The London International Animation Festival (LIAF 2025) returns for its 22nd edition with an opening night dedicated to the late Emma Calder, a trailblazing force in independent animation.
For over 40 years, Emma shaped the animation landscape through film, books, design, and teaching, fiercely advocating for independent voices and new funding opportunities. Defiant against the decline of support for the art form, she remained a driving presence in British animation.
In 2024, at the height of her career, she began work on House of Love before being diagnosed with a rare, aggressive cancer. Though she couldn’t complete the film herself, she left detailed notes and direction, allowing her team to bring it to completion. Tonight marks its world premiere.
In 2018 Emma played a leading role in the BBC documentary The Secrets of British Animation. We will show her contribution tonight, plus previously unused footage of her working on the film Les Feuille Mortes and expressing her views on animation within her amazing studio.
The programme also features a near-complete retrospective of her work since 1981 – films that channel a punk spirit and continually redefined the possibilities of animation and mixed media.
Following tonight’s screening, friends and collaborators will gather onstage for a panel discussion on Emma’s enduring legacy. We hope you can join us to celebrate Emma and kick off the first night of our 10 day festival.
Panel guests will be announced shortly.
Ilkla Moor Baht Tat – Emma Calder, UK
A man courts a woman on Ilkla Moor without his hat. He catches a cold and dies. He’s buried and gets eaten by worms. The worms are eaten by ducks. Finally, the ducks are eaten by the man’s friends. Paper cut-outs bring the traditional Yorkshire song to life.
1981 3’55 min
Madame Potatoe – Emma Calder, UK
A film about the societal pressure to project different images, particularly the image of success. Through potato printing, we see Madame Potatoe retreat into the earth, leaving her image to continue on its own increasingly exploitative path.
1983 6’25 min
Springfield – Emma Calder, UK
Part woman, part vacuum cleaner, what do these effeminate cyborgs have to say about alienation and the gendered hierarchies we inhabit? A witty and offbeat probing of loss, obsession, desperation and fear.
1986 7’10 min
The Queens Monastery – Emma Calder, UK
Inspired by Leoš Janácek’s ‘Sinfonietta’, a woman’s lover, a former acrobat, returns from war a changed man. Using a highly individual watercolour technique the narrative explores themes of love, escapist fantasy, obsession and guilt.
1998 6’15 min
Random Person 3: No Bag – Emma Calder, UK
Random person goes shopping blind folded…It all goes well until…
2012 1’00 min
Random Person 5: American Tan – Emma Calder, UK
A random person tears her new American Tan tights. Her mother had warned her about wearing those tights to school.
2012 1’55 min
Random Person 12: Random Walk – Emma Calder, UK
Random Person fancies a little walk but things don’t go quite as planned.
2012 1’20 min
Boudica, A Norfolk Story – Emma Calder, UK
Commissioned by Norfolk Museums, the film shows Boudica and the Iceni tribes’ rebellion against the Romans in 1st century Britain. After 2000 years, Boudica remains at the forefront of the public imagination, perpetually reincarnated through myth and new archeological evidence.
2013 5’25 min
Random Person 10: Vasectomy – Emma Calder, UK
A random person cannot choose between her two boyfriends, so she tosses a coin. An absurdist take on recreation and procreation.
2014 1’15 min
Everyone is Waiting for Something to Happen – Emma Calder, UK
An experimental film made from the social media data of Richard Wright, an animator grappling with life threatening illness.
2014 7’35 min
Random Person 36: New Body – Emma Calder, UK
A random person’s body is worn out. She wants a new one
2016 2’40 min
Random Person 37: My Brain is Numb – Emma Calder, UK
Random Person is feeling disconnected. Her world is not making any sense.
2016 1’10 min
The Secrets of British Animation (film clip) – Seb Barfield, UK
Emma at work in her studio, ruminating on a day in the life of an indie animator, playing and experimenting. Clip from ‘The Secrets of British Animation’ a BBC documentary.
2018 3’20 min
Random Person 39: Les Feuille Mortes – Emma Calder, UK
Another summer is over, can Random Person get through another winter? The clock is ticking.
2018 1’00 min
Beware of Trains – Emma Calder, UK
A woman with extreme anxiety is devoured by four major preoccupations – the man she met by chance on a train, her dying father, her daughter’s safety and the murder she dreams she has committed.
2022 12’55 min
House of Love – Emma Calder, UK
Love, sex, desire, trauma, fantasy, spiritual ideas and peace. The power of the brain, the subconscious. An end of life story, to give joy to herself and those she loves.
2025 6’00 min
Our Funding Partners
With Special Thanks to The Elf Factory, official sponsor of LIAF 2025.
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
The Barbican is Europe’s largest multi-arts and conference venue presenting a diverse range of art, music, theatre, dance, film and education events. For more information about The Barbican and how to get there, find out more.
Barbican
