Aardman Boss 'Encounters' Shorts Festival

Co-founder and Executive Chairman of the BAFTA and Oscar-winning Aardman Animations, has taken over at the helm of Britain's biggest and longest running short film festival - Encounters.
David Sproxton will replace outgoing Chairman Simon Cooper as the festival’s third Chairman.
The news comes as the dust settles on Encounters' 15th year, in which the dazzling international programme attracted more films and visitors than last year.
David Sproxton commented: "Having been involved with Encounters since its inception 15 years ago, I am delighted to take over from Simon Cooper who has done an exceptional job.
"It will be a hard act to follow and with the current economic climate, it’s not going to be easy maintaining the Festival's packed and stimulating programme but I’m certainly up for the challenge," he said.
The appointment is the latest development in the festival's eventful 15-year history. Brainchild of Andrew Kelly, who currently organises Bristol’s Festival of Ideas, it was founded as 'Brief Encounters' in 1994 – a one-off event to celebrate the centenary of cinema. It proved so popular that it continued to run annually, spawning a spin-off animation festival, Animated Encounters in 2000.
The two merged in 2006 to become the Encounters Short Film Festival as it is known today. The festival remains an internationally recognised showcase for new films, talent and diversity, which regularly attracts such headline-grabbing guests as the late Anthony Minghella, Ken Russell and Matt Groening.
This year's special guests included, Oscar-winning shorts director, Andrea Arnold and Andrei Khrzhanovsky, the 69-year old Russian animation master. In total, 1,500 films from 58 countries competed for 19 awards and £12,500 in prize money.
(BMcN/BMcC)