Come on! Feel the Illinoise!

I'm back from Chicago International Childrens Film Festival, and it was lovely.

I saw loads of really good films, but my favourite was Googuri Googuri, a Japanese animation about a little girl and her grandad taking a nap together. The technique was painting on glass, and it looked brilliant - lots of energetic, swirling transitions. The sound design was spot on too, made up partly of murmuring voices of the little girl and grandad, whispering "googuri", their secret word. I just loved it. You can see the trailer for it here:



I also really liked The Boy & the Beast, a German animation for TV which won an award at CICFF. The animation style was quite fresh looking, and I loved the story. Here's the trailer:



I had a good time doing the Q&A for the young audience at CICFF, and also met lots of fellow filmmakers and festival folk. One was Christina, who wrote about A Film about Poo on her blog, which is quite ace and is here.

Thanks to all at CICFF for a great festival!