AIAF2012

The engine room; the whole kit-and-caboodle! Three programs featuring the very best and the very latest short, animated films from all around the world. Every style, every genre, every technique. Your comprehensive, up-to-date overview of the international indie animation scene.

The first of two programs that open the window - at least a little - on what's going on in the young Japanese animation scene. The CALF Collective is a small group of young Japanese indie animators that decided to pool resources and take their work to the world under a single banner. It's worked extremely well with CALF screenings of one kind or another in a vast array of festivals around the world in the last 18 months. And now it's our turn to check out this group of Japanese indie animation trendsetters.

A very special program of films selected to spark the imaginations of our most special audience. Animation, like childhood, can be just full of wonder with the biggest pleasures being the simplest ones. This program carefully chosen for our littlest and most special audience strips away all the soft-sell toy ads and the over-the-top blockbuster-style special effects and just delivers up a program of wonderful films full of simple joys.

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.

Melbourne based Julia Bourke recently finished a gorgeously crafted 18-minute stop-motion film. That's 18 minutes folks! Not surprisingly this took several years to complete and even includes some post production contributions from CSU Wagga alumni John Lewis. Julia will talk about what it takes to undergo a production of this magnitude as well as some of the challenges involved in the longer form animation she has just completed. Of course, she will also screen the film in all its gloriously glossy goodness. She may even bring along a few of the puppets and props to help tell the story.

A chance for Australian animation to come front and centre. This is the first comprehensive snapshot of Australian animation in 2012 and if this collection is anything to go by, creative Australian animation is in greeeeat shape. One of our most important and popular programs. There aren't many opportunities to see Australian animation on the big screen and each year AIAF probably shows more than any other event in the world. This is an opportunity to see what Australian animators are doing, how they're doing it and how the artform is traveling. After the screening there is a chance to meet many of the animators, hear them talk about their films and ask them questions about their work.

The engine room; the whole kit-and-caboodle! Three programs featuring the very best and the very latest short, animated films from all around the world. Every style, every genre, every technique. Your comprehensive, up-to-date overview of the international indie animation scene.

AIAF's annual, ever popular, irresistible, train-wreck of a program - you wanta turn away but you can't. Bad-ass bears, dudes with a variety of willy problems, meat in all the wrong places, drunk puppets, slimy politicians and a what's what or weird sex - it's all here kiddies!! Come 'n' get it.

A very special program of films selected to spark the imaginations of our most special audience. Animation, like childhood, can be just full of wonder with the biggest pleasures being the simplest ones. This program carefully chosen for our littlest and most special audience strips away all the soft-sell toy ads and the over-the-top blockbuster-style special effects and just delivers up a program of wonderful films full of simple joys.

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.

Lissa and Jason are behind the design of "The Last Photo", an extraordinary Australian film destined to do big things on the international festival circuit. The 'look' of the film - it's design sense - is an especially important element of what makes the film stand out. They will discuss the design challenges and solutions that went into "The Last Photo" and take us through the making of their film and where that sense of design fits into their creative process.

The engine room; the whole kit-and-caboodle! Three programs featuring the very best and the very latest short, animated films from all around the world. Every style, every genre, every technique. Your comprehensive, up-to-date overview of the international indie animation scene.

The second of two programs that open the window - at least a little - on what's going on in the young Japanese animation scene. The arrival of legendary Japanese animator Koji Yamamura ("Mt Head", "Franz Kafka's A Country Doctor", "Muybridge's Strings" to name but a few) dramatically and quickly re-energised the Tokyo University of the Arts animation course into a creative powerhouse of the Japanese animation scene and the world is beginning to sit up and take notice of its graduates. This collection looks at some of their more recent graduate works and shows what a unique torrent of animation has been untapped there.