Manchester Animation Festival Expands To 5 Days This November

While the eyes of much the animation world will this week be on France and the Annecy Festival, across the English channel there's also exciting news from the UK. Manchester Animation Festival, the largest festival of its kind in the UK has confirmed its dates for 2019 and now accepting submissions.

For its fifth iteration, the festival will be expanding to cover a full five days. This year's MAF will run from November 10-14, including a family day on the 10th and an academic conference at University of Salford on the 11th, as well as the Animation Festival itself running from 12-14 at HOME, Manchester.

To celebrate the festival's return and Manchester's animation community, the festival has commissioned new art from  Frida Ramirez, from MAF’s industry partner Brown Bag Films. "Animation brought me to Manchester and Manchester brought me to good people, great friends, lovely sights and a lot of inspiration", said Ramirez. "I made this design as a tribute to a city that is so special that it deserves a huge celebration!"

The festival will feature the usual mix of screenings (shorts and features), panels, workshops, networking events and masterclasses. The competition is now open for both the film competition and industry excellence awards, and is free to enter via the festival website. The festival now also has a category for Immersive films (VR, AR and 360° films). The competitors compete to win one of the best looking awards in the world- designed by puppet makers and animation producers Mackinnon and Saunders.

For more details, visit the MAF website.