Cardiff Animation Festival 2020 announces full programme.

Cardiff Animation Festival has announced its full festival programme, adding feature films including I Lost My Body and Swallows of Kabul, a four-day Aardman exhibition, masterclasses on brand new series The Adventures of Paddington™ and Welsh sand-animated feature Heart of Darkness, workshops, industry panels, networking events, parties and more to the 2-5 April lineup.

The festival will bring features including Netflix’s Oscar-nominated I Lost My Body (dir. Jérémy Clapin) to play on the big screen in Cardiff for the first time. An arresting romantic adventure about class, coming-of-age and a search for connection, I Lost My Body will screen on Sunday 5th April. Parents and carers with babies will also be able to see the film on Friday 3rd April, part of Chapter’s Carry on Screaming initiative.

Swallows of Kabul (dir. Zabou Breitman and Eléa Gobbé-Mévellec), a story of love and hope set in 1998 Taliban-ruled Kabul, will continue its festival run at Cardiff Animation Festival, after screenings at Cannes and Annecy. Independent British family feature STRIKE will screen followed by a Q&A with director Trevor Hardy talking about how he made the film out of recycled materials. The festival will also feature a relaxed environment screening of Aardman’s A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon (dir. Will Becher, Richard Phelan).

Audiences will have the opportunity to get up close and personal with some of Aardman’s beautifully-made sets and models from A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon and Early Man, in a free four-day exhibition of the Bristol-based studio’s incredible work, open to everyone throughout the festival.

A range of family-friendly events will run throughout the weekend, including an incredible chance to watch episodes and see behind the scenes of the brand new CGI series The Adventures of Paddington™ by Blue Zoo Animation for StudioCanal & Nickelodeon, presented by Producer Simon Quinn.

Lorraine Lordan will join the festival from Ireland for a masterclass discussing her impressive career in animation at renowned Irish studio Cartoon Saloon. Lorraine has worked as animation director on the Oscar-nominated The Breadwinner, animation supervisor on the beautiful and picturesque children's series Puffin Rock and special effects animator on Irish fantasy tale and Oscar-nominated feature The Secret of Kells.

The world’s first sand-animated feature film Heart of Darkness is currently being made in Cardiff – its director Gerald Conn will take Cardiff Animation Festival audiences behind the scenes of the upcoming film adapted from Joseph Conrad’s classic novel.

The festival is teaming up with Darkened Rooms to animate the beautiful Cardiff Castle with a day of feature favourites. Cardiff Castle’s Underground Cinema will invite audiences to venture underground to see animated classics including Sleeping Beauty, Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr Fox, cult favourite Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, anime hit Your Name, and S4C’s beautiful Welsh language version of Cartoon Saloon’s The Secret of Kells.

Industry events will include round table networking events in partnership with ScreenSkills, inviting new entrants to the animation industry and those new to freelancing to network and learn from industry professionals. The festival will also feature industry expert panels focusing on storytelling, producing animation, and inclusion in the animation industry, and animators will have a chance to gain professional feedback on their work in progress at Animation Grill, reigniting for Cardiff Animation Festival 2020. As well as serious networking, festival goers will have a chance to let their hair down at parties including a Music Video Discotheque in collaboration with Club Foot Foot, DJed by music video director Casey Raymond.

The festival will shine a spotlight on neurodiverse animation talent, with a screening of animated shorts by neurodiverse animators created through Biggerhouse Film’s Different Voices project and a Q&A with the films’ directors, as well as a round table discussion about neurodiversity in animation, and an animation workshop led by neurodiverse filmmakers kicking off the festival on Wednesday 1st April.

Workshops will also include a chance to explore Cardiff’s great outdoors and animate in nature with award-winning filmmaker Gustavo Arteaga, a Welsh language animation workshop with stop motion animator Laura Tofarides, a collaboration with Cardiff’s Illustration Club and a character design workshop with animator and multi-disciplinary artist Kyle Legall, who will also deliver a masterclass on his work on Saturday 4th April.

These events, and many more, add to a lineup including masterclasses on the animated creatures of His Dark Materials, The Rubbish World of Dave Spud, and Welsh animator Simon Chong on directing Bob’s Burgers, themed programmes of the festival’s favourite new animated shorts from around the world, partnerships with Into Film, Iris Prize, Chapter Moviemaker and Creative Mornings Cardiff.

Cardiff Animation Festival 2020 is funded by Arts Council Wales, Ffilm Cymru Wales, Film Hub Wales as part of the BFI Film Audience Network (FAN), BFI NETWORK Wales, and Ymddiried through the Owen Edwards Scholarship Fund, and sponsored by Cloth Cat Animation, Picl Animation, Creative Europe Desk UK – Wales, the University of South Wales, Cardiff Metropolitan University, Jammy Custard Animation, the British Animation Awards, S4C and by the ScreenSkills Animation Skills Fund with contributions from UK animation productions.

Cardiff Animation Festival 2020 will run from Thursday 2nd to Sunday 5th April at Chapter and venues around Cardiff. Cardiff Animation Festival tickets are on sale now – see the full programme and get tickets now at cardiffanimation.com/2020