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It’s said that one of the tasks of an artist is to reveal the truth of things, and Beryl (Menna Trussler) is more passionately devoted to the truth than most people can cope with. This is not her first outing in the work of artist/director Joanna Quinn, and it seems unlikely to be the last, but it bears the distinction of having been nominated for an Oscar, which would surely bowl over this working class Welsh woman despite the litany of peculiar goings-on which she manages to take in her stride.

Robust, middle aged and not easily squeezed into a wonderbra, Beryl is a tangle of scraggly lines and splashes of pain, each lovingly hand-drawn frame resembling the work which she herself creates as she orders her ageing husband to pose nude on the staircase and tries to capture the energy of accidents in motion. Her home is littered with.

Locksmith Animation’s “Ron’s Gone Wrong” has won the award for best long form at the British Animation Awards 2022.

Locksmith, which was founded by by Aardman Animations veterans Sarah Smith and Julie Lockhart alongside Elisabeth Murdoch, picked up the award at a ceremony in London on Thursday evening.

The awards took place at London’s BFI Southbank and were presented by comedian Miles Jupp.

Other winners on the night included Magic Light Pictures, for their adaptations of Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s “Zog and the Flying Doctors” and Scheffler’s “Pip and Posy,” while production co-ordinator Hodan Abdi picked up the Lamb award, which “bridges the gap between current categories which recognise student achievements and general best-in-class awards, and is open to any young professionals working in the animation and VFX industry.”

And 86-year-old Menna Trussler beat out Taika Waititi, Ricky Gervais and Ben Wishaw to take home the award for best voice performance,...

Netflix may be leading the pack in overall Oscar nominations this year, but the streamer is outnumbered in at least one category. Netflix’s singular nominee for Best Animated Short represents the category’s most classic contender in “Robin Robin,” a charming tale of difference told with cute fuzzy animals from beloved British animation house Aardman, the four-time Oscar-winning studio behind “Wallace and Gromit.”

While “Robin Robin” is the clear frontrunner this year,, the rest of the category is filled with experimental and challenging fare from around the world.

It may not make the race very interesting, but the viewing is another story.

Playing as if in a different world entirely, the other four contenders feature poignant meditations on love and romance, a whimsical character study of an eccentric artist and her sister’s obsession with taxidermy, and a shocking mini-horror about a secret police agent and her torture dog.

Ahead of the Academy Awards, we’ve reviewed every short film in each category: Animation, Documentary, and Live Action.

Animation

Affairs of the Art | UK/Canada | 16 Mins

Fifteen years after the character’s last foray (Dreams & Desires: Family Ties) and 35 years since her debut in Girls Night Out, everyone’s favorite Welsh housewife Beryl (Menna Trussler) is back to narrate a series of anecdotes centered upon her eccentric family while pursuing a new obsession: hyper-futurism. The original team of Joanna Quinn (director and animator) and Les Mills (writer) takes us behind the scenes of their star’s art by showcasing the tireless support of her husband (walking up and down the stairs nude) and her full-tilt embracement of her own body as a paintbrush. More than just her creations and the hoops she puts people through to create them, however, Affairs of the Art seeks to remind us that artistic creation possesses no defined boundaries.

Ahead of its release in UK cinemas, we talk to the director and writer of the funniest film of the year, Pride. It's one of the best, too.

Regular readers will know that we've been banging the drum for the film Pride for a little while now. It's a fabulous comedy, whose laughs are as fierce as its politics, and it arrives in UK cinemas this Friday.

In advance of that, we chatted to its director Matthew Warchus (returning to cinema for the first time since 1999's Simpatico) and writer Stephen Beresford. Both come from a theatre background (Warchus is taking over from Kevin Spacey at the Old Vic next, and his hugely impressive theatre credits include the Matilda musical), and both were in fine form when we met them...

What particularly intrigued me about Pride is why you chose to tell such an unusual story this way. And I...