Elizabeth Hobbs, Gary & Myles McLeod, Jonathan Hodgson at EEBAFTA 2019 Nominations

BAFTA has announced the nominations for the EE British Academy Film Awards in 2019. This is a BAFTA year where no student films (usual suspects: NFTS, Royal College of Art) have been nominated for an award. It is also the year that 2 out of 3 nominees are co-productions (with either France or Canada, and one of them (Marfa) was able to be completed due to a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign. The UK film industry would surely need to boost more its funding schemes in animation.

In the feature animation category, 3 US films were selected. Pixar's Incredibles 2 (Brad Bird, John Walker), the stop-motion Isle of Dogs (Wes Anderson, Jeremy Dawson) -animated in Bristol- and Sony Pictures'  Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman, Phil Lord).

Here's the nominees for BRITISH SHORT ANIMATION - 2019:

• I’M OK, dir. Elizabeth Hobbs. Producers: Abigail Addison (Animate Projects), Jelena Popović (NFB)
  

It is 1915, Expressionist artist Oskar Kokoschka’s tempestuous love affair with Alma Mahler ends dramatically and he volunteers to fight in the First World War. This animated film explores Kokoschka’s frame of mind following his heartbreak and the traumatic experience of war, by reflecting on the artist’s prints and paintings.

Using Oscar Kokoschka’s writing, paintings and prints as her inspiration, Elizabeth Hobbs worked directly under a rostrum camera using ink and paint on paper, capturing the frames while the ink was still wet. In editing these shots together and re-shooting where necessary, the narrative for the film slowly took shape. The film premiered at the 2018 Annecy International Animation Festival.

• MARFA,  dir/prod.Gary McLeod, Myles McLeod

A town on the borderlands of Texas. A place out of time. A desert where strange lights dance in the night sky. A mecca for lovers of minimalist art. A landscape of lost horses, freaks and food trucks. And then there’s the giant lemon.

Based on the traveling experiences of Greg McLeod to the small Texas town of Marfa (and involving the artistic contribution of Myles McLeod), the ink-on-paper hand-drawn film by Brothers McLeod had its World Premiere at the Sundance Film Festival 2018. It was partially funded through a Kickstarter campaign (plays in a square format).

• ROUGHHOUSE,  dir. Jonathan Hodgson. Producer: Richard Van Den Boom (Papy 3D)
  

Three friends embark on a new adventure in a strange town, but when a manipulative new member joins their gang their loyalty is torn apart with terrifying consequences.

After consulting expert psychologists on adult bullying, Jonathan Hodgson crafted Roughhouse explores the themes of leadership, adult bullying and in particular how changes in a person’s status can radically alter the way  his peers behave towards him. It also looks at how individual members  of a group can sometimes show diminished responsibility and rather than trusting their own judgment, submit to the will of the crowd and  participate in antisocial behaviour that they later regret.
The film had its world premiere  at the 2018 Edinburgh International Film Festival. Here's the official film page.

The EE British Academy Film Awards take place on Sunday 10 February at the Royal Albert Hall, London. The ceremony will be hosted by Joanna Lumley and will be broadcast exclusively on BBC One and BBC One HD. The ceremony is also broadcast in all major territories around the world.