About

We nurture creative talent in order to produce thought provoking and inspiring projects.

Animate works at the intersection of film, art and animation. Led by Abigail Addison and Gary Thomas, since 2007 we established a reputation for high quality, innovative, experimental and engaging films, and for producing projects for exhibition across broadcast, cinema, festival, gallery, public, online and digital platforms.

Our partners have included: The Photographers’ Gallery, QUAD Derby, RSA Arts and Ecology, Vivid Projects Birmingham, Art on the Underground, Klangforum Wien, Phoenix Leicester, Stanley Kubrick Archives, Flatpack Festival Birmingham, London Sinfonietta, FACT Liverpool, Edge of Frame, Wellcome Sanger Institute, Whitechapel Gallery and the National Trust.

Our supporters have included: Arts Council England, Jerwood Arts, Wellcome Trust, Channel 4, BFI, ANIM18, Foyle Foundation and the Garfield Weston Foundation.

We’ve worked with more than 150 artists, animators and filmmakers, including: Jessica Ashman, Edwina Ashton, Katerina Athanasopoulou, Jordan Baseman, Vicky Bennett, boredomresearch, Sebastian Buerkener, Barry Doupe, George Eksts, Kota Ezawa, Alec Finlay, Petra Freeman, Iain Gardner, Karolina Glusiec, Dryden Goodwin, Oliver Harrison, Elizabeth Hobbs, Jenny Holt, Shona Illingworth, Stephen Irwin, Esther Johnson, Ellie Land, Delaine Le Bas & Damian James Le Bas, Adam Lewis Jacob, Samantha Moore, Mandy McIntosh, Phil Mulloy, Motomichi Nakamura, Noriko Okaku, Osbert Parker, Margaret Salmon, Hiraki Sawa, Charlie Tweed, Sean Vicary, Atsushi Wada, Alan Warburton, Apichatpong Weerasekthakul and Jane & Louise Wilson.

Our awards include:

• Best Film at the Cutting Edge, British Animation Awards 2008 for Magnetic Movieby Semiconductor
• Grand Prize at Oberhausen International Short Film Festival 2010 for A Letter to Uncle Boonmeeby Apichatpong Weerasethakul
• Best Experimental Film, Chicago Underground Film Festival 2011 for Slow Actionby Ben Rivers
• Best Motion Graphics, British Animation Awards 2014 for Apocalypse Rhymeby Oliver Harrison
• Lumen Prize 2016 Moving Image Award for AfterGlowby boredomresearch
• Visual Science Award at Imagine Science Films Abu Dhabi 2017 for Loopby Samantha Moore
• Best of the Fest and Best Sound Design for The Flounder by Elizabeth Hobbs at London International Animation Festival 2019
• I’m OK, by Elizabeth Hobbs, a co-production with the National Film Board of Canada, was nominated for the BAFTA British Short Animation in 2019
• Best Short Film nomination at the British Animation Awards 2020 for Bloomers by Samantha Moore
• Grand Prix at ANIMATOR Festival 2022 for Elizabeth Hobbs’ The Debutante

With their extensive experience and expertise, Abigail and Gary continue to build Animate’s success, to develop and produce animation and film projects with the best creative talent.

‘Animate has consistently facilitated cutting edge animation in the UK, making the UK an international focal point for animated filmmaking,’ — David Shrigley, artist

 

Abigail Addison, Director

Abigail has produced thematic slates of shorts for Channel 4’s Random Acts, Silent Signal, a large-scale touring art & science project that received Wellcome Trust support, and Untold Tales, micro-commissions for Instagram.

She co-produced BAFTA nominated I’m OK by Elizabeth Hobbs with the National Film Board of Canada, and produced the multi-award winning The Debutante with Elizabeth Hobbs, which was shortlisted for the Academy Awards and the European Film Awards. She recently produced the BFI Filmmaking Fund supported And Granny Would Dance with Maryam Mohajer and is in production on a BFI NETWORK supported short Statue in the Garden with Qianhui Yu.

Since 2018, she has been a consultant on The Animation Workshop’s ANIDOX:LAB for people developing animated documentary projects including immersive experiences. Abigail was the Animation Programmer at Edinburgh International Film Festival for four years, and has curated the Figures in Focus programme at London International Animation Festival since 2017. Abigail also sits on the Advisory Board of Animation Alliance UK.

 

Gary Thomas, Director

Gary has been commissioning and producing work with artists and animators for over twenty years. His recent projects include Animate commissions with The Photographers’ Gallery, PEER London and QUAD/D-LAB; Parts & Labour, an international open, and four animations for the Body of Songs music project (Cast Iron Radio/Wellcome Trust), three of which gained Vimeo Staff Picks.

Gary’s production executive role in his previous job at Arts Council England saw him working with artists including Steve McQueen, Carol Morley, Andrew Kötting and Clio Barnard. He conceived the Moving Image Initiative partnership with the UK Film Council’s New Cinema Fund, commissioning shorts for multi-platform exhibition and developing feature projects. He has co-directed several shorts with artist Tim Shore that have screened around the world.

Gary previously worked in the Film team at the British Council, as programme manager for film projects in East Asia and China, and on cross artform project across music, visual arts and science. He is a trustee of the Stuart Croft Foundation.