Wallace and Gromit Co-Producer comes to Teesside

Animex is the University of Teesside’s International Festival of Animation and Computer Games and now in its seventh year. David Sproxton, the co-founder and Executive Chairman of Aardman Animations Ltd, whose productions include the award winning Wallace and Gromit series of animated films, will be a keynote speaker at Animex.

Organised by the University of Teesside, Animex runs from Monday 6 February to Friday 10 February and is centred at the University with other venues across the Tees Valley.

Together with co-founder Peter Lord, David Sproxton has overseen the development of Aardman Animations from a two-man partnership into one of the major animation houses. David Co-Produced Aardman's first feature film Chicken Run, made in association with DreamWorks and also Co-Produced the Wallace and Gromit feature The Curse of the Wererabbit in association with DreamWorks. The Curse of the Wererabbit was one of five features nominated by BAFTA last week in the Best British Film category. The BAFTA results will be announced in London on Saturday 19 February. Aardman also produce the highly popular TV series Creature Comforts.

David will deliver his talk on the afternoon of Friday 10 February.

Other Animex speakers include:

• Artist Roger Dean and Producer Dave Mousley from the film company Red Vision. They will describe the story behind the forthcoming animated fantasy Floating Islands, which is based on Roger’s award winning art for the 1970s group Yes.
• Mark Simon, storyboard artist and owner of one of the USA’s largest storyboarding companies. In his talk ‘The Art of Storyboarding’ Mark will describe some trade secrets.
• Philip Hunt, Partner, Director and Creative Director at London’s renowned STUDIO AKA, one of the UK’s most successful producers of animated short films and commercials.
• Mark Walsh, a leading animator from PIXAR films who has worked on international hits Finding Nemo and The Incredibles.

Animex Festival Director Chris Williams said: "Animex is fast becoming a fixture on the calendar for many people. Animators, students, producers, directors and the people of Teesside. The festival continues to excite us as organisers as well as everybody who comes here. The fact that the majority of our audience is repeat visitors must mean we're doing something right! Everybody can get involved from the youngest kids to the oldest OAP! Even if you don' want to listen to how some of the best animated films and computer games are made, you can participate by going to watch the films themselves at one of our screening venues throughout the region."

For further information, visit the Animex web site at https://animex.tees.ac.uk/ or e-mail info@animex.net or call 01642 342638.

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