The 2016 edition of the U.K.’s Manchester Animation Festival is shaping up, with organizers announcing that the event will take place November 15-17 at HOME in Manchester, and launching a call for entries for the film competitions. This year’s festival includes award categories for Short Film, Student Film and Commissioned Film. Submissions are free and are open until July 29, 2016.
MAF launched last year, attracting over 900 film submissions from 63 countries, screening 70 selections and welcoming over 4,200 guests. This year, the festival will present its first ever “industry excellence awards” to artists demonstrating stand-out work in storyboarding, writing and character animation.
The first confirmed guests have also been announced, with Aardman Animation co-founders Peter Lord and David Sproxton kicking things off in style as the studio continues to celebrate its 40th anniversary this year. MAF will have a full program of special guests, screenings, workshops, retrospectives, screen talks, master classes and more to be announced later this year.
The announcement event at HOME was accompanied by a talk with Ian Mackinnon from Mackinnon and Saunders, who talked the crowd through the making of the now emblematic MAF award which the studio designed and fabricated.
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