London International Animation Festival 2024

Animation Industry Event 6: The Great British Take Off: Aardman

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LIAF presents the 2024 UK Animation Industry Event – 8 panels giving insider access to some of the hottest topics of the year. We’ve gathered together some of the most passionate, honest and insightful experts from a wide range of different areas and backgrounds who are ready to cover all manner of vital topics to give you much food for thought.


Animation doesn’t stand still; and debates and discussions with animators and creative experts are the best way to get in touch with what’s happening. The panels will be chaired by Saint John Walker, Postgraduate Media Programme Leader, University of Hertfordshire and Julian Scott, animation consultant at Film London.


For anyone currently working in the film and animation industry, thinking of working in the industry or just plain curious, these 8 events are indispensable. They are free to everyone and take place live and online on our streaming platform over the 2 days of Saturday November 30 and Sunday December 1.


Talks with the UK Animation Companies conquering the world: Aardman


Come and hear about the UK’s best animation companies, what they do and how they consistently create such great work.

Aardman is an independent, multi-Academy Award® and BAFTA® award winning studio, it produces feature films, series, advertising, games and interactive entertainment. Its productions are global in appeal, novel, entertaining, brilliantly characterised and full of charm reflecting the unique talent, energy and personal commitment of the Aardman team. The studio runs the Aardman Academy, its world-class training facility delivering excellence in film and animation training and mentoring for students around the world.


Curated and Chaired by Saint John Walker, Postgraduate Media Programme Leader, University of Hertfordshire.


Panellists

Chair: Saint John Walker, Postgraduate Media Programme Leader, University of Hertfordshire

Saint John Walker is the Programme Leader for postgraduate media at the UK’s University of Hertfordshire and a leading VFX educationalist with over 25 years of experience of teaching and training in the games, animation and VFX industries. Most recently Saint was Dean and Director of Industry Engagement at the UK’s Escape Studios and previous to that he designed, initiated and ran the VFX degree course at Norwich University of the Arts for four years. Saint is an active member of Access:VFX. Saint is also the convenor, designer and chair of the popular Industry panels at the London International Animation Festival each year. In 2024 he has chaired and taken part in panel discussions at the View conference in Turin, the Viborg Animation Festival and FMX, Stuttgart.


Will Becher, Director & Stop Motion Lead at the Aardman Academy

Academy Award nominee Will Becher has had a career spanning 20 years working as a writer, director, and stop-motion lead animator after joining the company on work experience. His feature film character animation has been recognised with both Annie and Visual Effects society nominations. Will is a voting member of AMPAS and is on the Jury for the Royal Television Society and Young Animator of the Year Awards 2024.He is currently the Supervising Animator on Aardman’s upcoming Wallace and Gromit film.


Emma Hardie

Emma Hardie sits on the Board of Directors at Aardman and as Executive Commercial and Brand Director is responsible for all commercial, distribution and licensing, marketing and brand partnership activity across the company. Emma joined Aardman in 2024 from BBC Studios, where she led their Global Entertainment’s commercial strategy. Prior to that, Emma was Commercial and Brand Director for BBC Earth at BBC Studios, overseeing the brand’s activity globally, as well as driving business development opportunities on landmark series Planet Earth II and Blue Planet II. Emma spent two years as strategy consultant at Deloitte, advising Media companies’ executive boards on content and corporate strategy with clients ranging from BBC, The Guardian, Virgin Media, Sky, and international broadcast channels NHK, DR and RTVE. She has also produced 2 short films and is a member of Women in Film and TV.


Gavin Strange

Gavin Strange is a Director and Designer for Aardman Animations, his creative output ranges from title sequences for the OFFF festival and Shaun the Sheep feature film, to channel idents for BBC Two and Christmas films for Fortnum & Mason. Most recently he directed the multi-award winning Turtle Journey, an emotional and impactful stop-frame short film for Greenpeace about the plight of the oceans. His work is diverse in nature but all held together by a common thread of fun and high energy. By night he goes under the alias of Jamfactory, indulging in all manner of passion projects, from filmmaking to illustration, toy design to photography and even making music under the moniker of Project Toy. He prides himself on being a ‘realistic idealist’ or ‘idealistic realist’ – striking the balance between uncurbed enthusiasm and pragmatic process.


Mark Simon Hewis

Mark is the head of the Aardman’s training facility, the Aardman Academy, committed to nurturing talent by delivering excellence in film and animation training and mentoring. Mark is also a multi-award winning British filmmaker having made films for the Arts Council, Channel 4 and the BBC. His first Feature Film, 8 Minutes Idle was released in 2014. Mark’s short film The Life Sized Zoetrope was made in 2008 for Channel 4, Arts Council UK and Animate. It was nominated for 8 awards at the British Animation Awards and won Best Film of the Festival at the London International Animation Festival and the Tampere Film Festival.