Maggie Ellis - Film London
Juan Pablo Zaramella - Director and Jury Member
Abi Feijo and Regina Pessoa
Gin Piau from the British Embassy, ParisAnnecy Day 2
Wednesday 9th June 2010
Today is the first day of the MIFA (The International Market of Animated Film). Animated Encounters is part of the UK stand kindly supported by the British Embassy in Paris and South West Screen in Bristol. I had a good chat with Gin Piau from the British Embassy who is in charge of the participation of British companies throughout the key French market events such as Annecy. Gin and Sophie Debodisco – Senior Trade Advisor (UKTI) have been incredibly helpful with their support for the British contingency as has the ultra-organised Johanna Bolhoven from South West Screen who has been responsible for bringing the group together and organising the whole UK MIFA presence with great professionalism and friendliness.
It was great to have Juan Pablo Zaremella drop by the UK stand - he's on the Graduation Film Jury along with Nick P. and Peter De Seve.
There is a real camaraderie and friendship between the Annecy attendees (both old and new) and that is one of the unique features of Annecy.
I managed to catch up with my old friends Abi Feijo and Regina Pessoa from Portugal. Two of the nicest people you are ever likely to meet. If they were a bottle of Port they would be Vintage but with a Ruby character as well.
My highlight of the morning was hooking up with Ross Garner and Paul Howell. These guys co-own Stop Motion Pro (SMP) – the leading industry standard software for stop-frame animation. I had a good talk with Ross about festival involvement and he kindly gave me a demonstration of their latest SMP 3D system – it really is something to behold – a fine thing of beauty and something I think everyone interested in stop-mo animation should check out – maybe something you will be able to see in action during Animated Encounters in November (18-20th in case you’ve forgotten already)....watch this space!
The lovely Maggie Ellis from Film London arrived mid-afternoon and we chatted about funding issues and opportunities. She is Head of Production and Talent Development at Film London and is as keen as I am to develop new opportunities for new talent. Hopefully I will be speaking again to Maggie in the near future.
Just before the 4pm competition screening I managed to catch Hugo Sands and Andrew Ruhemann from Passion Pictures. I wish to talk more with them about a possible presentation of some of their work. I’m also dead keen on seeing Andrew’s new film that's in competition 'The Lost Thing' (nice strawberries Andrew!).
Across the tables was my old festival chum Peter Lord who was chatting with Hannah Minghella – President of Production at Sony Pictures Animation. Hmmm...I wonder if there is any scope for new productive relations between Animated Encounters and Sony Pictures Animation....
Managed to watch the International Competition 3 programme – What a mixed bunch of stuff there was - some good - some baaad! Had to pinch myself to check reality on a few occasions.
Mr Darren Walsh from Passion has arrived. Arranged to catch up tomorrow.
Had dinner with Jayne Pilling (Director of the British Animation Awards) and met Michel Ocelot – one of the true greats – who was collecting signatures in celebration of Nicole Salomon – Nicole was someone everyone at Annecy used to see every year doing what she has always done best – promoting and celebrating the artform and its creators. Hats off to Nicole!
Annecy would not be complete without the larger than life Spike, with small hat as always, from the Spike and Mike festival of animation (California).
Ended up in the Captain’s Pub (English pub) on a strict two pint limit (almost) with Andy Wyatt from Falmouth. We failed. It was good to meet two of Andy's students and hear their experiences of Annecy so far.
I was very pleased to meet up with Phil Davies from Astley Baker Davies - the company that brought us the hugely successful pre-school series 'Peppa Pig'. I'm looking for an opportunity to chat more with Phil to persuade him to maybe bring a show to Bristol....
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