GOING OUT / At last . . . something the British do really well

OVER THE years, Britain's biennial animation festival has moved steadily westwards, from Cambridge to Bristol, and thence to Cardiff; which is where you'll find it (for the second time running) from 16-22 May. Meanwhile, the stock of British animation has gone up and up: Nick Park's Oscar-winning The Wrong Trousers is the subject of an exhibition of models and storyboards at the festival, and visitors will be able to see that Park's success is not an isolated phenomenon. This is one branch of cinema at which we really do excel, as Sue Loughlin's The Occasion (above), one of the films showing among the 'Best of British' on 18 and 21 May, demonstrates. But the festival won't allow visitors to be either complacent or chauvinistic: special guests will include veteran UPA animator Jules Engel and one of his students, New York dancer and animator Kathy Rose, as well as tributes to French film-maker Jean-Francois Laguionie and Danish animator Lejf Marcussen. A major highlight will be Russian Yuri Norstein's stunning version of Gogol's The Overcoat, painted on glass, which will be introduced by Norstein himself on 19 May: that alone is worth the price of an Awayday to Cardiff.

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