Welcome to Flip 2007

It’s hard to believe, Flip is now in its fourth year. The festival began in 2004 as a regional event to help showcase some of the talent in the West Midlands and give animators an opportunity to get together and network. The next year we realised we had to expand. Partly because there weren’t enough films produced in the region between 2004-05 to make up a screening, but also because we realised we had to stop being parochial and join the rest of the world. So things have moved on, we’ve made friends with other festivals in Hungary, schools in New York and Denmark, included an open submissions event which this year represented 11 different countries, and we now receive support from BAFTA, the Film Council through Sceen WM and West Midlands Animation Forum and this year for the first time we’ve joined with the University of Wolverhampton to include an academic symposium, Drawing in the Digital.

The programme has some wonderful treats this year. There’s a strong stop motion theme running through the Saturday programme, with Nick Roberson, responsible for puppets from a host of high profile films and TV, including Mars Attacks and Pingu; culminating in the evening with the master puppeteer, Barry Purves, who is a multi award winning animator, writer and director. Barry will be in conversation, talking about (and showing), his favourites films, introducing his new book on stop motion and talking about the art of stop motion in the digital age.

This fits snugly with the symposium, Drawing in the Digital, which is a neatly punning title evoking the complex relationship exiting between new and older technologies. This new addition to the festival is organised by the University of Wolverhampton’s School of Art and Design, and features some award winning animators and academics, including Professor Paul Wells, Elizabeth Hobbs and Clive Walley.

So there’s a taste of some of the highlights. I could go on, there is of course much, much more to keep you entertained, informed and educated. We hope you have a great festival experience and do keep en eye open for the aeroplane launcher: is it art? Is it animation? We’re not sure…but it’s fun.