Middlesex University's Department of Visual Arts gave London's creative community a glimpse at the next generation of animation talent with a showcase featuring selected projects by current and graduating students from the BA Animation and BA 3D Animation & Games courses.
The 23 selected films demonstrated the varied technical and storytelling skills the students have developed throughout the course of their studies. Some drew on personal experiences to evoke humour or pathos, while others immersed viewers in fantasy worlds.
The audience voted Andrew Wong's 'The Fall' as Best Film in BA 3D Animation & Games. The audience prize for Best Film in BA Animation was shared by Sammi McEwan for 'Crater Face' and Harriet Titlow for 'Cluttered'.
The 2014 showcase also saw the introduction of a new prize, sponsored by animation: an interdisciplinary journal (Editor Prof Suzanne Buchan, Director of the Art and Design Research Institute). The £200 ANM High Risk Award, designed to celebrate the final year project with the most risk-taking elements, went to Hakim Ismail for 'Along – Older Brother'.
The jury for the ANM High Risk Award consisted of Nag Vladermersky, director of the London International Animation Festival; Steve Smith, Producer/director/founder of animation production studio Beakus; animation artist and educator Katerina Athanasopoulou, Moth Collective founder Marie-Margaux Tsakiri-Scanatovits, and Antonio J Busto Algarin, a recent Middlesex graduate who earlier this year was awarded Best Student Film in the British Animation Awards for his 2013 short, 'The Day I Killed My Best Friend'.
The jury also voted Anthony Efstathiou as a prize winner for 3D Animation and Games in recognition for his Games Piece, a study of 3D modelling, rigging and texturing accompanied by a short animation showing the personality of his characters.
Jonathan Hodgson, Programme Leader BA (Hons) Animation, praised this year's participating students for the "diversity, originality, creativity and breadth of vision" of their work – and described the 2014 Animation Showcase as the department's best show yet.
Take a look at our showreel of this year's graduates' work below.
