Category Archives: Uncategorized

European Lawyers Foundation

LAWYEREX promo film (dir. Astrid Goldsmith, UK 2022, 00:36)

Commissioned by the European Lawyers Foundation and co-funded by the European Union, the LAWYEREX promo film was directed, designed and animated by Astrid Goldsmith.

trolli

Promo spot for confectionary brand Trolli’s Instagram for Valentine’s Day 2021.

Directed and animated by Astrid Goldsmith for W&K, puppets and sets by Astrid Goldsmith, props by Emma Niemis.

blossoms

Blossoms music video/short film Christmas special for their single Christmas Eve (Soul Purpose), 2020. Directed by Edwin Burdis. Animation Director/Animator/Art Director – Astrid Goldsmith. Sets/Props/Armatures – Emma Niemis, Astrid Goldsmith, Tiff Monk. Dolls by Joliande Green.

Red Rover

Red Rover (dir. Astrid Goldsmith, UK 2020, 13:22)

Written, directed and animated by Astrid Goldsmith, Red Rover is a stop-motion sci-fi adventure about colonialism on Mars.

When a robotic rover starts drilling for signs of life on Mars, the race is on for one tiny rock-beast to save her native community from the invader from Earth.

Funded by BFI Network, Red Rover was completed in July 2020 and is currently competing at international film festivals. It premiered at Sitges Film Festival in October 2020, where it won Best Animated Short Film, and was subsequently longlisted for the Academy Award. It then played at London International Animation Festival, New York International Children’s Film Festival, Guanajuato Film Festival and London Short Film Festival among others. In August 2021 it was selected to screen in Trafalgar Square before Star Wars: A New Hope, as part of the London Mayor’s Back to the Big Screen season.

Quarantine

Quarantine (dir. Astrid Goldsmith, UK 2018, 12:56)

Quarantine is a stop-motion short film, written, directed and animated by Astrid Goldsmith. It was commissioned by the BFI and BBC4 as part of their prestigious Animation 2018 talent scheme, designed to find and support the UK’s most exciting emerging animators. UK viewers can watch it for free on BFI Player.

Quarantine is a post-Brexit pagan dance fantasy, about a troupe of Morris-dancing badgers on the south coast of England, who are trying to avoid the animal quarantine compound which has been built above their burrow. As they try to keep their old folk traditions alive, they ignore the plight of the caged quarantine inmates. But when tragedy strikes, a young badger goes rogue, risking exile from the troupe as he forges a new forbidden friendship on the other side of the bars.

Made in just 21 weeks, Quarantine is a 13-minute puppet stop-motion film, built and filmed at Mock Duck Studios in Folkestone. It premiered at BFI Southbank, and was broadcast on BBC4 on Sunday 2nd December. It is now available to watch free on BFI Player. In 2020 it was the third most watched film on the free BFI Player, and won Best Animated Film at London Short Film Festival.

Awards:

Best Animated Film – LSFF 2020

Audience Favourite – My Darling Quarantine SFF 2020

Official Selection:

Atlanta Film Festival, 2019

Edinburgh International Film Festival, 2019

Guanajuato International Film Festival, 2019

London Short Film Festival, 2020

New York International Children’s Film Festival, 2020

British Shorts, 2020

Chicago International Children’s Film Festival

Leeds International Film Festival, 2019

Sitges Film Festival, 2019

Aesthetica Short Film Festival, 2019

Nike: Never Ask

Stop-motion troll: character design, fabrication and animation by Astrid Goldsmith. For the June 2018 Nike ‘Never Ask’ campaign, social films directed by Riff Raff’s Finn Keenan.

Original clay sculpt of the troll, before clean-up and moulding

Original clay sculpt of the troll, before clean-up and moulding

Finished latex and foam puppet with plastazote keyboard

 

 

Seamus Fogarty

Modelmaking and animation for Seamus Fogarty music video ‘Jimmy Stewart’, directed by Edwin Burdis for Domino Records, 2020.

Puppet – Astrid Goldsmith and Hetty Bax / Props and set – Astrid Goldsmith and Emma Niemis / Animation – Astrid Goldsmith

Squirrel Island

Squirrel Island (dir. Astrid Goldsmith, UK 2016, 21:11)

Squirrel Island is an award-winning stop-motion animated film, made by Astrid in her garage in Folkestone over the course of eight years.

Screen shot 2015-09-20 at 09.13.52

A 20-minute sci fi action thriller about squirrel apartheid, Squirrel Island follows a lone renegade grey squirrel called Dot, who is trapped on a hostile and mysterious red squirrel island. Thrown together with an unlikely partner, Dot and her new friend Mr Acorn uncover a horrifying secret red squirrel plot…can Dot and Mr Acorn survive Squirrel Island?

A puppet stop-motion film that was eight years in the making, Squirrel Island was shot on 16mm in a garage in Folkestone, using a 1969 Bolex film camera. Inspired by the complex issues surrounding invasive species and the controversial policies implemented to protect native wildlife in Britain, Squirrel Island is a sideways look at the choices we make between good and bad animals.

After a successful Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for post-production, the film was completed in 2016.

Awards

Best Film, Jury des enfants – Festival Cinema Jeune Public, Lausanne

Best Film, Children’s Jury – Soria International Film Festival

Achievement in Short Filmmaking – Portland Film Festival

In competition

Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, 2017

London Short Film Festival, 2017

Tampere Film Festival, 2017

Warsaw Film Festival, 2016

Foyle Film Festival, 2016

Aesthetica Short Film Festival, 2017

Savannah Film Festival, 2016

Norwegian Short Film Festival, 2017

Portland Film Festival, 2016

Tacoma Film Festival, 2016

Newport Beach Film Festival, 2017

Sarasota Film Festival, 2017

Beijing International Short Film Festival, 2017

Vilnius International Film Festival, 2017

Vilnius International Short Film Festival, 2018

Underexposed Film Festival, 2017

Fest Anca, 2017

Athens Animfest, 2017

Lago Film Festival, 2017

Festival de Cine de Madrid, 2017

Special Selection Screenings

Brest Short Film Festival, Opening Screening, 2017

La Guarimba Film Festival, UNICEF touring programme, 2017

LCC special selection from BISFF, 2017

You can follow the film’s news and progress on Twitter @SquirrelFilm and on Facebook

clermont
sekcje-filmowe-ang-02
lsff-laurel-2016
foylelaurels
portland-film-festival-laurels-2015-black-copy
sff2016
tff_official_selection

Polymer

Polymer (dir. Astrid Goldsmith, UK 2016, 2:37)

Beware what you put in the sea!

A stop-motion sci-fi marine revenge fantasy, Polymer is a dystopian vision of what might happen if plastic sea pollution is not controlled. Drawing on the rich traditions of Atomic Age monster movies, Polymer shows a monstrous creature of our own making, stalking the seaside town of Folkestone and returning our plastics to us in the most devastating way.

polymermakingof

Polymer was commissioned by SALT: The Festival of the Sea and the Environment.

Imagination – Random Acts

A FIRST ACTS short animated film for Channel 4’s Random Acts strand, Imagination was directed by Jemima Hughes and animated by Astrid Goldsmith.

Astrid animating Imagination on her multiplane, with Dragonframe linked to a large screen for clear visibility for Jemima

A paper cut-out stop-motion animation where the protagonist visits an exhibition of Matisse-inspired paper cuts in her pink wheelchair and is transported from the reality of the dull grey world outside into the colourful world of her imagination.

Read all about Jemima’s unique and fascinating process, and her experience as a deaf and disabled filmmaker:  https://www.ica.art/bulletin/my-mind-i-can-go-anywhere

In Competition/Special Screenings:

Encounters, 2017

Palm Springs International Animation Festival, 2017

Cardiff International Film Festival, 2017

ICA Playback Festival, 2018

Together! Disability Film Festival, 2017

CineSister, 2017

Canterbury Anifest, 2017

Anima Syros, 2017

Clin d’Oeil, 2017

 

Duracell Bunny

alpha-sprite

Five articulated Duracell Bunny puppets, for use on the Duracell Professional website. These 2-foot posable Bunnies were sculpted, moulded and then fabricated by Astrid from start to finish, including each Bunny’s bespoke costume and props.

A Bunny head with flight helmet, before decals were applied

In addition to the 2-foot Bunnies, Astrid was commissioned to make 10 static model Bunnies, used by Duracell for promotional purposes. The hand-painted resin casts were around 30cm tall:

Construction Bunny under construction

Bunny with tools after painting

Four of the finished Bunnies hanging out in the kitchen

Ford Fiesta Print Advert

Print Advert for Ford Fiesta, designed by illustrator Al Murphy (Blink).

Astrid translated Al’s 2D drawing of the Alaphant (a pink cyclops elephant) into a 3-dimensional creature, fabricating the 60cm model out of pink felt:

dsc02305
The finished pink felt Alaphant

Ford-red_final-1
The Alaphant in situ for the print advert

 

Al Murphys original design for the Alaphant