Malcolm Turner

Australia punches way above its weight on the international indie animation scene. We have some pretty good schools, we have some pretty inventive and imaginative animators and we do really well on the international stage when it comes to awards and festival invitations. Creating animation in Australia isn't without its challenges though and every film in this year's Australian Showcase program has a very different story behind its production. We've enticed as many of the filmmakers with a film in the Showcase as we could to visit AIAF and they will take the stage after the screening to talk about their films, animating in Australia and to answer your questions.

Every year AIAF Co-Director Malcolm Turner packs a cut lunch, puts on sensible shoes and heads out into the big wide world to see what animation he can. He loves doing it and, frankly, it's nice to have him out of the office for a while. This year his obsessions turned to Polish animation, the New York indie scene, the UPA Studio (who gave us classics like Mr Magoo) and the RCA in London, so expect a look into those aspects of the artform. But there's always the totally random stuff that gets filed under 'can't figure out where else to show this' and that's when his annual AIAF presentation can get really interesting. One year, the audience loved it so much they gave him a special hat - and where better to wear it than here?

Our ever-popular series of focused lectures with accompanying short screenings designed to shine a light on specific topics and expand our animated horizons. Keep checking in for updates on the topics - we put 'em together as we build the festival; that way they're good and fresh.

Sometimes too much just ain't enough. There were a LOT of sensational films that didn't make it into AIAF last year and so AIAF's intrepid Co-Directors took some time out at the Melbourne festival to put together this sample of those "missed catches". Together, they will introduce their selections and talk about why some films get selected for screenings and some don't.

An AIAF staple! Co-director Malcolm Turner recounts tales of daring, near misses and bagged trophies from his annual global search for the rarest, tenderest and most dangerous animated shorts. This year expect a look at ancient Lithuanian films, collections from the deepest underground indie Canadian scene, a few highlights from the small US city that gave us Matt Groening, Bill Plympton and Gus van Sant (among others) .... and that's before he gets to the random stuff that the labels have fallen off of.