Online Release!

At Last..! To celebrate our 100th blog post...

After dozens of festivals spanning two years and many countries, The Last Belle finally comes to YouTube!

Creating this film out of nothing has been something of an adventure: made with no money, countless years of work, no money, old-school technology, still no money, a great deal of love, and the loyalty of many hard-working craftspeople.

Click HERE to watch the whole film. Or via our Web Site  where you will find more info. And if you enjoy it please 'like' us, comment, or pass the link on to your friends.

Many thanks. Enjoy!

L.A. Screening

It's been a few weeks since I've been at the wheel of this blog. The usual excuses apply...

But there is just time to tell those of you in the L.A. area that The Last Belle will be screening at the Royal Theatre on Santa Monica Blvd on the 27th, 28th and 29th of this month.

Thanks to Martin Bullard and his hard working team at Deluxe Digital in London for sorting out a brand spanking new DCP for the occasion.

And once I get through my current deadlines I'll be back with more updates - and hopefully a bit more digging into those old artwork boxes - on The Last Belle. Meet you back here shortly...


British Animation Film Festival

Time to return to home shores: The Last Belle will be screening at the British Animation Film Festival on Sunday 23rd of June. We're delighted to be part of a great variety of films on show at this relatively new, but exciting festival. The four programmes of films are being held at the Richmix Cinema and Arts Centre in London - really looking forward to it.

For more details please click HERE.

Anima Mundi

Great news - The Last Belle will be in competition at the mighty Anima Mundi International Film Festival.

The festivities take place in Rio de Janeiro (2nd - 11th August) and Sao Paulo (14th - 18th August) with a touring version travelling through other Brazilian cities.

For more information click HERE.

Southampton Screening

A fun day today: I was invited to screen The Last Belle to an enthusiastic audience at Southampton Solent University, and afterwards did a Q&A with the students who are currently studying animation there.

It's always incredibly energising to meet students, some of whom will eventually be the 'new blood' of the industry. And it's equally inspiring for me to see how many young students still have a passion for drawn animation, and want to see it as a viable career path alongside the digital/3D technology. The magic of watching drawings that think, walk and talk, never seems to fade, generation after generation.

Thanks to Charles MacRae and the other faculty members who made me feel so welcome, and to the students for asking a bunch of very smart questions.
  

Byron Bay

Exciting news! The Last Belle will be making it's debut in the southern hemisphere at the Byron Bay International Film Festival in Australia.

We will be screening on Friday March 8th. For more information visit the BBIFF web site HERE.

Encore!

Last year we were delighted to win the Grand Prize for Best Animated Film at the Rhode Island International Film Festival.

The Last Belle will now take part in the 'Encore Film Series' which presents some of the best films screened at the 2012 festival. The screening takes place at the Jamestown Arts Center in Jamestown on February 21st and you can read more about the films being screened HERE and find the Jamestown venue HERE

Irvine Screening

Happy New Year to one and all! To kick off our year we are pleased to announce that The Last Belle will be screening at the Irvine International Film Festival, California, on Sunday 20th January.

There is a great and varied selection of films screening at the festival this year: short, long, live action, animation, documentary, drama... even a lifetime achievement award for Martin Landau... so something for everyone. To find out more click HERE.

Foyle Film Festival

We're pleased to announce that The Last Belle will be playing at this year's Foyle Film Festival.

The festival, running from the 21st to the 25th of November, has a great lineup and we're excited to be a part of it. For more information on the festival and screenings click here

More screenings...

We are pleased to announce that The Last Belle will be screened at the 3D Wire International Market, held in Segovia, Spain from the 10th to the 14th of October.

For more information click HERE.

And a quick reminder for all of you in Philadelphia that The Last Belle will be screening on Friday 28th September at the Project Twenty1: Philadelphia Film and Animation Festival. Click HERE for the schedule.

Philadelphia - Project Twenty1

We are delighted to announce that The Last Belle will be screening at the Project Twenty1: Philadelphia Film and Animation Festival between September 27th - 30th.

For more information about the festival, and to watch some trailers to the films they'll be hosting click HERE for their website. Enjoy!

LA Indie Film Fest

We are delighted to announce The Last Belle will be making its L.A. premiere at the LA Indie Film Festival on September 9th. For more information please click here.

Grand Prize

An exciting day! The Last Belle has won the Grand Prize for Best Animation at the Rhode Island International Film Festival. We're thrilled with the news and would like to say a huge Thank You to everyone who voted for the film, and for the chance to be seen at this great festival.

For more information about the winners in each category click here

In the meantime, a little champagne...

E.I.F.F.

I had a wonderful flying visit to the Edinburgh International Film Festival, where The Last Belle screened in this rather lovely auditorium:

The Cameo Picturehouse in Edinburgh.

And in keeping with the 'Old Mixed With New' philosophy that permeates everything to do with The Last Belle, what could be better than having your film run in the visual splendour of an Edwardian cinema that has recently been kitted out with the latest digital projection and sound equipment? Pure heaven. Or at least it would have been had my rather busy work schedule allowed me to actually attend the screening of my own film... but at least I did get to enjoy some of the other films in the festival, and I took part in a panel discussion on the future of Film vs Digital, and traditional techniques vs cutting edge technology. I'll post more on this talk shortly as the subject seems part of the zeitgeist right now whether you are an independent animator or a large corporation.

In the meantime my thanks to Lucy Lamb (Events Coordinator for Scottish Animation Network) who looked after me so well at the festival, alongside Julia McLean (Chair of the Scottish Animation Network), and Iain Gardner who dreamt up the panel event and expertly moderated our on-stage discussion.

Iain Gardner, Marc David Jacobs, Julia McLean and Lucy Lamb. 

Flickers Screening

We're delighted to announce that The Last Belle will be screening at the Flickers: Rhode Island International Film Festival, which runs between August 7th to 12th . More info to come... in the meantime here is their website.

Edinburgh Nomination

The Last Belle will be screening at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, where it has been nominated for the Award for Best Film in the Britsh Short Film Competition. The screening is on the 25th June and more information can be found HERE.

I will also be appearing at the festival as part of a panel event called 'Running Out of Film', where we will be discussing the impact of digital technologies on the animation process, and looking at contemporary and traditional techniques. Really looking forward to this... and nice to see they've used a still of Roy Naisbitt working on a piece of Last Belle background artwork - I haven't seen this pic before but I think it was taken by Fraser Maclean, author of the wonderful 'Setting The Scene' layout book. I believe Fraser will be on the panel in Edinburgh too, as well as the makers of the recent festival favourite 'The Making of Longbird'. More info on this event HERE.

TAAFI Screening

The Last Belle will be screening at the Toronto Animation Arts Festival International (click here for their website), which is taking place between July 6th - 8th. Their website will post more details of programmes and times shortly...

Last Belle in Brooklyn

The Last Belle is to receive its U.S premiere at The Brooklyn Film Festival (June 1st - 10th). For more details click HERE

London Calling

We are thrilled to announce The Last Belle will be screening as part of the 'London Calling' festival in Paris, a celebration of 100 films, old and new, set in and around London, including feature films from Mike Leigh, Ken Loach and Michael Winterbottom, and a programme of animated shorts compiled by Jayne Pilling.

For more information on the festival click here.

And for more information on the animation programme click here.

Roy Naisbitt - intermission

Before getting onto part 2 of my post on Roy, a quick intermission about the Bradford Animation Festival from which I've just returned.

The National Media Museum, home of the Bradford Animation Festival.

We had a terrific two hour slot within the festival, framed around Fraser MacLean's new book 'Setting the Scene'. Fraser gave a passionate talk about the importance of the animation layout process, and it's history, before introducing Scott Caple onto the stage. Scott took us through a selection of his intricate layout and design drawings for The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and The Incredibles, before I went up on stage with Roy to briefly talk through his layout work on The Last Belle. Then we rounded it all off with a screening of the film.

We had a fantastically enthusiastic audience, and many came up afterwards to chat, and ask questions of Scott and Roy, while Fraser signed copies of his book.  Thanks to everyone who came to talk with us, and to Deb Singleton and all her super-efficient festival staff. It's always energising to be surrounded by so many people who are passionate about the craft of animation, and of film in general.

Scott, Fraser and Roy

It was great too to see that the festival hosted a screening of the works of animation director Geoff Dunbar, and awarded him a well deserved Lifetime Achievement Award. I had the pleasure of working with Geoff a few years back on the animated short 'Tuesday', for which Geoff directed and Paul McCartney produced and scored. Geoff's a brilliantly talented guy, and he has the funniest stories I've ever heard about the London animation scene between the 1970s to the present day... many of which are unrepeatable. Top man.

Geoff Dunbar... homeward bound.