Cardiff Animation Festival is a biennial celebration of animation for everyone, founded in 2018.
Between 7–24 April 2022, Cardiff Animation Festival ’22 brought together the animation industry, fans and aspiring animators for a packed hybrid programme of animated short films, features, masterclasses, talks, performances, industry events, an exhibition, networking events and parties, both online (available worldwide) and in-person at venues across Cardiff.
Ymddiried provided financial assistance to CAF22 from the Owen Edwards Scholarship Fund, to support educational activity and CAF’s work helping young people to access the creative industries. CAF used these funds to offer students from across Wales in-depth supported placements, bursaries, a mentoring project supporting new neurodivergent animation voices, a creative industries learning programme, talks and masterclasses.
As well as placements, Ymddiried’s support enabled CAF to deliver industry talks, masterclasses and Q&As to help young people understand routes into the industry and paths to building careers in animation.
This was the second time Ymddiried supported us, having done so in 2020.The previous edition of the festival, CAF20, was scheduled for 2-5 April 2020 in person. Due to Coronavirus, CAF20 had to be postponed with weeks to go before delivery, but with the support of funders including Ymddiried, the CAF team were able to redevelop and run a fully online version of the festival in October 2020.
For CAF as a young festival, working with Ymddiried has been a transformative experience. While many funding applications can take a lot of time and put a lot of added pressure on small organisations, the process of applying to Ymddiried was refreshingly straightforward. After submitting our application, and responding to requested clarifications, we were delighted to receive Ymddiried’s support for CAF20. 2020 was obviously an incredibly difficult year for festivals, but Ymddiried’s patient and understanding support enabled us not just to survive the year, but gave us space and time to learn and grow as a festival. We have created an online programme we’re really proud of, and will continue to develop going forward, making CAF much more accessible to people who may not be able to access Cardiff, disabled audiences , those with caring responsibilities, and those facing financial barriers to accessing in-person events. Ymddiried’s increased support in 2022 helped us to deliver our biggest festival yet, and our first ever hybrid edition of CAF.
– Lauren Orme, Festival Director, Cardiff Animation Festival
Here’s a glimpse of what was on offer: