WFTV Short Film Club: Storytelling in Animation, in conversation with Filmmakers

Short Film Club is an event series spotlighting some of the best short films for WFTV members. Showcasing the work of filmmakers based around a theme, you will have the opportunity to watch the films selected for the Short Film Club, hear from the creators behind them and join in the conversation.

Hosted by WFTV and in partnership discover.film, a global streamer dedicated to short form content, Short Film Club will be chaired by Katie Bailiff, WFTV’s CEO, and Jaine Green, Head of Content at discover.film. 

Bringing together the directors Maryam Mohajer, Natalia Mirzoyan and Hannah Dougherty in this event they will discuss their short films, developing distinct animation styles to tell their stories and creative insight to the making of the films.

Films for WFTV Short Film Club:

GRANDAD WAS A ROMANTIC

My grandad was a romantic. He once saw a picture of my granny and realised that she was the love of his life. This story sounds just like a fairy tale. All it needs is a happy ending really. One day he decided to go meet her.

FIVE MINUTES TO SEA

A small but memorable moment from childhood, juxtaposed with the theme of old age...

THEO AND CELESTE

As Theo and Celeste play a game of ‘would you still be my friend if’ to test their new friendship, their hypothetical questions become reality, forcing them to confront their deepest fears and strongest yearnings.

Panel

Maryam Mohajer is a British-Iranian, BAFTA Winning animator-director who was born in Tehran, Iran just before living through revolution, war and immigration. With a background in painting, she discovered animation after moving to UK in year 2000. She got her MA degree in animation from Royal college of art. Her short films have been screened at many International festivals. She lives and works as an animator, writer, director in London.

Natalia Mirzoyan

Natalia Mirzoyan is animator, graphic artist and illustrator, based in Saint-Petersburg. Born in Yerevan, Armenia. Natalia graduated from the Arts school named after H. Danielyan and Department of Sociology in Yerevan State University, attended the faculty of Easel graphics in Saint-Petersburg Institute of Decorative-Applied Arts. From 2004 worked at “Petersburg” animation studio, involved in Smeshariki and Kingdom M children serials as animator and director of series. Her short films My Childhood Mystery Tree, Chinti, Five Minutes to Sea, Merry Grandmass was selected and won many awards at animation festivals all around the world.

Hannah Dougherty

Hannah Dougherty is an Australian director and animator working with many storytelling mediums from live-action to puppetry and animation. Her award-winning short films have taken her to New York, Paris, and Barcelona, to settle in Vancouver.

How will the online event work?

This event will be live streamed via Zoom.us.

This event will take place as a webinar. Attending participants will not be visible to others and will be muted throughout the session. After the talk, there will be an opportunity for audience members to ask questions to the panel by using the Q&A feature.

In advance of the event, attendees will have the opportunity to watch each of the filmmakers’ short films. 

This event is for WFTV members only.

If you are not a member and would like to join, membership costs just £100 + VAT/yr, please click here or email admin@wftv.org.uk

At WFTV we’re really keen to ensure that all our events are accessible for everyone. So if you have any particular access needs, please can you let us know before an event and we will do our best to accommodate you. We would be grateful if you can give us as much notice as possible – please contact admin@wftv.org.uk