Manchester Animation Festival is something I’ve attended in some form or another for the last three years of me living in the city. It has a great selection of films, from larger studio pictures to tiny (both in terms of length and budget) indie films, as well as an abundance of great animation related events across the week.
I was lucky enough to sit down and chat with Steve Henderson, the festival’s director, ahead of this year’s instalment of the festival.
I first asked Henderson to give us a little background on the festival for the uninitiated:
“MAF is the UK’s biggest animation event – we have workshops, panels, masterclasses so we have people from throughout the world of animation coming to Manchester – and we like to share a bit of Manchester with the world as well.”
The festival attracts the likes of Disney, DreamWorks and Aardman, which means this year “we have Wallace and Gromit here”, Henderson tells me with particular glee in his voice.
Alongside these household names, Henderson tells me, “as well we also have our fantastic short film and feature film competitions – our short film competition is the only one in the UK that is Academy and BAFTA qualifying so films that enter can be looking at the Oscars! We love what we do at MAF, it’s a marathon of animation – and there’s something for everyone whether it’s a short film, a feature film, an in conversation – whether you want to find out more about animation, whether you’re a complete novice to animation you can come and enjoy, you might even be a toddler coming to your first cinema screening”.
I tell him about my favourite Animation Festival experience, seeing Spirited Away on the big screen for the first time. Henderson tells me, “When you show something by Studio Ghibli it has a frenzied crowd, people are so excited to even see old studio Ghibli films – last year we showed the new Miyazaki, The Boy and the Heron, there were queues leading down the stairs and the atmosphere was absolutely electric”.
He compares the atmosphere to that of a sports game: “I liken it to bringing football fans together in a stadium, the energy and the atmosphere and everyone’s there for the same reason they’re all there because they love the same thing”. I add that perhaps it’s even better than that because everyone is on the same side, “There’s no fighting in the streets, it’s quite jovial,” Henderson confirms.
Henderson spoke to The Mancunion ahead of last year’s festival as well so I wanted to know how the festival had changed since. “A completely different line-up” is what is most important to him: “the bones of the festival are pretty similar, you’ll know there’s going to be great short films, great feature films, we always have fantastic guests. Certain elements are there every year: Northwestivus, our annual networking event, [and] the Skwigly Quiz”.
But while the bones of the festival stay the same, Henderson emphasises that “we don’t do the same thing twice”:
“This year we have Memoirs of a Snail, Adam Elliot’s new film which recently won against live-action competition at the BFI London Film Festival which is quite an achievement. This is only the second time it’s been played in the UK. The film Black Butterflies, which has been doing well on the festival circuit, we have Sultana’s Dream, Sauvages, the new film from Claude Barras who directed My Life as a Courgette. We also have Flow which is a fantastic film.” Flow is about a cat navigating a post apocalyptic world which has Oscar buzz behind it. Henderson sells it, describing that “It’s like Children of Men but with a cat”.
The 2024 edition is the festival’s tenth. Henderson tells me, “It’s wonderful to celebrate ten years but it’s more of a testament to the people that have been involved in the festival over the year… we see year on year the thirst and passion for animation grows”.
He talks about the changes in animation over this time, saying that “Technologies have changed, there’s new innovations in animation and we’re able to showcase that at the festival. But I also think that the mindset of animation has changed in the last ten years since the festival started. It has traditionally been seen as a children’s medium. It’s something that people will think ‘animation is just a cartoon’ but calling all animation films a cartoon is like saying all live action films are westerns – it’s just not the case. Animation can do anything”.
Henderson particularly praises how outspoken Guillermo Del Toro has been about viewing animation as a medium (rather than a genre) since his 2022 Pinocchio adaptation. “Distributors are starting to take risks on films that wouldn’t have necessarily been picked up a few years ago”.
I ask him why Henderson thinks there has been such a shift recently. “It works when you have advocates like [Guillermo del Toro] making films like Pinocchio which screened at the festival a few years ago, when you have Tim Burton making his films, when you have Wes Anderson making films like Isle of Dogs. These are not films particularly focused on children, or even family audiences. Anyone can pick these up and engage with them – telling timeless stories”.
“Animation is a great connector” Henderson passionately states. “When you go to the cinema and see a live action film you’re going to watch actors, you even say I’m going to see the new Brad Pitt film or the new Tom Cruise film – so you are watching them. But because animation is almost a caricature you can apply yourself to that character and be empathetic with what you’re watching”.
With any festival line up there’s always the question of how it was put together. Henderson is glad to discuss this topic: “It’s a really good question because it’s often something shrouded in mystery. This year we received over 1200 submissions, we’re really excited to have that many entries coming into the festival. It shows how many fantastic films are out there, how many wonderful things to share, how many voices are out there. But unfortunately we only have a certain amount of time to show these films in. This year, we’re showing 139 films, including shorts, features, VR, from 37 different countries”. That’s roughly one in ten films that make it onto the big screen line-up.
Talking about what makes them pick a certain film, Henderson says that “we have no idea but we know it when we see it. Long story short, if you want to get a film screened at MAF we always say that the films we show on screen are films with soul. A soul through it’s story, or it’s technique, the best do it through both”.
In our conversation he’d mentioned a few times that VR experiences were involved in the festival’s line-up. I asked him how they show a VR film at a festival. “With great expense” he adds, laughing.
“There are some incredible experiences being made and we’re delighted to be a platform for VR because there’s not many people showing it and there are not many opportunities to see it. It’s a prohibitively expensive thing, you look at the price of the Apple Vision Pro and the price is in the thousands. I can’t afford one of those and I don’t think the average person can justify that expense. So what we like to do is put them on for free in Manchester Central Library for anyone to enjoy. And we judge them in competition just as we’d judge short or feature films”.
“We have about 75 minutes of VR experiences this year, some are interactive and some you just put the headset on and enjoy it. We’re the longest running VR award, or immersive film award, at an animation festival in the world”.
To me, this seems to close the divide between film and video games in a way, something Henderson agrees with me on. “Animation fits into anything really; it’s not really restricted by the screen. Animation can be sculpture, animation can be projection. Animation can be anything”.
Henderson talks passionately about the many ways animation can be put to use: “It’s a wonderful utility – bridging the gap, as you say, between games, film, VFX and all these things. It shouldn’t really be restricted to one particular thing. It’s the world’s most expressive artform, most malleable artform and that’s why it can be frustrating when people say it’s just cartoons”.
One specific thing that the festival showcases is student work, something Henderson feels is “vitally important” because “work made by students is made in a very particular fashion. It’s made in an academic environment so people are learning and growing and changing, so it’s a way of seeing that growth as an artist accumulated into fantastic films. It means you get an honest and open experience on screen”.
When I ask Henderson for advice to aspiring student filmmakers, he emphasises the importance of using the time that university gives you. “You’re being given time to develop and time to use that to discover who you are and discover your voice. And within that it’s time to make mistakes, it’s time to recover from those mistakes, time to use wisely. Time to go to festivals and watch as much animation as possible, to go outside of animation, to be inspired by things and become the person who can make a film. University gives you those years to dedicate to that”.
To round out the interview I ask him for some personal favourite animated film. “I love that question” he says, “I watch a lot of animated short films and there are some wonderful films that are out at this year’s festival, there are some that will make you laugh, some that will make you cry”.
“But for me I always go back to the best animated short film ever made – in fact, no, it’s the best thing ever committed to film. The Wrong Trousers, the Wallace and Gromit film. That is the film that changed my life, that made me go “wow,” that’s what animation can do, this is absolutely extraordinary. It just blew my mind and from then on all I wanted to do was be involved with animation. To learn animation and find out more about it. If I were to pick the apex of animated film it has to be The Wrong Trousers”.
It’s hard to argue with that.
The Manchester Animation Festival runs from Sunday 10th to Thursday 14th November at venues around Manchester.
