The ANIMA Report

David Jefferson
From Animator’s Association Chairman David Jefferson.

The ANIMA Festival seems to be shaping tip into a really good event. There are lots of entries of new films plus an invited selection of the award winning films that have been written about in the pages of Animators Newsletter. The Festival takes place in London on Sept. 4th.

Sheila Graber will be there with her films and will give a talk during the afternoon. Movie Maker editor Alan Cleave will be there as a guest and no doubt will be pleased to answer questions. His book “Cartoon Animation for Everyone” is one of the top sellers on the Filmcraft book list. Also from the magazine world Peter Donlan and Valerie Ellis of Amateur Film Maker, the IAC magazine. They will be happy to chat about the IAC and Valerie is a dab hand at creating animation films under the camera.

Festival goers will be split into two groups for the morning events. There is the AGM for ANIMA members followed by pencil tests and films. Meanwhile the non-members will be able to watch a selection of animation films. In the afternoon everyone will come together in an auditorium for the rest of the programme.

Secretary Neil Carstairs tells me that the booking for the morning shows is now complete but there are still seats available for the afternoon show. These are 70p each and must be booked in advance. There will be no ticket sales on the door.

I have just received the good news from treasurer, Tony Salmon, that every member has renewed their subs. That shows what a keen and happy bunch of animation nuts we are. New members are still coming along steadily and following our announcement in AN5 of a new category of group membership we are pleased to welcome Brighton Film and Video Workshop as our first group member. They are part of the Brighton Polytechnic.

London member Chris Crupa has ideas about the direction ANIMA should be taking. I would like to quote from a piece he has written for the Animator News Extra which goes out with this newsletter to ANIMA members. “I joined ANIMA because I thought that it had great potential as a forum for British Animation and particularly for the British independent animator”.

Chris has lots of interesting ideas for the future of ANIMA. We are a young organisation still finding our feet and these are exciting times. Independent and amateur animators are getting their work seen by more people than ever before through the medium of television and also in international film festivals.

I believe that ANIMA has an important roll to play in furthering the spread of knowledge about animation and in bringing animators together to share their experiences.

Originally printed in Animator’s newsletter Issue 6 (Autumn 1983)