Persuasive, illustrative and able to get over abstract details in attractive and compelling ways, animation is the perfect tool to document someone’s vision of the truth. This past decade has seen a boom in non-fiction films that use animation to tell their stories and LIAF has been one of the vanguards with our annual showcase dedicated to the documentary form dating back to 2008. This year’s programme features 11 of the best true life stories coupled with mind-blowing imagery.
Independent animation remains a dynamic and evolving art form, showcasing a stunning array of styles, materials, and techniques—from hand-drawn and paint-on-glass to collage, sculpture, cut-outs, puppetry, abstract forms, and innovative CGI. This year’s LIAF highlights the most diverse and exciting developments within this vibrant medium.
After sorting through a huge pile of 2,400 entries, we’ve curated a selection of 83 outstanding new films from 31 countries. These films range from humorous and dramatic to bizarre, subtle, frightening, and autobiographical. What they all share is our belief that they represent the best of the best. These 8 international competition programmes showcase a variety of techniques, genres, and styles. This is your annual glimpse into the vibrant world of international indie animation.
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Chair: Samantha Moore
Samantha Moore has made work on diverse subjects, from competitive sweet-pea growing, to cutting edge microbiology, archaeology, neuroscience, and her own experience of having twins. Her latest film Visible Mending (2023), was commissioned by the BFI Short Form Fund, produced by Tilley Bancroft and made through Media Active Projects. It was shot at Second Home Studios in Birmingham, and is proudly UK-midlands based and all-female in key roles. She is the Head of the MA Animation Programme at the Royal College of Art, UK, and Visiting Professor in Animation at University College Volda, Norway.
Jonathan Hodgson
Jonathan Hodgson is an internationally renowned, BAFTA winning animation director based in London. He was the animation director of Wonderland: The Trouble with Love and Sex, the first full length animated documentary on British TV. His first professional commission was to co-direct The Doomsday Clock, a ten minute animation about nuclear disarmament for the United Nations. In 2007 he was the art director on the animated TV series Charlie and Lola and the following year was the animation director on the documentary feature The Age of Stupid. His short films have won numerous awards including a BAFTA in 2000 for The Man with the Beautiful Eyes and a BAFTA nomination in 2002 for Camouflage. He has presented retrospectives of his work in the UK, Brazil, Sweden, Israel, Spain, Belgium, Slovenia and Poland and in 2006 was invited by the National Film Board of Canada to present masterclasses in three major cities. Since the mid 1980’s he has lectured extensively in the UK and abroad and since 2008 has led the Animation degree at Middlesex University, London. He continues to combine teaching with animated filmmaking through his own production company Hodgson Films and is represented by Papy3D in France and by Sherbet in the UK.
Emily Downe
Emily Downe is an award-winning animation director based in London. Her short films explore research-based topics in science, philosophy and the human story expressed through 2D, frame by frame animation. She has screened films in competition at multiple international film and animation festivals including Annecy, Encounters, Ann Arbor, Cinanima and LIAF. She is co-founder and co-director of Studio Desk. She graduated from Kingston School of Art in 2017 and completed her Masters in Documentary Animation at the Royal college of Art in 2019.
Laurie Hill
Laurie Hill is an award-winning multimedia animator and director based in London. He often works with archival and found materials. He studied at the Royal College of Art and his work has screened at many festivals and galleries worldwide including Sundance, AFI Fest, Telluride Film Festival, Museum of Modern Art New York, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, New Art Gallery Walsall, Cornerhouse Manchester and Museum Of London. His film Photograph Of Jesus won Best Experimental Short Film at Chicago International Film Festival, Best Animated Short at Seattle International Film Festival, Best Of British Jury Award at Encounters Film Festival and the McLaren Award at Edinburgh International Film Festival.
Alex Peake
Alex Peake is a London based filmmaker whose background is in illustration and animation. Often in the form of animated documentaries, she is interested in telling stories that explore women’s issues, family dynamics, adolescence, and taboo topics. Over the course of her career as a freelance animation director, Alex has built a diverse client list including television presenter Liam Charles, Nando’s, Hammersmith & Fulham Council, Unison and Times Radio. Recently, Alex graduated from the Directing Animation MA program at the National Film and Television School where she created her most recent animated documentary ‘Us Four,’ an animated documentary about childhood memories and leaving home.
Natasza Cetner
Natasza Cetner is a Polish animator based in London and an RCA Animation graduate. The main themes of her works are the absurdity of the world around us and the surreal, while other works and films focus on conveying the unconscious and the anxiety of the insomniac mind. She loves to take inspiration from real-life stories and transform them into engaging short films and visuals. She is lately diving more into the world of animated documentaries and exploring more analogue solutions against the digital trends.
Us Four – Alex Peake, UK
The bittersweet experiences of growing up and the evolving dynamics of sisterly relationships.
2024 6’45 min
Percebes – Alexandra Ramires & Laura Gonçalves, Portugal
With the sea and urban Algarve as the backdrop, we follow a complete life cycle of a special shellfish called percebes, the goose barnacle.
2024 11’25 min
This film is not included in our online programme
Noggin – Case Jernigan, USA/Italy
No sugarcoatin’ it, you’ve got brain damage from multiple sclerosis. Your memories are fading so gather everything left in that noggin, like paper and ink and photos and love of course.
2024 7’10 min
High Street Repeat – Osbert Parker & Laurie Hill, UK
The story of migration and enterprise, told through the changing face of Britain’s high street. This playful combination of stop motion with digital techniques and manipulation of photographic cut-outs creates a continuous transition between the past and present.
2023 4’25 min
I Died in Irpin – Anastasiia Falileieva, Czech Republic
24 February 2022 my boyfriend and I fled from Kyiv to Irpin. We spent 10 days in a blockaded city and managed to escape with the last evacuation convoy. Time passed, but the feeling that I died in Irpin has never left me since.
2024 11’30 min
Joana – Antoni Sendra Barrachina, Spain
Joana is about to turn 6. Her father decides to make an animated documentary to portray her personality and the things she loves the most.
2024 2’50 min
Touching Darkness – Jamaica Kindlová, Czech Republic
10-year-old Vítek has special abilities – he can feel and hear what others cannot. This is a door to his world and shows us that the absence of one sense doesn’t have to be just an obstacle.
2024 4’50 min
Dying for Beginners – Emily Downe, UK
What happens as we die? A gentle step by step journey through the process of dying.
2023 4’20 min
Margarita’s Story – Jonathan Hodgson, UK
A heart-wrenching film presenting the perilous journey of a 10-year-old girl’s flight from Mariupol, Ukraine in March of 2022.
2023 3’30 min
Ur Heinous Habit – Eugene Kolb, USA
A blackmail email prompts a filmmaker to explore the intersection of shame and masturbation.
2023 13’45 min
Inside, The Valley Sings – Nathan Fagan & Natasza Cetner, Ireland
Trapped in the never-ending horror of prolonged solitary confinement, 3 prisoners seek comfort and escape in the boundless vistas of their own imaginations.
2024 15’00 min
Our Funding Partners
With Special Thanks to the Arts Council England
Event supported by Film Hub London, managed by Film London. Proud to be a partner of the BFI Film Audience Network, funded by the National Lottery.
Venue
Opened in March 2022, The Garden Cinema screens repertory seasons and new releases from around the world. Being truly independent, they choose films that are worth seeing, films you’d be happy to see more than once. Films of all genres that are true to life, well made, that left us feeling better or wiser for having seen them. For more information about The Garden Cinema and how to get there, find out more.
Online, The Garden Cinema
