15th Bradford Animation Festival

The 15th Bradford Animation Festival

National Media Museum, Bradford

Wednesday 12 - Saturday 15 November 2008

Day passes from £20, full festival passes from £45 (sold out) and tickets for individual screenings from £3.70

Box office 0870 7010200 www.baf.org.uk

For the first time the National Media Museum is adding ‘big screen gaming’ and an animator’s marketplace to its hugely popular and successful animation and gaming festival.

At this year’s Bradford Animation Festival (BAF 08) computer and console games will be projected onto the screen in Pictureville - ‘the best cinema in Britain’ according to Sir David Puttnam.

Gamers and non-gamers alike will be able to play a selection from current top titles, accompanied by spectacular surround sound. Animation fans and aspiring animators will be able to meet professionals from the field and other enthusiasts at the marketplace set up within the Museum, to include workshops, demonstrations and screenings.

In addition to these new free events, which can be attended without pre-booking, there will be all the features expected from the nation’s biggest and longest-running animation festival – now in its fifteenth year.

The Simpsons executive producer Al Jean headlines a programme packed with special guests, sneak previews and classic screenings from Wednesday 12 to Saturday 15 November. Emmy award-winning Al has held this role on the show since 2001 and produced The Simpsons Movie last year. He will take part in a Q&A session followed by a screening of a favourite episode of The Simpsons, voted for by fans on-line.

Other festival guests include John Coates, the BAFTA award-winning producer of The Snowman and When the Wind Blows and production manager on The Beatle’s Yellow Submarine (which has a rare screening at the festival to celebrate its 40th anniversary). John will receive the BAF Lifetime Achievement Award. Oscar-nominated animator and director Barry Purves, original animation director on Tim Burton’s Mars Attacks! and animator on Peter Jackson’s King Kong, will receive a major retrospective. Barry was nominated for an Oscar for Best Animated Short for his film Screen Play and BAFTA-nominated for his short film Achilles.

The BAF 08 opening night film will be a sneak preview of Waltz With Bashir. Nominated for the Palme D’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, the film deals with the memories of an ex Israeli army soldier recalling the Lebanon war. Other features will include French animation Fear(s) of the Dark, a big success at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, using different black and white animation techniques to tell several scary stories; Idiots and Angels, the latest project from Oscar-nominated animator Bill Plympton; Sita Sings The Blues, directed by Nina Paley and winner of the Best Feature this year at Annecy.

Other festival highlights include the ever-popular BAF Kids on the Saturday, awarding and screening the best animation made by and for children, the BAF Awards, hosted by Barry Purves and BAF Game (in partnership with The University of Bradford), which this year runs throughout the full four days and showcases the best and most up-to-date computer games technology and animation. This year’s BAF Game special guests include Col Rodgers, Senior Games Designer at Sega and Ian Bowden, Head of Art at Rockstar.

“We’re thrilled to follow last year’s hugely popular guest Nick Park with Al Jean, executive producer of the world’s most popular animated programme The Simpsons,” said BAF Festival Director Deb Singleton. “BAF always boasts a programme to appeal to all audiences from animation enthusiasts and students, to families and children and this year we have surpassed ourselves with a packed programme of sneak previews, high-profile guests and unique events.”

The principal sponsors of BAF 08 are The WOW Academy and Bradford College. Housed within the Innovative Technologies Centre in Bradford the WOW Academy is a unique educational training facility aimed at inspiring young people, students, graduates, trainees, and employees to develop an interest in digital and creative media using state-of-the-art technology. Find out more at www.wowacademy.org.uk or take a special guided tour during the Festival. In addition, Bradford College provides facilities for Games Technology in both Further and Higher Education and an extensive range of art, media and graphics programmes in the renowned Bradford School of Arts and Media – www.bradfordcollege.ac.uk

For full BAF listings and prices visit www.baf.org.uk

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For further information, interviews, images or press passes please contact:

Phil Oates, Press Officer, National Media Museum

01274 203317 Phil.Oates@nationalmediamuseum.org.uk

Sophie Choudry, Marketing and PR Assistant, National Media Museum

01274 203334 sophie.choudry@nationalmediamuseum.org.uk

BAF 08

BAF 08 takes place at the National Media Museum between November 12 - 15.

Big screen gaming (from 9.30pm) and the animator’s marketplace (from 6pm) both take place during a late night opening at the Museum on Thursday, 13 November (until 11pm). They are free-of-charge open events and do not require any pre-booking.

The National Media Museum

The National Media Museum in Bradford opened as the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television in 1983 and has since become one of the most visited UK museums outside London.

The Museum is home to three major film festivals – Bite the Mango which showcases world cinema every September, the Bradford Animation Festival (BAF) which takes place every November and Bradford International Film Festival (BIFF) every March.

The National Media Museum is home to the Pictureville Cinema, the Cubby Broccoli Cinema and an IMAX screen meaning it can show films in all of the major formats from Cinerama three-strip to digital to IMAX 3D. A rich variety of films make up the Museum’s programme. More detail can be found at: http://www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk/FilmAndImax/home.asp

Other attractions at the Museum include a host of galleries and exhibition spaces including permanent galleries Experience TV, a hands-on visitor experience about the history, present and past of television, featuring TV Heaven, the Kodak gallery charting the history of photography, The museum also features two temporary exhibition spaces which have housed exhibitions as diverse as Star Wars, Bond, James Bond and numerous photography exhibitions from photographers including Paul Seawright and Martin Parr.

Phil Oates

Press Officer

National Media Museum

Bradford

BD1 1NQ

Tel: 01274 203317

www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk