Flip Festival 2009 – Review

I am just back from Wolverhampton’s Flip 2009 festival after three days in my old West Midlands hunting ground. 

There was the usual mixed bag of goodies on show, retrospectives from Glasgow’s Axis Animation and ArthurCox, regional showcases and international screenings.  The introduction at the impressive (if empty) Millenium Point in Birmingham was a little on the down side due to the ‘economic climate’ and very dour panel members.  But after picking ourselves of the floor and bandaging our wrists, the flavour of the rest of the festival was far more jolly.

The screenings were cleverly compiled and well attended even though they were at odd times, (sandwiching the weaker parts of the program) early morning and late afternoon.  The rest of the content varied wildly.  Highs for me were the entertaining interview with Axis Animation head honcho Richard Scott and Saturdays Personal Views which introduced the largely student attendees to some true classics of animation thanks of The Brothers McLeod (who also had a hand in the promotional literature).

Was it worth £25?  Well to be honest YES!  It was a well considered regional event with a good attendance from local companies – I saw people from ‘The Character Shop’, ‘The Brothers McLeod’, ‘PS Creative’, ‘Sumo Dojo’, ‘Second Home’ and a number of the regions universities.  Because of the venues size, there was nowhere for any of the guests to hide after their events, and a lot on networking seemed to be going on both company to company and student to company. 

I’d like to thank Peter and the team for a great warm up to the much larger and well funded BAF and Encounters festivals – coming up over the next few weeks.