A beloved animation artist and director is this year's winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award of the World Festival of Animated Film - Animafest Zagreb (this year, 8-13 June 2026). Its council decided the winner of this year's Lifetime Achievement Award is British animation artist Joanna Quinn.

Joanna Quinn (1962) discovered animation at Middlesex University London while studying for a BA degree in Graphic Design. Her graduation film 'Girls Night Out' a brilliantly simple and humorous riposte to machismo and a celebration of uninhibited female sexuality, introduced audiences to the character of Beryl and kick-started Joanna’s animation career by winning 3 major awards at the Annecy International Animation Festival in 1987.

Girls Night Out, Joanna Quinn

The uniquely memorable character of Beryl became the focus for two more films, 'Body Beautiful' and 'Dreams & Desires - Family Ties', and the politics of gender and oppression, together with Joanna’s obsessive fascination and delight with exploring the eccentricities of the human body, became the central themes of her work. In 1993, Joanna’s powerful critique of British imperialism, Britannia, further established her reputation and in 2022 the most recent Beryl film 'Affairs of the Art' earned Les and Joanna an Oscar nomination.

Read our review of 'Affairs of the Art'

Joanna’s films have won numerous international awards, including 4 Baftas, 3 Emmys and 2 Oscar nominations. Joanna is a committed educator and has received an Honorary Doctorate from 3 UK universities and is an Honorary Fellow at the Royal College of Art, London.

Dear Beryl, your first visit to Animafest Zagreb was in 1992, when you completely charmed the audience – full of infectious laughter, fearless and entirely your own – and you continued to prove this over the years, from Body Beautiful to Dreams and Desires, sweeping everything before you… and in 1994 you sent us, almost in passing, that tiny four-legged Britannia, so eager to turn into a roaring lion, which went on to win two awards at Animafest (Britannia, 1993 – Animafest 1994, Grand Prix in its category and the Audience Award). I know it was you who, during those years when you were resting from your vibrant film career, made Joanna send us those unforgettable advertising gems for ‘Whiskas’ and ‘Charmin’ (2nd Prize for Commercial Film, Animafest 2000), as well as the charming and unforgettable Famous Fred, beloved by cat lovers everywhere, who narrowly missed the Audience Award (Famous Fred, 1997 – Animafest 1998). Today you are already at home in Zagreb, so it is only fair that, alongside all the applause you have received here, some of it now goes to Joanna – and when we embrace her on stage, we will know that both of you are there with us… I very, very much look forward to this June and promise you another wild Girls Night Out. - Award citation, in Beryl's style

Affairs of the Art, Joanna Quinn

Czech animation director Michaela Pavlátová was the 2025 recipient of the fesitval's Lifetime Achievement Award.

The Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to Joanna Quinn at the Opening Ceremony of the World Festival of Animated Film - Animafest Zagreb 2026. The World Festival of Animated Film – Animafest Zagreb 2026 will be held from 8 to 13 June 2026.

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