Official selection and special events announced for brand new Cardiff Animation Festival 19th-22nd A

The brand new Cardiff Animation Festival (CAF) is launching in April 2018 at Chapter, Cardiff. The four-day celebration of animated film will include a preview of Oscar-nominated feature film The Breadwinner and a huge programme of 99 short animated films in competition.

Director Joanna Quinn says “I'm so excited the Cardiff Animation Festival has finally been resurrected, and with the inimitable Lauren Orme and her wonder team at the helm, I know it's going to be a blast. The thought of four days of animated films, presentations and meeting new friends is almost too much too bear. I wish I had an animation advent calendar to count down the days! #ExcitedAnimationNerd”

The festival will comprise six themed programmes of some of the best animated short films from around the world. Of the nearly 500 animated shorts submitted, 99 were chosen by the selection panel to be screened in competition for the Best Short and Best Student short award, and audiences will have a chance to vote for their favourite to win the Audience Award. Themed screenings include ‘Hindsight’, a programme dedicated to exploring personal and world history, bringing shorts such as the sublime Late Afternoon by Louise Bagnall and Daisy Jacobs’ experimental The Full Story together. Other themes include ‘Close Quarters’, ‘One Way Ticket’, and a ‘Speechless’ programme, celebrating films without dialogue.

Highly anticipated The Breadwinner from multi-Oscar nominated studio Cartoon Saloon will screen ahead of its official UK release. The stunning animated drama about a little girl living under Taliban rule is directed by Nora Twomey and produced by Angelina Jolie. The features programme will also include Early Man from Aardman, supported by the BFI with National Lottery funding, with Animation Director Merlin Crossingham from Aardman giving insight into the film’s creation.

CAF will celebrate Chuck Steel: Night Of The Trampires, the independent stop motion feature film everyone is talking about, made in a warehouse in Bridgend by Animortal Studio. Director Mike Mort will give CAF audiences an exclusive look behind the scenes of the film. The festival will also play host to the Trampires themselves, who are set to take over Chapter with their very own four-day exhibition – a chance to get face to face with the incredible puppets from the film, the amazingly detailed miniature streets of LA, and meet the hero himself, Chuck Steel.

A range of family-friendly events throughout the weekend will include an incredible chance to see behind the scenes of the multi-BAFTA-winning preschool favourite Hey Duggee, presented by creator Grant Orchard from Studio AKA. Also scheduled are two animated family shorts programmes curated by renowned Cardiff-based studio Cloth Cat Animation, including Twin Islands from prestigious animation school Supinfocom, and Croak from Animade’s Frida Ek. Workshops giving children and adults the chance to try animation for the first time will run alongside workshops for seasoned animators.

Budding directors and creators will have the chance to partake in one-to-ones with Children’s TV Commissioners as part of the Industry Day, opening the festival on Thursday 19th April. The day will include a keynote from Bob Ayres, the head of TrueTube, which picked up four BAFTA Children’s Awards at the most recent awards ceremony. Concluding the Thursday will be Cardiff Animation Nights, the popular independent animation screening event that the CAF team cut their teeth on. Held at Kongs in Cardiff City Centre, the bi-monthly screenings of animated shorts now regularly bring in audiences of over 150 people at each event.

CAF will also host the launch of ‘Anim18: A Celebration of British Animation’, taking place across the UK from April to November 2018. The launch will be a chance to hear more about how Anim18 will be working with a host of partners nationally to showcase the best of British animation – past, present and future. Anim18 is led by Film Hub Wales, Chapter (Cardiff) working with the BFI Film Audience Network, which is supported by the BFI with National Lottery funding to bring a diverse range of cinema to audiences across the UK. For Anim18 activities and events across the UK in 2018 visit www.Anim18.co.uk.

Cardiff Animation Festival 2018 is sponsored by Animortal Studio, Cloth Cat Animation, University of South Wales, Beryl Productions, Creative Europe Desk UK – Wales and the British Council. The festival is funded by the BFI and Ffilm Cymru Wales, and is in partnership with Chapter, BAFTA Cymru and Curzon. Cardiff Animation Festival is run by a Cardiff-based team, including independent animators Lauren Orme and Dani Abram, Adam Bailey and Chris Wright of Cloth Cat Animation, designer and translator Telor Gwyn, animator Laura Tofarides and cinematographer Chris James.

Cardiff Animation Festival 2018 will run from Thursday 19th to Sunday 22nd April at Chapter, an independent arts hub and cinema space in the heart of Cardiff, as well as other Cardiff venues. Festival Passes and Industry Day Passes are on sale now. Follow Cardiff Animation Festival on Twitter at @CardiffAnimFest for more updates as they are released.