Manchester Animation Festival

Animation Featured Selections Announced

5th October 2026

Manchester Animation Festival announces selections for Animation Featured development lab, supported by the BFI National Lottery Creative Challenge Fund

Seven projects selected for flagship seven‑month programme strengthening the next wave of UK animated features

Manchester Animation Festival (MAF), the UK’s largest and only Academy Award® and BAFTA‑qualifying animation festival, today announces the seven projects selected for Animation Featured, a new initiative designed to strengthen the UK’s feature animation pipeline and support emerging and established producers developing ambitious long‑form work. Supported by the BFI National Lottery Creative Challenge Fund, awarding National Lottery Good Cause funding, the programme aims to ensure that distinctive UK‑led animated features can progress towards market readiness and international financing.

Animation Featured provides participating teams with structured development support, industry insight, and access to leading animation professionals. The cohort will take part in a series of development sessions and industry engagements over seven months, designed to help producers refine their projects and build the creative and commercial foundations needed to move towards production.

The selected projects represent a diverse range of voices, artistic styles, and storytelling ambitions from across the UK. With the first residency taking place last week, each team now begins an intensive development journey supported by mentors including award-winning producers including Ruth Fielding, Producer and Joint Managing Director at Lupus Films (Kensuke’s Kingdom, Ethel & Ernest and The Night Before Christmas in Wonderland) ; Richard Beek, Producer (Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom, Wallace & Gromit Vengeance Most Fowl and Early Man) and Claire Jennings (Father and Daughter, Curse of the Wererabbit, Coraline, Vengeance most Fowl).

Project 1 – Check Out (Dionne Farrell and Rory Waudby-Tolley)
Producer: Dionne Farrell
Synopsis: When a big supermarket (and everyone inside) is whisked off into a limbo-like dimension, a ragtag group of plucky teens must uncover a decades-old secret to bring their community home. Check Out is a darkly funny, big-hearted (and sometimes weird) animated feature about what people do when the systems they rely on fail – and who actually steps up to fix them.

Project 2 – Journey to Pop Cloud Island (Georgina Hurcombe and George Caton Coult)
Producer: Georgina Hurcombe
Synopsis: When a mysterious storm reveals that a young flying creature isn’t the only one of her kind, she and her best friend journey beyond the clouds, where an extraordinary discovery will test their friendship and determine the fate of a hidden world. Journey to Pop Cloud Island is an ambitious animated feature that expands the much loved world of the TV series Pop Paper City into a breathtaking cinematic adventure. While rooted in the handcrafted charm and creativity that audiences already know from the television series, the team’s vision is to create a film that feels truly epic in scale while remaining intimate at its heart. It is a story about friendship, identity, curiosity and hope, wrapped inside a spectacular adventure that celebrates the power of imagination.

Project 3 – Sgà and the Wulver (John McEwan-Whyte)
Producer: John McEwan-Whyte
Synopsis: In a land where magic is waning and man is reigning, a young warrior girl dreams of following in the footsteps of her idol, Bàs, the land’s greatest monster hunter. But when the beast she pursues is far from the evil she was taught to hate, she must face a truth that will change her life forever. Through an engaging story set in a magical world, the film raises important questions relevant to our modern day: what happens to a culture when the stories it tells about itself are replaced by the stories others tell about it? And what does it cost when fear of difference is allowed to do the work of understanding?
Sgà and the Wulver is feature-length animated musical film for family audiences rooted in Gaelic culture. Its aesthetic follows the structure of the story, with two visually distinct worlds – one fully 3D and one watercolour 2D – bleeding into each other.

Project 4 – 24 & 45 (Vicki Rock and Kris Kelly)
Producer: Vicki Rock
Synopsis: In a fractured future of inequality, two individuals (24 and 45), challenge a system of control and illusion, exposing how a society built on competition leads to conflict and violence 24 & 45 is a bold, mature animated feature that explores contemporary issues of power, corruption, inequality, and the normalisation of violence. Set within a dystopian future, the film reflects concerns that are increasingly relevant today, questioning who benefits from conflict, how narratives are manipulated by those in power, and the human cost of systems that prioritise profit and control over compassion.

Project 5 – Made of Sticks (Ben Jackson and Baz Sells)
Producer: Ben Jackson
Synopsis: Trapped by duty and tradition, an industrious teenager fights to maintain the dilapidated windmill her family calls home, which for centuries has served power to a nearby utopian town. But power in this world comes at a haunting cost, just never for the powerful.Made of Sticks is a distinct stop-motion feature that merges gritty British realism with otherworldly fantasy. Imagine, if you will, Charlotte Regan’s Scrapper meets Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth. Aimed at teen and adult audiences, the film is a celebration of working class creativity and resilience, exploring the structures that hold our society together and who ultimately pays for them.

Project 6 – Karaoke Club (Jamie Badminton, James Harvey and Maria Pal Pullen)
Producer: Jamie Badminton
Synopsis: In a world where singing is magic, karaoke is more than just a hobby. Based on Maria’s Filipino culture where karaoke is a key part of the community, Karaoke Club is a joyous family feature, following a starry-eyed teen called Aria on her journey to becoming an Idol! As she discovers the true power of her voice, she will empower the audience to not only sing but express their true selves too!

Project 7 – The Bear and The Piano (Chris Bowden)
Producer: Chris Bowden
Synopsis: A curious young bear finds an old piano, and soon his music is bringing joy to the whole forest but when a twelve-year-old girl and her dad stumble across him on their woodland hike, their lives change forever. At Dad’s struggling little theatre, Bear becomes an overnight sensation. R&B, rock, pop, country, classical – there’s something for everyone but as the theatre thrives, Dad is swept from worries of survival to the pressures of success. The more distant he becomes, the closer the Girl is drawn to Bear and at the height of his fame, she senses a longing in his heart not unlike her own. Taking the biggest risk of her life, she sets out to make things right.
Adapted from the celebrated children’s book by David Lichfield, The Bear and the Piano is a warm, funny and visually enchanting stop-motion musical adventure about fame, family, belonging and finding your way home.

Jen Hall, Animation Featured Programme Director said: “The response to the inaugural Animation Featured programme has been remarkable, with close to 100 applications from across the UK. The standard of work submitted was exceptionally high, and selecting just seven projects was an extremely challenging process. What has come through clearly is how necessary a scheme like this is – we’ve heard it repeatedly from applicants, partners and industry colleagues alike.
We now have a cohort of ambitious, forward‑thinking producers bringing bold, distinctive stories to the table. Their commitment to advancing UK feature animation is inspiring, and it’s a privilege to support them as they take these projects into the next stage of development.”

The programme is supported by the BFI National Lottery Creative Challenge Fund, awarding National Lottery Good Cause funding, with additional support from Screen Scotland and Northern Ireland Screen. Participants are paid for their time, enabling them to focus fully on developing their work.

Mia Bays, Director of the BFI Filmmaking Fund added: “We are delighted with the response to Animation Featured, which received a staggering 98 applications, demonstrating the need for this ambitious programme that combines creative development with practical business and market training. As one of the first Creative Challenge Fund programmes focused on animated features, we are excited to see such a range of projects and producers supported from across the country and look forward to seeing how they develop and the impact on the wider sector.”

Animation Featured is designed to help high‑potential projects progress towards market‑ready packages capable of attracting domestic and international investment. Alongside development support, the programme offers valuable networking opportunities, connecting filmmakers with peers, industry experts, and decision‑makers who can become future collaborators and partners.

By equipping teams with both creative and commercial insight, Animation Featured reinforces Manchester Animation Festival’s role as a leading force in UK animation and contributes to a stronger, more sustainable pipeline of British animated features. For more information see the Animation Featured section of the MAF website.