Manchester Animation Festival goes virtual (15-30 Nov)

The UK’s largest animation festival – The Manchester Animation Festival (MAF) – will take place 15-30 November 2020 as a virtual festival. 

The programme is made up of screenings and exclusive previews of short films and features, as well as masterclasses, live Q&As, panels and screen talks. During these, acclaimed animators will share behind the scenes insight into their iconic work and characters.

This year’s MAF includes exclusive work-in-progress look at a forthcoming stop-motion animation film, The Inventor that stars Stephen Fry and Daisy Ridley, with a Q&A from writer and director Jim Capobianco, the Academy Award nominated writer of Pixar hit Ratatouille.

There’s also a ‘sculpt-along’ with Jim Parkyn, sculptor from Aardman Animations (pictured above).

During the festival, Alison Snowden and David Fine of Snowden Fine Animation will pick up the Fellowship Award, and there will be a retrospective of their film and TV career, with a live Q&A.

MAF will also host The Animated Short Film Screening competition, with winners announced on 27 November.

There’s also a new ‘Industry Day’ enabling animation professionals to gain insight into the Industry. Furthermore, virtual stalls make it possible to chat, meet, share and network with animation houses (including Jellyfish Pictures, Marks & Clerk, Animation Toolkit, the Young Audiences Content Fund (BFI), Blue Zoo, Brown Bag Films, Toon Boom and the University of Salford) in the ‘MAF Marketplace’.

Festival Director Steve Henderson said: “We’re delighted to welcome the animation community back to MAF for another year of animated activity all from the comfort of their own homes from the 15-30 November. Going online gives us the perfect opportunity to make MAF accessible to lots more people and welcome them all to the Festival.”

Chair of MAF board, Tom Box, MD of Blue Zoo Productions, added: “I’ve had the pleasure of attending MAF every year since its inception, witnessing it grow to become the UK’s biggest animation festival in just a few short years. The passion and drive that led to that growth has been cranked up and transferred to the online edition this year - sharing the love of animation with even more people around the world.”

Find out more about MAF at https://www.manchesteranimationfestival.co.uk/