Brighton International Animation Festival 2025

It was my pleasure and a privilege to attend the Brighton International Animation Festival yesterday. If I wasn’t travelling to Scotland today I’d have liked to return for today’s programme. I also had time to catch up with a friend and see a beautiful sunset.

There was a diverse selection of films by emerging and established international filmmakers covering themes including pollution, trans experience, birth control, beauty standards and ancestral memories.

Many of the stories were intensely personal, such as ‘It all comes down’ by Meg Earls, an exploration of the memories passed on by the ceasefire generation of Northern Ireland, ‘Pomegranate’ by Livvy Seabrook-Wilkins, a mother’s experience of post-natal depression, and ‘The phantom sound’ by Eleanor Ponté, an experimental documentary about tinnitus, hyperacusis and hearing loss.

Dark humour and surprise were also used to good effect in films such as ‘Making it up’ by Alice May Guymer, looking at toxic beauty standards, ‘Floaters’ by Mocong Yuan, reflecting on our experience of difference, and ‘Welcome to the beach’ by Pia Mingyue Sun, exploring sea pollution.

There was also an incredible stop motion puppet showcase with delightfully intricate work. I particularly enjoyed the documentary ‘Visible mending’ by Samantha Moore, about how people find healing through knitting, the fantastical in the ordinary of ‘Tennis, Oranges’ by Sean Pecknold, and the unlucky but loveable scarecrow of Lilly Human’s ‘Scaredy Crow’.

The event had sign language interpretation and captions, as well as a really cool augmented reality art gallery.

It was my first time at the festival but I look forward to going again. As a hobbyist, i’ve spent the past year enjoying reconnecting with my art, but been putting off animation ‘until I’m ready’. This showcase was just the encouragement I needed and, as Dom Minns, Creative Director of Brighton Zoo, said in their talk (paraphrased): “keep making stuff”😊

Films:

  • Né una né due - Lucia Catalini

  • Monsters - Mia Fryer

  • The Phantom Sound - Eleanor Honey Ponté

  • Making it up - Alice May Guymer

  • Floaters - Mocong Yuan

  • Welcome to the Beach - Pia Mingyue Sun

  • Tennis, Oranges - Sean Pecknold

  • Buckshot - Trevor Hardy

  • Scaredy Crow - Lilly Human

Daniel Mclaughlan