Moving to Bristol in 1976, Lord and Sproxton built Aardman into one of the world’s leading model animation studios. In 1978, Aardman was commissioned by BBC Bristol to make two short films entitled Animated Conversations. The resulting Down and Out and Confessions of a Foyer Girl, both co-directed by Lord and Sproxton, broke new ground in animation by using recordings of real-life conversations. That led to a series of five Conversation Pieces for the UK’s Channel 4, all of which were co-directed by Lord and Sproxton, including Early Bird and On Probation. Expanding into music videos, Aardman collaborated with director Stephen Johnson and the Brothers Quay to create Peter Gabriel’s award-winning video “Sledgehammer.” In 1987, Lord created the video for Nina Simone’s “My Baby Just Cares for Me.” Two years later, Channel 4 again commissioned Aardman to create the five-picture Lip Synch series, which included Lord’s War Story. Lord’s other directing credits include Going Equipped and Babylon. Together with Sproxton, Lord has also played a major role in encouraging and promoting new directors. His executive producer credits with Aardman include Creature Comforts, Rex The Runt, HumDrum, Stage Fright, and more recently, A Matter of Loaf and Death.

Aardman’s special brand of animation has also been seen in TV commercials in various countries for such products as far ranging as Lurpack, Mita Copiers, Cadbury’s Crunchies and Polo. Lord was involved in the production of Aardman’s first CGI feature film Flushed Away which was produced in collaboration with DreamWorks. It was Aardman’s first foray into CGI and was released worldwide at the end of 2006.

Peter Lord is a visiting professor at UWE and also attends numerous animation and film festivals to give

talks and sit on juries. In 2006 Peter Lord and David Sproxton celebrated 30 years of Aardman and were awarded CBEs in the Queen’s Birthday honours list.

Tickets for the program are free for USAFF members. Please contact the USA Film Festival for additional information at usafilmfest@aol.com. This program is made possible with support from Sony Pictures Animation and Aardman Animations.

About the USA FILM FESTIVAL -- Now celebrating its 42nd year, the USA Film Festival is a Dallasbased, 501c3 nonprofit organization dedicated to the encouragement and recognition of excellence in the film and video arts. The Festival’s year-round programs and events include KidFilm®, Oscar Night® America Dallas, monthly programs and premieres, and the USA Film Festival, held each spring. The USA Film Festival is supported in part by the City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs, the Texas Commission on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.