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Glasgow Film Festival: Animatic, now in its third year, is an innovative talent development lab for Scottish-based creatives and studios, designed to help develop animated short films, feature films, or TV series ideas for an international audience.
Made possible with funding from the Scottish Government Festivals EXPO Fund through Creative Scotland, 15 projects have been selected for the third edition of GFF's innovative talent lab. The chosen projects will take part in a six-month training programme that includes sessions, meetings and workshops delivered by executives from leading animation and screen organisations that include Netflix, BFI, Aardman Animations, Screen Scotland, and Mackinnon & Saunders. Brenda Chapman (Oscar-winning director of Brave, and Head of Story for The Lion King), Oscar-nominated director Jonas Poher Rasmussen (Flee), and Julie Lockhart (co-founder of Locksmith Animation) will also participate in the lab's programme of events.
The lab will culminate in a Live Pitch, where participants will present their projects to an expert panel.
Following the Live Pitch, the panelists will choose their favourite pitches, with the following awards:
Glasgow Film Festival would like to thank Screen Scotland, MySmashMedia, Animation Scotland and Clanimation for their support.
It is compulsory for Lead Applicants to attend the following:
Flavio is a 90-minute family animation feature, following a deserting Italian pilot in 1940 Scotland, disguising himself as an ice cream maker and finding salvation in the kindness of two local kids with dreams too big for their boots.
Lead Applicant: Kristina Tsenova
A young boy runs away with the circus for an epic adventure full of glitter, charm and daring, whilst an out of control gambling addiction threatens to destroy him.
Lead Applicant: Sharon E Sørensen
The Journey of a Boy learning to understand love & accept grief.
Lead Applicant: Ryan Brady
To reclaim a lost female artist’s forgotten legacy, a daughter must confront old traumas to put the pieces of her late mother's life back together and finally come to terms with the past.
Lead Applicant: Paul Sng
Orla & The Star Grid is an animated feature about a lonely, adventurous teenager who discovers a way to create unlimited energy from starlight and sets off to find her long lost mother, kickstarting an energy revolution on the way.
Lead Applicant: Lynsey Murdoch
This series reclaims the deeply gendered archetypes of Celtic mythology—banshees, selkies, goddesses—and refracts them through a queer lens to explore identity, otherness, and what it means to exist in a world that refuses to see you.
Lead Applicant: Owen Thomas
The surreal misadventures of a pickle and an egg as they try to live ordinary lives in an enchanted forest where anything can happen.
Lead Applicant: Rossie Stone
Cool Beans is a slapstick animated comedy for 7–9 year olds about a hapless lab assistant and his jazz-playing, anthropomorphic baked bean friends who must secretly stop his evil boss's ridiculous schemes for world domination.
Lead Applicant: Lynsey Tomlinson Booth
An animated series about a rebellious 20 year old who is disenfranchised by AI in the workforce, and is forced to take a job as a skinner — shrinking down to macro size to clean the skin of the ultra-rich, but he discovers a dark secret about this controversial work.
Lead Applicant: Ashley Dick
Spider Queen is a dark fantasy epic set inside a deck of cards, following the four Queens navigating a web of corruption and power games to uncover the truth behind the King of Hearts' death.
Lead Applicant: Gordon Howie
Coffee, cakes and a prison break make one hot mess.
Lead Applicant: Jenny Jokela
A story about those times in life when nothing seems to go our way, told through the eyes of a very special bird.
Lead Applicant: Leonor Calaca
A haunting Scottish tale based on the short story by the author John Buchan, well suited for the ghost stories for Christmas tradition.
Lead Applicant: Paul Daniel Lucas
A solitary character drifts through life, confronting emptiness and desire on a journey of self-discovery between solitude, longing, and connection.
Lead Applicant: Canan Isik
Adam and.exe is an animated retelling of the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, reimagining the mythic fall of man as a parallel to the rise of technology and exploring the erosion of love, connection, and nature in the digital age.
Lead Applicant: Katy Rigby
Tresca Mallon
Glasgow Film Festival Industry Project's Officer
tresca.mallon@glasgowfilm.orgTess Carruthers
Glasgow Film Festival Talent Development Coordinator
tess.carruthers@glasgowfilm.orgSamantha Bennett
Glasgow Film Festival Industry Manager
samantha.bennett@glasgowfilm.org
Animatic is funded by the Scottish Government's Festival EXPO Fund.
Applications will close on the Wednesday 27 August at 12 noon.
Glasgow Film Festival: Animatic, now in its third year, is an innovative talent development lab for Scottish-based creatives and studios, designed to help develop animated short films, feature films, or TV series ideas for an international audience. Partnering with leading animation and screen industry organisations, participants will engage in an intensive programme of workshops to refine their projects. The lab will culminate in a Live Pitch, where participants will present their projects to an expert panel.
For its third edition, Animatic will have three strands: Shorts, Features, and Series. Each strand will offer a tailored programme of workshops and consultations, focused on developing the project’s story and getting it pitch-ready for GFF26.
Following the Live Pitch, the panelists will choose their favourite pitches, with the following awards:
Best Short Pitch – £1,500
Best Series Pitch – £3,000
Best Features Pitch – £6,000
These awards will be for the winner to put towards the project's further development.
The introductory two-day workshops, as well as the pitching weekend and Live Pitch, will be held in person. All other sessions will take place online. To ensure that the lab is accessible, we have budget available to cover childcare and other accessibility needs.
Glasgow Film Festival would like to thank Screen Scotland, MySmashMedia, Animation Scotland and Clanimation for their support.
Each strand of Animatic has minimum requirements that the lead applicant must meet to be eligible to apply for the lab which are listed below.
Minimum Level Requirements for All Strands
Animated Shorts Strand Minimum Requirements
Animated Features Strand Minimum Requirements
Animated Series Strand Minimum Requirements
Key Dates - compulsory to attend if selected:
To apply, you must answer the application questions and submit the below documents via our application form HERE
If you would prefer to submit your application in another format or need additional support, please reach out to Industry@GlasgowFilm.org for further information
Applications will close on the Wednesday 27 August at 12 noon.
Now in it's second year, Animatic is an innovative talent development scheme for Scottish based creatives and studios to develop their animated feature film, short film or series ideas for an international audience. ‘We are delighted to be working again with GFF and enabling new voices to be discovered. MySmashMedia is an IP matchmaking platform which helps the Industry connect with innovative ideas and enables marginalised, underrepresented or geographically challenged communities to engage. New voices attract new audiences. Finding diverse ideas with global appeal isn’t a ‘nice to have’ - it's a commercial imperative.” - Fiona Gillies, MySmashMedia
Q: Who is Animatic for? A: Animatic is open to Scottish based creatives who are over the 18 years of age, are not in full or part-time education. For individual strand minimum requirements, please see above in the requirement section of this page. Q: What type of project can I submit? A: Please only submit animated feature film, tv series or short film projects. Animatic is solely for animated projects. Q: Can I apply as an individual? A: Yes, Animatic is open to individuals, creative teams and studios. For creative teams and studios, there must be a lead applicant and that person will be responsible for taking part in the workshops and completing tasks required of the scheme. Q: Can I submit a project inspired by a book or other existing intellectual property? A: If you would like to submit a project that is based on already existing intellectual property, you must have all necessary agreements in place including written proof from the IP owner that you have permission to use their IP in the project. You must provide this documentation with your application. If we have any reservations about the agreements in place, we will not be able to accept your project submission. Q: How do I create a pitch on MySmashMedia? A: Create your free pitch for your project on SMASH via their WEBSITE. When you have completed your pitch, click SHARE PROJECT, this creates your project’s snapshot. Copy your link and paste it into your application form. Q: What happens after I’ve submitted my application? A: Applications for Animatic closed on Wednesday 27 August at 12 noon. After this date, a panel of industry experts will select projects to participate in the scheme. If not selected for the scheme, we aim to notify you as soon as possible. Due to the expected high volume of applications, we will be unable to provide personalised feedback for unsuccessful projects at this time. All pitches will be stored securely on MySmashMedia with industry-leading encryption. If you are unsuccessful and wish to remove your pitch from MySmashMedia, you can log in to your account on their website and delete it with ease. We would recommend applicants to keep their projects on MySmashMedia as their service will help to connect you and/or your project with commissioners and other decision makers. They are onboarding the world’s top commissioners who are looking for exciting, new diverse content.
FAQS
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Flipside is an animated series that follows the adventures of Phee, who, after a tragic loss, is forced to live with her estranged aunt. Shortly after discovering that she can see ghosts, together with her new ethereal best friend, Jason, she begins to uncover secrets of her past, the true meaning of friendship, and ultimately navigates her place in the new world she inhabits.
'Overlords' is an animated adult comedy series that focuses on a family of shapeshifting reptilians on a secret mission to enslave the human race. As their troubles become increasingly human, they make the startling discovery they have been exiled by their own species and are on a mission specifically designed to fail.
Lochs & Legends is an animated Scottish mystery show where four teens and their pine marten must unravel the mysteries left for them in a family diary. Through their journey they encounter cryptids, witches and the fae as they work together to keep the worst of them from entering our world.
Dolly Doctors is a feel-good stop motion series for pre-school children where toys are the GPs. A team of Dolly Doctors fix a rotating cast of toy patients ensuring precious friends are saved from the skip. Think Wallace and Gromit meets The Repair Shop.
The Last Resort is a dark animated sci-fi comedy. When The Resort, a futuristic paradise's perimeter is breached, teenage Artha ventures out into a world he knows nothing about and discovers every utopia has a dark side.
Badger Beats is a family friendly sitcom starring gay badgers Mustard and Ketchup whose love for music is infectious.Through their independent music enterprise, they enable wish fulfillment for their customers and make visitors feel special.
Sammi Duong sets out to share stories from her life and proclaim her pride about her cultural identity but realises that her perception of reality and herself are false, where even the most honest feelings are warped. Mundane spaces are forests full of tigers, conversations summon storms and bridges become metaphors and flimsy hooks on which her logic falls apart.
Three life models bare all physically and beyond in their very intricate lives revealing their true identities as their minds delve into as they strike and hold their pose in the art class.
The need, the longing, the excitement of being touched and experiencing physical contact is explored in this solo queer love story. We observe as our main character navigates an imagined Glasgow that is absent of other people.
Facilitators
Lauren is a television development executive in Los Angeles, California and is originally from Airdrie, Scotland. She is currently a Manager of Adult Animation/Comedy at Netflix overseeing new development and current series. Previously, she was a Senior Director of Development at MTV Entertainment Group where she developed various animated comedy projects for Comedy Central and Paramount +, including Clone High, Ren & Stimpy and a Daria spin-off of the character Jodie.
Julio is Creative Executive for the Animation Series Team at Netflix. He is a key player in the streamer's international efforts (with a primary focus on Adult Animation), working on animated titles such as The House, Blue Eye Samurai, Disenchantment, Captain Fall, Asterix: Le Combat des Chefs, and Tear Along the Dotted Line. Julio started his career in the film industry at Focus Features.
James is the Founder and Managing Partner of BAFTA and Emmy-winning production company Blink Industries, a development and production studio working across animation and live action, with a 120-seat animation studio in North London. He is the Executive Producer of Channel 4’s Don't Hug Me I’m Scared, Netflix’s Dead End: Paranormal Park and HBO Max’s Peter & The Wolf.
Lucy is an Executive Producer at Jellyfish Pictures. As former Head of Production, Lucy led the delivery of its inaugural animated feature, Spirit: Untamed for DreamWorks Animation. Lucy is responsible for production budgeting, planning and scheduling, working closely with department heads in finance, business affairs and production to ensure a smooth delivery through all stages of the process, from pre to post, and then through to final delivery.
Lorna has had a passion for the animation and VFX industry since childhood, with a background working on various VFX Projects and AAA cinematics of diverse size and creative style. Her Production career started in 2016 at Axis Studios where she rose through the ranks and gained experience working on projects that included Netflix’s Love, Death & Robots, Bungie / Activision’s Destiny 2: Rebirth and Destiny 2: Forsaken, and Riot Games Inc.’s League of Legends.
Sean works within the Scripted Team, covering projects in film and television. Sean also works with a range of Scottish animation companies across different projects. Sean joined Screen Scotland from Glasgow Film Festival and Theatre, where he worked as Programme Manager.
Helen joined Aardman in 1998 and has worked within all the main production departments. She initially started work in long form features before moving into series work on Creature Comforts, and over the past 18 years within commercials and short form creating animated and digital content for advertising agencies and third-party brands as well as internally with Aardman characters such as Morph and Wallace & Gromit.
Currently Senior Head of Commissioning 7+ at BBC Children’s and Education, Sarah is responsible for content decisions across multiple genres for young audiences including Drama, Animation, Factual and Entertainment. Previously she was Vice President of Children’s and Youth Programming at Sony Pictures Television with responsibility for the Pop and Sony Music Channels and before that, Head of Children’s at Channel 5 where she was responsible for the Milkshake! brand.
Joyce has formed a consulting company, Linden Animation Consulting, LLC., where she focuses on non-exclusive animation consulting using her experience as an Animation Production Executive and Producer. She is currently consulting with Wild Child Animation in Scotland, UK and a number of other companies in the US, Canada and Latin America. Joyce has helped companies and individuals with strategic studio planning, mentoring executive teams and team members to help their growth, wellbeing and subsequent overall effectiveness in animation production.
Peter is an experienced commercial and corporate lawyer focussed on the media & entertainment, manufacturing and sports sectors. Peter has experience acting for a broad range of businesses in these sectors, both in private practice and while leading in-house legal teams.
Chris is Senior Certification Analyst at BFI. He has been part of the Certification Unit team for 12 years that assesses and provides guidance on the cultural test and co-production, which is required to access the creative industries tax reliefs for film, television and video games. Chris works closely with key stakeholders in government and industry to provide support and guidance on the cultural test, co-production and policy.
Sarah is the International Distribution and Commercial Development Officer at Screen Scotland. She leads on managing international sales, distribution and festival strategies for Screen Scotland's funded projects. Sarah also provides support to producers on the ground in the international marketplace.
Lucy V.Hay is a script editor, author and blogger who helps writers. She's been the script editor and advisor on numerous UK features and shorts & has also been a script reader for 20 years, providing coverage for indie production companies, investors, screen agencies, producers, directors and individual writers. She's also an author, publishing as both LV Hay and Lizzie Fry.
Fiona Gillies worked extensively in Film & TV as an actor before becoming an independent film producer and co-founder of My SMASH Media. Fiona met fellow producer Christine Hartland on the Creative England Market Trader programme and in partnership with tech expert Mahesh Ramachandra, they founded My SMASH Media. Fiona produced The Beat Beneath My Feet, which was in competition at the Berlin Film Festival and subsequently released worldwide. Fiona is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and has been a mentor for Women in Film & TV.
Christine Hartland is an independent film producer and co-founder of My SMASH Media, the IP marketplace for the creative industries, with fellow independent producer Fiona Gillies. Christine and Fiona met on the Creative England Market Trader programme. Christine’s debut feature, the thriller WMD in 2008, was one of the first films to follow a reverse distribution strategy. She is a member of Women in Film & TV and BECTU. Christine is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
Geoff has worked primarily in stop-motion animation since 1995, with live action puppetry, CG and 2D Digital along the way. His first project was directing and animating a series of award winning idents for Nickelodeon since then he has continued his career with pilots, music videos, series and feature length specials. Most of these have been on worldwide recognised projects and have been nominated for various awards including BAFTA’s and Emmys.
Part of the Mackinnon & Saunders team since 2008, Chris began his career producing training and promotional films for clients including British Aerospace and DuPont. His animation career began some thirty years ago at Cosgrove Hall Films and he has since produced over 700 episodes of children’s animation in stop motion, CG and 2D Digital. He also works extensively as a development producer, script editor and writer having penned more than 40 scripts.
Sylvain Grain is a French producer, consultant and trainer with 15+ years of experience in the media and entertainment industry between Europe and Latin America. His expertise in animation and immersive formats led him to participate in innovative projects for museums, theme parks, television, advertising and cinema, including award-winning IMAX 3D documentaries, CG animated short-films and TV Series. Sylvain Grain leads MIFA Talent projects to support international emerging creators and animation films in development.
With over 25 years of experience in animation, Kieran currently serves as the Animation Production Liaison Executive at ScreenSkills. In this role, he looks after the Animation Skills Fund and collaborates with the Animation Skills Council and wider industry to identify and address skills shortages in the UK animation sector. His career includes a 15-year tenure at Aardman, where he led exhibitions, distribution, and events.
As a Supervising Producer at Atomic Cartoons, Alex Cichon oversees animated features, episodic series, and development projects from conception to completion. With over a decade of experience in producing animation, he excels at managing budgets and schedules while leading and motivating his team to exceed animation quality standards.
Inari is an award winning Animation Director based in London. Her work challenges gender stereotypes, questions identity and confronts the limitations set by society. Tones of surrealism and comedy meet to create a mind bending explosion into an addictive world with flawed but lovable characters.
Inari's portfolio includes high profile commercial clients, such as Adult Swim and Giphy. Her work has been featured across notable creative platforms like Creative Review and It's Nice That.
Gaia is a freelance script consultant and assessor for talent development initiatives, with over 10 years of experience with new and emerging talent.
From 2012 to 2021, she was the Short Film Programmer for the Encounters Festival in Bristol, where she curated both UK and international competitions, as well as special programs. Before that, she held the position of Short Film Programmer at the Edinburgh International Film Festival and collaborated with festivals including the London Film Festival and the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival.
Matt (he/him) has worked in film exhibition in Scotland for twenty-five years. He was short film programmer of Edinburgh International Film Festival from 2004 to 2008. His critical history of EIFF, How the Movie Brats Took Over Edinburgh, was published by St Andrews Film Studies in 2011. He has been involved in programming or producing several Scottish film festivals including two high profile Highland events with Mark Cousins and Tilda Swinton. Matt has directed Glasgow Short Film Festival since the 2010 edition and leads the Scottish competition selection committee.
Zia Sands is Director Content Acquisitions, Partnerships & Coproductions Warner Bros Discovery Kids & Family EMEA, working across Cartoon Network, Boomerang, Boing, Cartoonito, Toonami, Toonix and Max Kids & Family overseeing the acquisitions strategy, partnership relationships and new business opportunities. In this role, Zia negotiates shared acquisitions for the EMEA kids’ business, working closely with the local heads of programming and acquisitions of each of the networks and the content heads within EMEA ,LATAM and APAC.
Louise Burgess is Acquisitions and Programme Director for Milkshake!, Channel 5’s pre-school television programming block. In her role Louise oversees all editorial elements of programme acquisitions, original commissions and shortform, from proposal stage through to channel delivery and transmission, ensuring the creative quality of programming content as a Commissioning Executive.
Lynsey joined Nickelodeon from BBC Children’s 18 years ago and sits as Executive in Charge across Nick International Properties. She has worked on hundreds of episodes for series including: ‘Overlord and the Underwoods’, Emmy award winning ‘The Adventures of Paddington, ‘Kangaroo Beach’, ‘Becca’s Bunch’, ‘Zack & Quack’, ‘Puffin Rock’, ‘The Day Henry Met’, ‘Wissper’, ‘Lily’s Driftwood Bay’, & ‘Digby Dragon’ plus many more.
Lisa joined Sky in 2019 and moved into the role of Commissioning Editor for Sky Kids in January 2024. Recent credits include ‘Let’s Go, Bananas!’, an animated family sitcom, the second season of ‘Dodo’ a slice-of-life animated comedy starring Dylan Llewellyn (Derry Girls) and the Broadcast Award-Winning preschool series ‘123 Number Squad!’. As part of the Sky Kids Commissioning team, Lisa is currently in development and production across a range of animated, live-action, and gaming projects.
Alan is a Development Executive at Aardman Animations. With a background producing comedy, across various Harry Hill projects, and the CBBC sketch show, Class Dismissed, Alan has spent the last few years dedicated to producing and developing animated projects at Aardman with a real focus on bold comedic writing, including the Shaun The Sheep x Barbour Christmas commercials and a stop motion celebration of 'Over The Garden Wall' for Cartoon Network. He's currently in development across a slate of pre-school projects and shows with a broad family appeal.
You must be based in Scotland You must be over 18 years of age You must not be in full-time or part-time education You can apply as an individual, creative team or apply as a studio. If applying as a studio, You must have made at least one of the following as a writer, director or producer: a Your submitted project must be your own original idea. If you are submitting a project based on existing IP, If selected, you must commit to the full programme and must be available for all workshop dates and the day
Animatic is open to Scottish based creatives who meet the below list of requirements:
your business must be registered in Scotland. If applying as a creative team,
the lead applicant must be based in Scotland and the team must comprise of a
majority of Scottish based creatives. If applying as a creative team or as a studio,
there must be one lead applicant. If a producer is part of the creative team, we would strongly advise
that they are the lead applicant. Only the lead applicant from a creative team or studio can participate in the workshops and live pitch.
short film of any genre, one episode of television of any genre or a
commercial/advertisement/music video. If applying as a creative team or studio, the
lead applicant will be required to fulfil the above experience requirements, but other
team members can be less experienced.
you must have all rights agreements in place before submission.
of the Live Pitch. You must complete all required tasks before the final workshops during GFF 2025.Save the dates (compulsory to attend if selected):The best TV series or feature film and short film pitches will be awarded £5000 and £1000 respectively to fund further development of the projects.
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To apply, you must submit the below documents via our application form HERE Please only submit animated feature film, TV series and short film pitches. We are particularly interested in hearing from projects that are adult animation comedies, particularly TV series, and kids TV. Glasgow Film Festival would like to thank MySmashMedia, Netflix, Animation Scotland & Screen Scotland for their support for Animatic.
