WENDY TILBY AND AMANDA FORBIS CAPTIVATE ANIMAC 2025 AUDIENCE WITH MASTERCLASS ON ANIMATION WITH SOUL
february 22nd 2025
The Canadian duo, winners of the Honorary Award, shared their career and creative process in an inspiring conference.
The Spanish premiere of the Oscar-nominated Memoirs of a Snail and the retrospective of Gianluigi Toccafondo were some of the highlights of the day.
Today, Saturday 22 February, at the halfway point of Animac 2025, the stars of the show were Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis, this year’s Honorary Award winners. In a masterclass entitled Animation with Soul, the Leandre Cristòfol room at La Llotja was packed this afternoon to listen to the Canadian animators review their extensive careers and talk about their approach to animation from an artisanal and poetic perspective. Their work combines traditional cartooning with experimental techniques in narratives that are as unpredictable as they are emotional. His work is characterised by a handcrafted and detailed 2D aesthetic that brings to life everyday stories full of poetry and humour.
Tilby and Forbis explained their beginnings, inspired by the rural world of Canada, and how they have dealt with the feelings of people who have been close to death. These experiences have inspired them to create unique short films such as ‘The Flying Sailor’. They also explained how they carried out extensive research to create the character of the sailor and outlined the story of this Oscar-nominated short film, which tells the story of the Halifax Explosion: a collision between two ships that killed more than 2,000 people in 1917.
Just today, the Animac audience was able to enjoy a retrospective of the most outstanding works by Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis, and another session with the best of Gianluigi Toccafondo, this year’s winner of the Animation Master 2025 award, which allowed us to rediscover his unique visual style.
Eduard Puertas, executive producer of the film ‘L’Olívia i el terratrèmol invisible’, and Laura Aguado, production manager and second assistant director of the film, also visited Animac today. This is the first film made in Catalonia using the stop-motion technique. The conference focused on the creative process behind this moving story, which deals with the eviction of a family through an imaginative, bittersweet narrative.
Eduard Puertas explained that the 39-week shoot involved 150 people and 13 animators who created 65 puppets representing 29 characters. He also pointed out that 1,000 faces were created for the puppets, the result of months of intense work, and stressed that the design of the hands was one of the most unusual parts of the project. For her part, Laura Aguado pointed out that an average of 100 frames were animated per day.
Premieres
The feature film Memoirs of a Snail (Australia – 2024), written, produced and directed by Adam Elliot, premiered in Spain. It is an Australian tragicomedy for adults, an emotional stop-motion animated story nominated for an Oscar. Also premiering is the feature film Anzu, Ghost Cat (France, Japan – 2024) by directors Yoko Kuno and Nobuhiro Yamashita, a touching story about a cat who returns as a ghost to help a little girl.
Isaac King exhibition
This morning, the focus was on the inauguration of the installation of a giant flip-book combining art and environmental awareness by artist Isaac King, entitled Humans Build The Biggest Nests, at the Centro de Arte La Panera, which will be open until 25 May. The exhibition includes some of King’s creations, such as the short films Second Hand, Sticks and Stones and Fly Away.
Animac Nit
The day will end with the Grande Sexitos show as part of the Animac de Nit, which will be held at the Cafè del Teatre. Pau B. Gros presents Grande Sexitos, a show that combines humour and music, where monologues full of surrealist reflections are mixed with wild animations. After the show, there will be a bandarra session by DJ Pau Schultz, accompanied by Gros on the visual side.
PHOTOS: David del Val
