We can officially confirm that we’ll be returning to the Barbican this year.

LIAF 2011 was such a success at our new venue and your feedback was tremendously positive. You may have heard that the Barbican will be opening two brand new cinemas this year (if not, you can read more about the developments of the project here), so we’re particularly proud to announce that we’ll be running our Festival from the Barbican’s two new screens.

The second piece of big LIAF news is, for the first time ever, we’ll be making a significant change to our Festival dates. LIAF 2012 will commence on October 26th running for ten consecutive days until November 4th. We’ve been mulling over for some time the possibility of altering our annual ten-day London appearance, and have decided its time to take the plunge. We’ve become increasingly aware that we’re not as accessible to our student audience as we’d like, as usually we run during the Summer break. So, without unleashing our Festival steel-toe caps onto the proverbial toes of any other London film festivals, we’ve rescheduled to fall over Halloween – which will certainly influence curation on at least one or two of our Programmes.

We’ll release more information as and when we have it, in the meantime we’ll be curating, meeting, researching and generally beavering away in preparation for the London International Animation Festival’s very first October – November outing.

LIAF is over-the-moon to be able to bring you the UK Premiere of 'Persistence of Vision'

For more than three decades Suzan Pitt has been an internationally renowned creator of beautiful, strange and fiercely original animation. Perhaps because her breakthrough film ‘Asparagus‘ accompanied ‘Eraserhead’ on the midnight movie circuit, the work of Suzan Pitt has often been compared with that of David Lynch.  He has talked about fishing the subconscious for his ideas, and it’s clear that Pitt sets out from a similar place; led by dream logic and a process of ‘interior sense-making’, with no clear idea of an end goal. The result is a small but unique body of work, tricky to pin down or explain but like works of visual poetry, bursting with surreal and sometimes disturbing images capable of crawling under your skin in unexpected ways.

Pitt’s synthesis of hand painted images with other experimental techniques such as scratch-on-film, cut-out and sand animation, infuse her work with a visceral quality unique in the world of animation. This helps to account for the long gaps between films, although her career also covers a fascinating range of other work including expanded cinema, opera, music video, environmental activism and her first love, painting.

An artist with a singular vision, LIAF welcomed Suzan Pitt to the Horse Hospital to present her body of work and take part in a Q & A on 31st March. We were thrilled to be able to bring you a rare retrospective featuring all of Pitt’s key works from the surrealist visual orgy of ‘Asparagus to’ her latest short, the haunting ‘Visitation’, as well as the UK premiere of ‘Persistence of Vision’, a 28 minute documentary exploring the inspirations, journeys and creative expression from which her films have evolved throughout her career.

And for those of you who were unable to attend… you can watch the Q&A right here!

Suzan Pitt Q&A at The Horse Hospital 2012 by LIAFanimation

Patrick Doyon's 'Sunday'

‘Sunday’ directed by Patrick Doyon of Canada screened at LIAF 2011 International Programme 4 (Patrick even came over to join us and introduce his film); ‘Paths of Hate’ (Damian Nenow, Poland) screened twice; (once in Focus on Poland 1 and again in International Programme 3); and  ‘A Morning Stroll’ (Grant Orchard, UK) delighted the audience of International Programme 2.

On January 24 the list gets whittled down further to between three to five films which will be announced ahead of the presentation of the Academy Awards on February 26. We’ve already invited another three from this list for LIAF 2012 and there will very likely be a couple more. Keep your eyes peeled. We’ve seen all of the ten shortlisted films and can confirm that there are some crackers. We know which film we’re rooting for, but that’s a secret.

The ten films are…
‘Dimanche/Sunday’ (Patrick Doyon, Canada)
‘The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore’ (William Joyce & Brandon Oldenburg, USA)
‘I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat’ (Matthew O’Callaghan, USA)
‘La Luna’ (Enrico Casarosa, USA)
‘Luminaris’ (Juan Pablo Zaramellam, Argentina)
‘Magic Piano’ (Martin Clapp, Poland/UK)
‘A Morning Stroll’ (Grant Orchard, UK)
‘Paths of Hate’ (Damian Nenow, Poland)
‘Specky Four-Eyes’ (Jean-Claude Rozec, France)
‘Wild Life’ (Amanda Forbis & Wendy Tilby, Canada)

Damian Nenow's 'Paths Of Hate'

Grant Orchard's A Morning Stroll'

A snapshot of NFTS student pitches for LIAF 2012 trailer

We are extremely proud to announce an exciting collaboration with the UK’s most prestigious Film School – the National Film and Television School. Two very talented teams of students, lead by Directors Yousif Al-Khalifa and Gat Powell, will be producing trailers for LIAF 2012.

The two teams are busy working on the trailers now with production due to finish early next year – in plenty of time for LIAF. The trailers will be premiered online in the middle of 2012 on the LIAF and Barbican websites and will of course be on the big screen during our 10-day festival.

In November all eight NFTS animation students pitched their ideas to festival Director Nag Vladermersky and NFTS Head of Animation Helen Nabarro and though the decision to choose two was a tough one, the ideas that stood out show great promise and fit in neatly with the LIAF ethos.

LIAF’s 2012 technique focus is collage so we’re looking forward to mixed media works which will give all 8 students a chance to contribute with their areas of expertise. Look out for Norman the animated animator and a strange traveler making his way across London on a giant tortoise. More will be revealed soon.

The bar is well and truly raised this year as LIAF 2011 has been, without a doubt, the biggest and best LIAF… ever! That’s not to say that LIAF is over for the year, not a chance. “LIAF is a year-round celebration of animation” (something we’ll never tire of saying!) and we’ve already got our next set of events planned with lots more in the pipeline. While we’re on the subject of planning, one event we’re particularly proud of is the soon-to-be revealed 23 simultaneous Children’s Screenings at PictureHouse cinemas across the whole of London. We’ll be posting details very soon.

LIAF 2011 Audience, we thank you

Reading through the hundreds and hundreds of audience voting and feedback forms has as ever, given us that valuable insight into how you think we’re doing. We’re bearing big, beaming smiles at your positive comments and the fact that so many of you felt strongly enough to share them only adds to the glee. And that, right there, is the first of many ‘thank you’s’ that we owe – LIAF would not, could not happen if you didn’t want it to. So thank you LIAF audience… And while we’re on the subject of ‘thank you’s’…

Thank you to…
BFI/Film London
Shooting People
Imagine magazine
Electric Sheep magazine
The Film and Video Workshop, especially Simon Oatley and Kevin Griffiths for helping us with our Children’s Animation drop in workshop at the Barbican.

LIAF volunteer Jessica Davies and the Barbican's Jason Eden

A special ‘thank you’ to the Barbican (It was a LIAF-changing experience to be able to bring to you our Festival from such a prestigious and accommodating venue). Robert Rider, Emma Watkins and the wonderful Susie Evans made the LIAF team feel incredibly welcome and ensured that we had absolutely everything to hand. We’d also like to thank  Barbican projectionists -Jonathan Greer and Ida Akesson; ‘the host with the most’ Jason Eden and all the Barbican’s box-office staff and ushers. Not to forget our satellite venues: The Horse Hospital’s Roger Burton and Tai as well as All at the Rio Cinema.

And thank you to: the Quebec Government Office, London; Polish Cultural Institute and the Austrian Cultural Forum, for bringing our international guests into London.

Adobe and Celaction for providing prizes to filmmakers.

Skillset’s St.John Walker and The School of Sound’s Larry Walker as well as all the panelists who joined us for our first ever Industry Event.

Bianca Ansems and Daniela Negrin Ochoa, the talented NFTS students who made our 2011 trailers.

Our amazing guests – Theodore Ushev, Wojtek Wawszczyk, Dietmar Schwarzler, Tai Murayama, Patrick Doyon, Phil Mulloy and all the filmmakers who took part in our many Q & A’s and Masterclasses. Thank you to each and every filmmaker who allowed us to screen their films. Quite simply, your films ARE the London International Animation Festival.

Our judges – Joseph Pierce, Abigail Addison, Dietmar Schwarzler, Wojtek Wawszczyk, Anna Blaszczyk and Andy Blazdell.

And last but by no means least, the LIAF minions – the volunteers that work behind the scenes. They grabbed the WD40 when the LIAF engine room made strange noises, crawled out of bed at stupid o’clock when self-preservation would tell anyone else to crawl straight back in again with a bowl of corn flakes and a comic book, they lifted, transported, made tea, sold things, bought things, filmed things, pressed things, projected things… little tasks and big tasks… they did them all and WE SALUTE THEM! Dan Jones, Lindsay Watson, Jessica Davies, Catherine Pritchard and Claude Trollope-Curson… thank you!

If we have missed anyone, do please let us know! We’re diving back in now to recommence our clean-up and will be resurfacing very, very soon…

Best of the Festival

‘In A Pig’s Eye’ Atsushi Wada

Highly Commended were ‘White Hair’ Yuka Takeda, ‘Freud Fish & Butterfly’ Haiyang Wang, ‘Dove Sei, Amore Mio’ Vejko Popovic, ‘Abuelas’ Afarin Eghbal

Atsushi will receive a prize of software, courtesy of Adobe

Best Britsh Film

Judges vote ‘Bobby Yeah’ Robert Morgan

Audience vote ‘Abuelas’ Afarin Eghbal

Best Cut-Out Film

‘Roots of the Hidden’ Elizabeth Sevenoaks

As judged by Andy Blazdell of CelAction

Elizabeth will receive a prize of software courtesy of CelAction

International Programme 1 Winner

Judges vote ‘Get Real!’ Evert de Beijer

Audience vote ‘Get Real!’ Evert de Beijer

International Programme 2 Winners

Judges vote ‘In A Pig’s Eye’ Atsushi Wada

Audience vote ‘Little Quentin’ Albert ‘t Hooft & Paco Vink

International Programme 3 Winners

Judges vote ‘White Tape’ Michal & Uri Kranot

Audience vote ‘Big Bang Big Boom’ Blu

International Programme 4 Winners

Judges vote ‘Battenberg’ Stewart Comrie

Audience Vote ‘The Gloaming’ NoBrain

International Programme 5 Winner

Judges vote ‘Lipsett Diaries’ Theodore Ushev

Audience vote‘Lipsett Diaries’ Theodore Ushev

International Programme 6 – Abstract Showcase Winners

Judges vote ‘Lightforms’ Malcolm Sutherland

Audience vote ‘An Abstract Day’ Oerd van Cuijlenborg

International Programme 7 Winners

Judges vote ‘The External World’ David O’Reilly

Audience vote ‘The External World’ David O’Reilly

International Programme 8 – Supinfocom is Back! Winners

Judges vote ‘Hambuster’ Paul Alexandre, Dara Cazamea, Maxime Cazaux, Romain Delaunay & Bruno Ortolland

Audience vote ‘D ‘Une Rare Crudite’ Emilien Davaud, Jeremy Mougel & Marion Szymczak