with three people eventually hired to take on this task. They were Angela Santomero, a researcher who worked for Nickelodeon since the early 90s, Todd Kessler, a freelance producer for the network, and Traci Paige Johnson, who was a freelance animator at the time. Despite their different levels of experience as well as career paths within children’s television, the three would spend approximately thirty days in a conference room above Times Square in New York, US. It was in this space that they developed the initial idea for the show, combining their production and research skills in an attempt to make something that can be as educational as it is entertaining.

A research department was made specifically for the show, and while they already had a talented researcher under the creative leading trio, Alice Wilder was hired as the Director of Research and Development. One of the reasons a department for research was created was because of how they would approach and develop each script after the pilot gave them the green light to produce a season. As well as carefully selecting props and items that children could instantly recognise in their own homes, they also visited schools to receive feedback and reactions from children on the scripts that were being developed and episodes being produced and edited.

As for the design and animation choice that led to the simple yet colourful and charming aesthetic, that responsibility fell upon the shoulders of Dave Palmer, who was initially picked to design Blue. Using circles and rounded shapes for the character’s frame of body, he was able to make a very cute and approachable design that would play a key part in how the character would appeal and speak directly to the audience. His keen eye and talent led him to become the supervising director of the animation and animation producer for the show, helping to build the animated world that hosts would interact with via green screen.

Angela Santomero and Traci Paige Johnson. Imaged sourced from JaMonkey.

With the combined efforts of all those involved, Blue’s Clues‘ first episode finally aired on Nick Jr on the 8th of September 1996. And despite the low budget and their unique approach at the time when it came to research, it proved to be a hit among children and families across the US, earning approximately 13 million views for the episodes that would follow. The character’s popularity grew as more and more people became aware of this little puppy and her curious nature, paving the way for multiple exports that featured different hosts in those countries (including the UK with Kevin) and merchandising everywhere.

But while the show proved to be popular among households, it also had a major impact on those researching and studying trends of screentime and the positive and negative impacts on children’s behaviours. While the show may not have quite ended up being the game show format that the executives at Nickelodeon were expecting, the interactive parts, as well as research on cognitive behaviours and potential participation with children, and the feedback from classrooms for scripts and episodes, made it something so much more than anyone could have imagined. This simple approach proved to be effective, with universities such as The University of Alabama and Vanderbilt University researching the structure of the show, discovering that it showed children increasing their learning and social skills when they watched and interacted with it. This not only made it stand out at the time in children’s television and broadcasting, but also saw Nickelodeon continue to push what was possible for education and entertainment to follow, with shows like Dora the Explorer and The Backyardigans continuing to prove how powerful television could be for a child’s development.

The show eventually wrapped up in 2006 with 143 episodes across six seasons, and despite the strong viewership and global fanbase, the series eventually stopped production, and Nickelodeon relied on repeated broadcasts of previous episodes. And while Steve’s replacement, Donovan Patton as Joe, did his best in 2002 to carry on the work that Steve set up, he just wasn’t quite the same as the original actor who helped to cement the show’s early popularity.

Blues Clues characters poster

Thirteen years after the last Blue’s Clues episode aired on Nick Jr, both Traci Paige Johnson and Angela Santomero decided to revive the character and the series for a new generation of audiences that would both air on Nickelodeon as well as be available to stream on Paramount+. Blues Clues and You! followed a similar structure to the original series, with new host Josh replacing the previous ones to help Blue search for clues around the home. And with digital technology now more readily available, the series still had its familiar design and narrative structure even older fans could recognise, but using digital animation, the show could shine when it came to its design and aesthetic. The success even saw a film being released exclusively on Paramount+ named Blue’s Big City Adventure that received lots of critical praise.

The revival proved to be a hit with modern audiences as the series ran for five seasons, although the fifth season was cancelled after only four episodes had been produced. Despite no information on why the show was cancelled, it did earn a Children’s & Family Emmy Award last year for Outstanding Preschool Series, and while there isn’t any news to bring the iconic blue puppy back, it did see new fans being created as well as returning ones as parents reliving their childhood classic.

Blue, Josh, and Magenta. Image sourced from YouTube.

Blue’s Clues‘ legacy in children’s media can’t be overstated, as it helped to cement the dedication, craft, and impact that it had on two generations of viewers and how it’s simple yet effective methods of mixing education impacted not just positive television experiences, but research and television’s impact on children too. Blue may be in the doghouse as of writing this, but her inquisitive nature and her creators should be honoured that they created an icon who paved the way for preschool television that hadn’t been seen for some time.

Blue’s Clues and You! and Blue’s Big City Adventure are both available to stream on Paramount+. The original Blue’s Clues series is available to purchase on Amazon Prime UK.

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Most carbon calculators and guides for the entertainment industry are built for live-action shoots. Animation emissions look different: driven largely by render farm and compute hours, studio energy use, and the travel and outsourcing that come with distributed teams. P4P built the Animation Toolkit to give animation producers access to tools to estimate their footprint and embrace sustainability in their production practices.

“As part of our commitment to the future of Canada’s children’s and youth media industry, we believe that advancing more sustainable practices is essential to building a resilient, thriving sector for generations to come,” says Agnes Augustin, President & CEO, Rocket Fund Canada. “We are proud to support this innovative initiative, which provides Canadian animation producers with practical tools to integrate sustainability into their production processes and translate that commitment into meaningful action,” says Becki Brisson, VP, Business Affairs and Operations, representing Rocket Fund on the initiative.

“B.C.’s animation studios and artists are global leaders in creativity and craft, and their sustainability tools should reflect that standard,” says Marnie Gee, BC Film Commissioner at Creative BC. “This toolkit gives producers practical, animation-specific ways to reduce their footprint, and we’re proud to support it through the Reel Green initiative.”

The toolkit, made with the support of the Rocket Fund Canada and Reel Green, is free to use and open to any producer looking to reduce their environmental impacts on their animation projects. Producers can access the toolkit at: producingfortheplanet.com/animation-toolkit.

The Animation Toolkit is part of P4P’s broader effort to make emissions reduction practical and accessible for independent producers.

Producing for the Planet gratefully acknowledges the Rocket Fund Canada, Creative BC, Reel Green, and the Province of British Columbia for their support.

The post Producing for the Planet Launches Drawn to Change: A Climate Action Toolkit for Canadian Animation Producers and Studios appeared first on Skwigly Animation Magazine.

Little Princess
(Banijay Kids & Family)

Banijay Kids & Family Distribution represents the global distribution rights for the animated preschool series, which is produced by The Illuminated Film Company. Sky UK has acquired all series and specials, bringing Little Princess to audiences across the UK. Further European deals have also been secured, with Nordisk Film taking seasons one to three and the specials for SVOD across the Nordics; RTV Slovenia acquiring seasons one and two; and TIM taking seasons one and two for its Italian streaming platform aggregator, TIMVISION.

Julia Rowlands, SVP Sales, Co-Productions and Acquisitions, Banijay Kids & Family says:

Across the industry, we’re seeing continued demand for trusted, established IP that can cut through in an increasingly crowded landscape. With a new UK home on Sky and partners across Europe, Little Princess demonstrates the enduring value of distinctive characters and storytelling that audiences know and love.

Based on the best-selling children’s books by award-winning author and illustrator Tony Ross, the animated Little Princess series first launched in 2006 and has since travelled to more than 140 territories worldwide. Produced by The Illuminated Film Company, it follows the spirited and inquisitive Little Princess who is full of energy, charm, and curiosity. Delightfully persistent when things don’t go her way, each episode is told with a warm blend of humour and surprise.

Led by Benoît Di Sabatino, Banijay Kids & Family is part of media and entertainment group, Banijay Entertainment. Its dedicated commercial and sales division, Banijay Kids & Family Distribution, is responsible for the exploitation of linear and non-linear rights for the group’s high-quality animated and live-action kids’ brands. As part of these efforts, it drives ancillary activity across all platforms, and through brand licensing and digital exploitation.

The post ‘Little Princess’ heads to Sky UK appeared first on Skwigly Animation Magazine.

Widely regarded as one of the leading global celebrations of excellence in audiovisual craft, CICLOPE awarded the film a total of nine honours, including the Animation Grand Prix, two Golds and six Bronzes, making Dirty Work one of the most awarded production companies at this year’s festival.

Created to raise awareness of prostate cancer prevention, Beat Cancer Off is built around the scientific insight that men who ejaculate 21 or more times per month may significantly reduce their risk of prostate cancer. To bring the message to life, Dirty Work assembled a team of more than 50 artists, combining 2D animation, stop motion, cut-out techniques, puppetry and mixed- media storytelling to create a visually ambitious film in which each sequence features its own distinctive aesthetic.

The latest wins continue an extraordinary global awards run for the project, which has already earned a Grand LIA and six Golds at the London International Awards, a Grand Prix, Gold and Bronze at the New York Festivals Advertising Awards, and eight Cannes Lions.

Beyond the trophies, the continued recognition reflects the way the creative community has embraced the film’s blend of craft, humour and purpose. Each successive award has introduced the work to new audiences and helped extend the reach of an important public health message, ensuring the campaign continues to spark conversations well beyond its original launch.

Dirty Work Executive Director Ito Andery said:

Winning at CICLOPE is incredibly challenging given the level of competition, so this recognition feels like a dream come true. I’ve been attending the festival for five years, and the standard of work has always been exceptionally high. Winning the Animation Grand Prix is a powerful statement that we’re ready to take on any creative challenge.

CICLOPE Awards, Berlin
Grand Prix

• Animation

Gold

• Animation: Character Design
• Production: Low Budget

Bronze

• Direction: Mid Form
• Animation: 2D &amp; Stop Motion
• Film: Mid Form
• For Good: Social Impact
• Sound & Music: Original Track

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© DreamWorks Animation

Sitting comfortably in the tradition of animated movies depicting myths from across the globe, Forgotten Island is a trek through Filipino fairy tales. Set in the Philippines, we follow two life-long friends, Jo and Raissa as they hit college age and start to contemplate life without each other. Right as that emotional rift begins to form, a literal rift opens in front of them and they decide to leap into the titular island which is full of the myths and legends they have heard about since they were kids. In a Hangover-esque plot structure, the pair have their memories of their first night on the island erased and have to retrace their steps in order to get home.

Despite existing in the same genre as past animated fairy tales, Forgotten Island doesn’t share a lot of DNA with them. In fact, Forgotten Island owes far more of its appeal to video games. Many of the techniques used to immerse players in a video game, as well as a lot of visual language, structure and general feel, are replicated and paid homage to throughout Forgotten Island. Unlike older animated myths like Aladdin and The Little Mermaid that are recreations of a specific story, Forgotten Island takes the modern approach of depicting real world people getting sucked into a mythical realm. This is just one of the many things Forgotten Island does in the name of immersion.

The most obvious homages come through the film’s integration of 2D animation alongside the pastel, watercoloury CG whose beauty is enough to carry you through the film alone. However, keen to constantly keep things feeling fresh and engaging, Forgotten Island sees characters’ emotions burst out, gaining physical manifestations.

If a character isn’t perfectly in frame, whether they’re in the background or obscured by the set, a miniature 2D version of their face will pop up in the form of a speech bubble. It’s similar to the art accompanying dialogue boxes from old RPGs that flash up with a facial expression and a mouth flap or two. Set in the 90s, the film is knowingly utilising these effects to evoke the era, just as they do with the needledrops throughout the film.

© DreamWorks Animation

Flashbacks in Forgotten Island also play like video game cutscenes. Fully 2D animated, they give exposition a fun treatment where the characters seem to be bouncing on the spot like characters in a fighting game waiting to be selected, and the scenes come at such a fast pace, wanting to download all the information into the audience’s brains as quickly as possible before returning to the action, evoking the quick scenes that establish Princess Peach being captured by Bowser at the start of a 2D Mario game.

These techniques are so effective and feel like a shot in the arm whenever they come up. It’s a storytelling cheat code to make the audience excited for exposition scenes to see what kinds of hand drawn animation are gonna pop up next.

The way Forgotten Island utilises its camera is also fascinating and unique. The promise of CG animation is fully realised here, using its camera in creative ways beyond what we’ve seen from CG in the past few decades. So many shots employ a wide lens that slightly distorts parts of the frame and has the audience craning their neck for a clearer look into the world. Almost every dialogue scene is shot with super deep focus, another immersive technique akin to how an open world game will show off its draw distance.

Forgotten Island’s camera embraces the looseness and relentlessness that runs through the entire film. It feels like it’s always swishing around and taking on interesting angles. There is even a scene where the characters rap to the camera directly as if they were in a music video. There are no real rules here, not in terms of camera, the animation technique or the pool of influence.

© DreamWorks Animation

All of Forgotten Island’s in-your-face imagery and filmmaking style means that it’s a movie that lacks subtlety. In the pursuit of putting every emotion felt by every character on screen, there isn’t any subtext in Forgotten Island, but I think this helps it thrive.

The lack of subtlety is a creative choice, not an unintentional consequence of bad filmmaking. When a character is angry they levitate off the ground in rage, or their eyes will be replaced with flames. If they’re sad then goblets of tears will fall from their eyes. Crawford and Mercado knowingly traded immersion for subtlety, and it makes for a thrilling experience. Ambiguity can create a divide between an audience and a film, and that isn’t risked at all here.

It’s easy to criticise something with the pace and humour of Forgotten Island for falling into the trap of catering towards shorter attention spans, something more righteously levelled at The Super Mario Bros. Movies. The difference is that Forgotten Island’s lack of subtlety doesn’t mean a lack of depth, and the main relationship in the film is beautifully observed.

© DreamWorks Animation

Having the movie start in the real world and seeing Jo and Raissa make their bond as kids allows us to map our own experiences onto the characters. The first act of the film plays like a straight coming-of-age movie, another immersive technique that allows us to feel every roadbump in their friendship as if it were one of our own. Nothing about the plot in Forgotten Island will surprise you, but it ensures that even the smallest emotions jump out of the screen and encase the audience, so even when expected twists take place, they’re nonetheless impactful.

This approach means that the film’s many side characters are given short shrift, even if there are attempts at giving them arcs. However, the movie moves so quickly that it’s hard to linger on those weaker points, even if they do grind against the flow of the movie in the moment.

Forgotten Island is a relentless rollercoaster of an adventure that goes down as smoothly as any of DreamWorks’ output. For all of its reckless and rule breaking visuals, its structural neatness of having sections of the movie segmented into video game levels means that you’re never lost amongst all of the shifting animation techniques and camera swings. In Forgotten Island, the style is the substance. It doesn’t need to masquerade as a slower, thoughtful movie to inspire emotion because it finds its depth by fully embracing madness and pace. And that absolutely rocks.

The post Forgotten Island Review – A Call To Adventure appeared first on Skwigly Animation Magazine.

Established in 2021 by ACCESS:VFX and Blue Zoo Animation Studio, and supported by HUE and Wacom, the awards have spent the past five years championing emerging talent and providing an important entry point for young people hoping to build careers in animation. Winners receive coveted trophies at a ceremony that kicks off a five-day celebration of animation at Manchester Animation Festival, alongside opportunities to gain work experience and take part in studio tours. For some of the competition’s earliest winners, these experiences have helped open doors to lasting careers, with former participants going on to secure roles at studios they first encountered through the programme.

The 2026 awards will bring together 54 nominees, with the ceremony complemented by introductory industry talks as part of the festival’s Family Day. Speakers include Aardman director and designer Gavin Strange, alongside a roundtable discussion featuring Blue Zoo Animation Studio Co-Founder and Managing Director Tom Box and Michael Morgan, Animation Mentor and Senior Animator at Paramount Pictures, exploring the changing shape of the animation industry and how creatives can stay resilient as AI continues to reshape entry-level pathways. That conversation feels particularly important at a time when aspiring animators may be questioning what the future holds. Competitions such as YAY UK offer more than recognition; they provide visibility, connections and a reason for young people to keep creating.

Young Animator of the Year Awards 2026

This year’s entries offer a snapshot of the skills being developed by the next generation and the creative voices that may shape the industry’s future. Finalists came from a diverse range of backgrounds. 2D animation was the most popular category, with accessibility and ease of entry playing a key role in enabling participation. The YAY UK team also noted some clear creative themes emerging this year: a real affection for nature and several surreal, dream-like sequences, perhaps a reflection of how animation offers a unique space for imagination and emotional storytelling.

YAY UK Co-Founder Tom Box said:

“This year’s entrants have blown us away, and with over 240 animated films submitted, 2026 is officially our biggest competition yet! We’re so proud of the young  animators who never fail to bring the utmost creativity and craft to every competition. We can’t wait to hand out the handmade trophies to the winners. A massive thank you to our sponsors, supporters, the YAY team and the fantastic panel of industry judges who have selected this year’s winners. Based on the calibre of entries, the future of animation is full of bright and brilliant talent.”

As the animation industry navigates an uncertain future, YAY offers a chance to return to where it all begins: the enthusiasm to create on your own terms. The competition provides young creatives with the structure, encouragement and industry exposure needed to take their ideas further and build sustainable careers in animation, ensuring their ambitions remain alive and the industry continues to nurture new talent. The young animators featured in this year’s competition may have one eye on the future, but the Young Animator of the Year Awards suggests that future is a bright one.

The Young Animator of the Year Awards is presented at Manchester Animation Festival on Sunday 8 November. For tickets visit the MAF website. If you’d like to stay up to date and enter YAY in 2027 visit the YAY website.

The post Young Animator of the Year Awards 2026 Promise an Animated Future for the UK! appeared first on Skwigly Animation Magazine.

Thinking about your next creative step? Join us at our on-campus Open Day for Animation (MA) & Aardman/RCA Animation (Professional Residency) (MFA), meet tutors and students, and get a look at the campus and facilities.

What to expect:

• 10.00am – Welcome & registration
• 10.30am – Animation (MA) presentation
• 12.00noon – Lunch break (provided by the RCA)
• 12.30pm – Aardman/RCA Animation (Professional Residency) (MFA) presentation
• 2.00pm – End

We’d love you to join for all parts of the event but if you can only join for part of it, that’s fine too. Booking is essential.

Who is this event for:

• Creatives practitioners and undergraduate students exploring postgraduate routes in relevant disciplines, we welcome applicants across all subject areas.
• Friends, family, or mentors

The post Animation Open Day at the Royal College of Art appeared first on Skwigly Animation Magazine.