The Dublin Animation Film Festival (DAFF) is now in its 5th year and going strong. Based in Dun Laoghaire, the festival takes place over two days (16-17 October this year). It is comprised of various events such as an animated shorts competition, Q&As with directors and members of prominent Irish animation studios, and screenings of new animated features. This year the highlight feature was Cartoon Saloon’s Song of the Sea.
The first thing that struck me about the festival was the diversity in the audience. There were plenty of students from IADT (who heavily sponsor the festival), and other wannabe animators, but also families, older people and school students. It made for an unusual and very enjoyable crowd, particularly at the Cartoon Saloon Q&A, which had questions from everyone including the Dean of IADT and an eight-year-old animation enthusiast who wanted to know the director’s favourite part of the movie.
Saturday opened with Academy Award-nominee Song of the Sea, the second film from Tom Moore (The Secret of Kells), creative director of Cartoon Saloon. It did not disappoint, fully living up to its reputation. Song of the Sea follows the story of married couple Saoirse and Ben as they learn that Saoirse is a selkie (a person who can turn into a seal), and from there delves into the magical world of faeries and Irish folklore. Beautifully animated, this film is worth seeing for that alone. It is a style like nothing I’ve ever seen, careful detailing and decoration catching your attention in every scene. Unlike its predecessor, The Secret of Kells, which received criticism for lacking plot, this film’s plot and characters are also compelling. It deals with complicated ideas of grief and coping with loss, while remaining a children’s film and one that will enjoyable to all. There is something distinctly Irish about the story and humour, such as the faeries having “feic off humans” written on their door, that adds another special something to it. Truly a wonderful film, it was a brilliant move on DAFF’s part to programme this screening and to follow it immediately by a Q&A with the director.
DAFF had several Q&As throughout the weekend including ones with a staff member from Brown Bag Films (animators of Give Up Yer Aul Sins and Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty) and Mackinnon and Saunders (animators/puppeteers of Bob the Builder, The Corpse Bride and Fantastic Mr.Fox). I attended the one given by Tom Moore and it ended up being as interesting as the film itself. Moore started by discussing where the idea for the film had come from: a seal culling he had witnessed while in Dingle with his son. He said that after that gruesome scene he had begun to consider the folklore that had once protected seals from this fate, stories that were being lost in Ireland. Many of the audience members mentioned the similar themes of loss and grief that have been seen in bigger productions this year like Big Hero 6 and Inside Out, which Moore sees as a reflection of animation being treated more as a serious mode of story-telling and not simply long episodes of a child’s cartoon.
When the conversation turned to animation in general, I was worried it would be largely lost on me. In fact I found this the most interesting part of the discussion, and far more enjoyable than many Q&As I’ve seen with live-action directors. This was perhaps due to the fact that animation is a more clearly defined form of filmmaking, and so where the industry was going actually had real meaning. On discussing 2D vs 3D filming, Moore talked about the timelessness of 2D animation, such as in Studio Ghibli films, and how that compares to the 3D animation in Pixar’s Toy Story franchise where the improvement in technology over the decade between films 1 and 3 is notable. However, he expressed a belief that there was a need for both in the industry, because where 3D tends to draw inspiration from live action, 2D often has its roots in art and comic books.
Collaboration is an incredibly important aspect of animation, something which was emphasised by Moore’s answer to the Dean of IADT”s enquiry about advice for current students. His tip was simply: be ready to work together. Song of The Sea had over twenty contributing artists, which Moore marked as one of the greatest challenges of the film, but also a major reason for the success of it. He finished neatly by discussing upcoming projects for Cartoon Saloon, including a film set in Afghanistan, nicely illustrating Ireland’s increasingly diverse animation industry.
The day concluded with two reels of short films from Irish animation studios and final-year IADT students. This part was amazing as it showcased the diversity of animation beyond my image of Disney princesses and Pixar films. The styles of animation varied from traditional 3D and 2D designs to more unusnual offerings, such as one that looked like Playdough (The Red Herring by Levi Lemmerritti) and others that looked like doodles on a copy (Meanwhile on a Train by Aidrean McTeer). The really brilliant ones though were ones that played with the lines between art and film, such as Snowfall by Conor Whelan (a final year IADT student) which had frames like a comic but had characters crawl out of them, pull at the edges or hide behind them. Another standout short was Somewhere Down the Line by Julien Regnard (a cartoon Saloon production), a gorgeously drawn ten minute analogy for life, all taking place in a car driving down a never-ending road.
Interestingly, there was no definite correlation between budget and success. There were some truly awful shorts and some beautiful ones, but the split was not simply between students and bigger budget company productions. This suggests one reason why Ireland might be able to compete on the international stage in animation while blockbuster live action movies remain firmly a Hollywood thing. Ireland is currently viewed as being at the foreground for new technology in animation, and particularly with regards to hand-drawn animation, it has a recognised and highly valued name in the industry.
The major pity of DAFF is the lack of awareness of it. Even in Dun Laoghaire and in the Pavilion theatre where it was being held, there were no posters advertising it. During the Q & A, the interviewer encouraged the audience to tweet about it to raise awareness, and there were clear hints at a lack of funding and support for the project. DAFF was a seriously enjoyable day out and well worth the €7 price tag. I sincerely hope it will get more support in coming years.
