The second annual Manchester Animation Festival will celebrate this impactful and creative industry at HOME this week, Nov. 15-17, and will toast the best in the biz with its Industry Excellence Awards.
Winners will receive beautiful etched and hand-finished brass plates created by renowned puppet animation studio Mackinnon and Saunders (Frankenweenie, Corpse Bride, Fantastic Mr. Fox), featuring a new design just revealed by the studio.
The Industry Excellence Awards celebrate contributions to the industry outside auteur and student filmmaking, focusing on industry contributions such as writing for animation, storyboarding and character animation for commissioned films. Nominations for these categories are:
Writing for Animation:
Alex Collier – Mr. Bean “Super Bean”
Sara Daddy – Puffin Rock “Just Like Mama”
Mark Oswin & James Griffiths – Danger Mouse “Greenfinger”
Robert Vargas – The Ollie and Moon Show “Pilot”
Storyboarding for Animation:
Bianca Ansems – #ShakespeareLives “Macbeth”
Stuart Bayley – SMITE “To Hell and Back”
Mireia Serra Puig – Puffin Rock “The First Snow”
Character Animation:
Jane Davies – Bristol Ageing Better
Will Eades – SMITE “To Hell and Back”
Simone Giampaolo – More Stuff
Oana Nechifor – #ShakespeareLives “Hamlet”
Winners of the Industry Excellence Awards will be revealed alongside the film competition winners at the Nov. 17 ceremony, hosted by Barry Purves.
The Manchester Animation Festival is supported by the BFI with National Lottery Fund. Visit manchesteranimationfestival.co.uk for full program information for this year’s event.