2016 Oscar nominee The Boy and the World will be screened at the Cape Town International Animation Festival. Picture: ORANGE EYES LIMITED 2015
2016 Oscar nominee The Boy and the World will be screened at the Cape Town International Animation Festival. Picture: ORANGE EYES LIMITED 2015

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THE African premiere of animated television film Stick Man — watched on BBC One by 9.27-million people on Christmas Day last year — takes place on February 19.

Stick Man was animated by Cape Town studio Triggerfish. The film is an adaptation of the children’s book by popular author Julia Donaldson and illustrator Axel Scheffler.

Triggerfish also animated 2012’s successful Adventures in Zambezia.

The television film premieres at the Cape Town International Animation Festival, running from February 18-21 at the River Club and the Labia Theatre. Stick Man’s first showing is at the Labia on February 19 at 11.30am.

The festival includes talks by award-winning animators, filmmakers and producers, including Oscar nominees.

"The festival’s programme is designed to inspire and build both the local industry and audiences by exposing them to world-class talent and content through screenings, talks, workshops and masterclasses," says festival director Dianne Makings.

Oscar-nominated animated feature film Song of the Sea — the story of the fantastical adventures of Ben and his little sister Saoirse, the last selkie (part seal-part human) — is also showing on February 19, at the River Club in Observatory. It was nominated for the 2014 Oscar for best animated feature, but lost out to Walt Disney’s Big Hero 6.

Makings says the festival highlight is a workshop with Mark Shapiro, who is in charge of marketing and brand management at US stop-animation studio Laika, which has been responsible for films such as the 2014 hit The Boxtrolls and the Oscar-and Bafta-nominated ParaNorman in 2012. The Baftas are awards from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.

French animation producer Christine Ponzevera will discuss different strategies to pitch to European studios, and how co-productions work; and Dreamworks three dimensional animator Nedy Acet, who worked on Kung Fu Panda 3, Peabody and Sherman and Madagascar 3, will present an artistic workshop about 3D design.

Triggerfish’s Stick Man was produced by the UK’s Magic Light Pictures, which has sold its Oscar-and Bafta-nominated half-hour animated films, The Gruffalo and The Gruffalo’s Child — also by Donaldson and Scheffler — to more than 80 broadcasters worldwide.

*For a full programme, tickets and other information, visit www.ctiaf.com