The Bradford Animation Festival’s director, Deb Singleton, takes a look back at some of the festival’s greatest moments over the previous 20 years.
“It’s like cream—the best stuff gets to the top and is all condensed in this place.”
“A delightful festival within an intriguing museum.”
Just fantastic.
“A unique and delightful opportunity for inspiration, education, and entertainment.”
For all ages, it was an enjoyable, amiable, and enlightening experience.
Just a few of the explanations for why more than 800 enthusiasts of animation gather at the museum each November to participate in our yearly celebration of everything related to animation and video games.
BAF 2003 was my very first film festival experience—I’d just joined the museum and really had no idea what to expect from an animation festival.
Within hours of our festival jury and guests arriving, and my first festival screening, I became completely hooked and have spent the last eleven years being consistently enthralled, alarmed and astounded in equal measure by the films and people I’ve encountered.
I’m often asked, “what’s the best bit about your job?”, and it’s almost impossible to single out one single aspect as there’s so much that contributes. And it’s precisely this variety and scope which makes putting together the festival programme so enjoyable.
Every year we recognise some of the animation greats with our BAF Lifetime Achievement Award: John Coates, Geoff Dunbar, Tony Fish, Bob Godfrey, John Halas and Ray Harryhausen, to name a few.
Our screentalk and retrospective programmes have celebrated the achievements of leading contemporary animators like Marc Craste, Andreas Hykade, Peter Lord, Rob Morgan, Nick Park, Priit Parn, Barry Purves and Joanna Quinn.
We’ve gained invaluable and inspirational insights through our behind-the-scenes looks at award-winning animated features from Double Negative, Dreamworks, LAIKA and Pixar.
Watching the 800 short film submissions we receive each year, then selecting the 100 or so which we screen in competition while admiring the sheer determination, creativity and skill which has gone into them, is also up there among the best bits of my job.
Perhaps the most rewarding aspect for me is the palpable excitement and anticipation in the buildup to the festival and then, once everyone arrives, the real sense of community and the willingness by everyone—from those well established in the animation and gaming industries, to those just setting out—to seize the opportunities that our five days crammed full of screentalks, presentations, workshops and screenings offer. Everyone comes away from the festival with inspiration for their own work.
I’m most thankful for the attendees, volunteers and festival supporters who return each year to do it all again. BAF 2013, our 20th birthday celebration (in the year of the museum’s 30th birthday, no less) is not to be missed!
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