Animated Exeter events success

Despite the horrendous weather, most of the Animated Exeter events taking place in the city over the past couple of weeks went ahead.

The Valentine's Day weekend saw the culmination of the first week of Animated Exeter with a fabulous light show on Fore Street, directed by Tal Rosner. Unfortunately, the show had to be cancelled on the Friday night due to the storms, but Saturday's performance was absolutely beautiful, with Fore Street being transformed into an interactive cinema, and people flocking to see the spectacle.

On the afternoon of Saturday 15th there was also the awards ceremony for the best animated films, held in Exeter's Phoenix Theatre. There were four official genres of film to be judged; The Graduate, The Indies, The Young Ones and Wide World. The different juries consisted of various well-known local faces, including David Lockwood, the director of the Bike Shed Theatre, Simon Bor, director of Honeycomb Enterprises and Chris Drew, a storyboard artist. The awards were sponsored by Toon Boom, Dragonframe and Kudlian.

All film entries had to be 8 minutes long or less, and, between them, the four different categories enabled film-makers of all nationalities and ages to apply. The Graduate selection was open to 2013 animation graduates from all over the UK. The Indies selection was open to non-commercial animation from all over the world with English subtitles. The Young Ones selection consisted of entries from children and young people under the age of 18 from the UK, and Wide World was an assortment of films made for children from all over the world.

The winners for The Graduate nominations were Christine Hooper for 'On Loop', Joe Bichard for 'Dead' and Plamen Ananiev for 'Hapless'. The winner for The Indies nominations was The Brothers McLeod for '365'. The winners for The Young Ones were Laurie Cousins for 'A Bad Place to Crash', Elliot Millson for 'The Lost Diamond', Eliza Hart for 'Day of the Dead' and Christopher Childs for 'Skyfool'. The winners for the Wide World category were Michael Visser from the Netherlands for 'Forever Mime' and Jon Ireland from the UK for 'Run Zoom Run'.

All in all, it was an award ceremony with many very talented entries and the Phoenix Theatre was filled with an enthusiastic and supportive audience.