In 1996, the Queensland Animators Group held the first of what they hoped would be a biennial event designed to bring together the state’s community to enjoy animation in all of its forms. Since then, the festival has responded to the dearth of like festivals within Australia by taking its program on tour to most of the nations’ capital cities, including Sydney, which is where I caught up with it for the first time. Held April 5 — 9, the 3rd Brisbane International Animation Festival travelled well, wowing audiences with a rare animated treat.

Crowd Pleasing Highlights
Comprising four sessions spread over two nights, the tour program encompassed "the best of BIAF," enabling interstate audiences the opportunity to view works from the festivals’ variety of sessions. According to festival director Peter Moyes, one of the most popular of the Brisbane sessions was the Director’s Choice. "It’s sort of like a best of world animation, so you would expect some keen interest there. We were lucky in having two Academy Award nominees screening in that one." Of these, Peter Peake’s Humdrum, in which two bored shadows play shadow puppets, was a definite crowd favourite. And then as if to prove that laughter is indeed the international language, Russian animator Konstantin Bronzit’s At the Ends of the Earth delighted audiences with its absurd premise of a seesawing house perched atop a mountain peak. "That film had very visual gags and also draws upon Russian culture," notes Moyes. "I think a Russian audience would even find that more funny."

More esoteric was the festival’s Pacific Film and Television Commission’s Grand Prizewinner, the Estonian film On the Possibility of Love. "Estonia is always interesting," finds Peter Moyes. "Their approach to storytelling is very different, and the narratives are quite inventive. What was heartening to see was that our two competition sessions were very popular. People are interested in seeing what is coming out right now." Among this year’s winners were two films which illustrate the variety of techniques employed by the festival’s competitors. The Courier Mail Critic’s Award went to Ruth Lingford’s controversial Pleasures of War, which mixes black and white woodblock animation with documentary archive footage. Perhaps the most unique ingredient was to be found in the winner of the Griffith University QCA Debut Prize, Svetlana Filippova’s The Night Has Come. "That was coffee on a light box," advises Moyes. "A beautiful film. The subtlety of the shades that the filmmakers achieved was just amazing."

Fest favorites like Achilles and Rex the Runt were shown. Courtesy of Brisbane International Animation Festival. Achilles. © Bare Boards Productions.

Going A Little Commercial
While festival organizers were rightly proud of the international content of the program in its first year as a member of the International Alliance of Animation Festivals (joining such world renowned festivals as Ottawa, Anima Mundi in Brazil and Holland), time was taken out to pay homage to the pioneers of the Australian animation industry in the ‘Cartoons of the Moment’ session. "We took that title from a 1917 Harry Julias film which showed how animation was used in newsreels. It was commenting on the economy in Germany, and was basically trying to poke fun at the Germans around the time of the First World War." Also featured strongly in this session was the all but forgotten entrepreneur Eric Porter. Of particular interest was his innovative use of cel animation over 3D sets in his failed television series Captain Comet and the Space Rangers. More successful were Porter’s commercials, of which Louie the Fly remains a perennial favourite.

"I personally find the Australian retrospective very interesting," opines Moyes, "because it has early advertisements that we have all grown up with and are very much in our national conscious." Complementing this aspect of animation was the inclusion for the first time of the National Commercials Competition. "It was to bring in industry interest and try not to just isolate animation as art," reasons Moyes, "but also to highlight the artistry in commercial and advertising animation. It’s also a way of us financing ourselves a little." The inaugural winner was Captain Pecker, featuring a karoke singing penis which was also featured in the festivals’ ‘Out of the Closet’ session.