Irish animation is going through a bit of a golden age at the moment and there is no sign of it stopping. We paid a recent studio visit to OFFSET 2014 speakers and our neighbours here in Smithfield, Brown Bag Films, to catch up with the award winners and have a sneaky nose around their workspace!
Brown Bag Films are certainly celebrating their 21st year in style. Not only have they been nominated here at home for an IFTA for the short animation ‘An Ode to Love’ written and directed by Matthew Darragh and won a Best overall Short, for Damien O’Connor and Best Sound, Darren Hendley for their already multi award winning short ‘ANYA‘ at the Limerick Film Festival. They’ve also managed to bag themselves three daytime EMMY nominations and an EMMY win for Outstanding Individual Achievement Award in Animation for the second year in a row for Storyboard Artist Mårten Jönmark for Peter Rabbit and on top of all of that ‘Doc McStuffins’ has also won a prestigious Peabody Award. Phew!
Brown Bag Films have also recently opened up an office in Manchester. Have look here for more on their new home.
Speaking about their experience at OFFSET 2014 Creative Director Darragh O’Connell had this to say;
‘OFFSET was both a terrifying and exhilarating experience! Talking in front of such a massive audience was pretty daunting but there was such a great and appreciative crowd that it became a real thrill. It’s a brilliant event to have on our doorstep here in Dublin.’
Over the next couple of days we will have small series on some of the animators involved in these award winning animations. But for now here’s a second chance to see Cathal and Darragh’s talk at OFFSET 2014.