This year’s Flatpack has been adapted to bring the festival to your home, with the usual stew of animation, documentary and inventive weirdness available to audiences globally for the first time.
Taking place from Friday 1st to Sunday 17th May 2020, the festival will feature an online short film competition with the audience able to vote on their favourites; two special family-friendly Colour Box programmes and activities; and Screendance shorts, a dance film competition.
This year’s festival will also feature PechaKucha Birmingham and Overlap Animation Social both presenting their first virtual events.
In addition, there will be a number of exclusives and premieres in the main competition programme, curated around themes that seem to have taken on a whole new meaning in recent times. Themes will include living in the digital age (The Human Factor), getting to know ourselves through the places we call home (Between Worlds), and looking after each other (Come Together). Talented filmmakers featured, whether emerging or established, explore our human condition, helping us to find meaning in chaos and beauty in the mundane.
Many contributors will be sharing interviews and special insights into the making of their work, and the festival’s jury members will be judging the work from their laptops at home. Seven prizes in total are up for grabs, and you can also have your say by casting a vote in the audience awards for both the grownup and Colour Box programmes.
As well as the week-long programmes on the Flatpack site, the festival will also be hosting a number of live streamed watch parties via YouTube.
When: 1st – 17th May 2020
Where: Online
£: Free, but donations welcome
More info: flatpackfestival.org.uk