It's a shameless plug! Our new book, The Animation Atlas, is out today! So, to celebrate, here's a little chat with Michael and Jake talking about what the book is all about and why (hopefully) you should be excited about it.

A cartography of cartoons, The Animation Atlas takes in everything from titans of animation such as Disney, Pixar, Aardman and Studio Ghibli to pioneers, innovators and rising stars from the wider world of cinema.

A truly global history of animation - Each of the 30 chapters sets down in a different country to focus on local talent that has made a global impact on the form, from Spain to South Africa and China to Chile.

The book can be purchased wherever you get your books, online or out in the real world.

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Michael speaks with film critic Nicolas Rapold about his new book, The Worlds of Hayao Miyazaki, which examines the films of our favourite grumpy Japanese master through a spectrum of influences and inspiration.

• Find out more about The Worlds of Hayao Miyazaki
• Listen to Nicolas's podcast, The Last Thing I Saw
• Read about the BFI's upcoming Frederick Wiseman season

Did you know, we have a new book coming out? It's called The Animation Atlas and it is a journey through the world of animation, visiting 30 countries over 30 chapters and highlighting key films and filmmakers along every stop of the journey. It's out in October!

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This episode, Michael and Jake speak with stop-motion director Claude Barras about his new film, Savages, his previous film, the Ghibliotheque favourite My Life as a Courgette, his life in animation and his almost Takahata-like approach to research.

To listen to Claude's full, unedited French answers, fast forward to 40.10.

Savages is in UK cinemas now.

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On the pod this week, Michael speaks with Latvian filmmaker Gints Zilbalodis about his Oscar-winning feature, FLOW. This conversation was recorded during the London Film Festival in October 2024, partway through Zilbalodis's remarkable journey with the film: a low-budget, independent feature made by a small crew that became one of the most lauded films of the year, and eventually picked up the Oscar for Best Animated Feature against stiff competition from the animation world's biggest names.

Flow is in UK cinemas from 21st March, and Gints's first feature, AWAY, is returning to UK cinemas from 14th March.

On Saturday 15th March, we're hosting a special double bill of both films, plus two of Gints's early shorts, with a masterclass Q&A with the director himself, at Curzon Soho in London. Find out more about this 'Whole Loada Zilbalodis' retrospective here.

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It's the second part of our awards season chat about the Oscar-nominated animated films! Michael, Jake and Steph talk about Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, Flow and Memoir of a Snail.

Scroll back through our archive for interviews with Oscar nominees Chris Sanders (The Wild Robot), Nick Park & Merlin Crossingham (Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl) and Adam Elliot, and look forward to our interview with Gints Zilbalodis (Flow), coming to podcast your feeds in March.

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It's awards season! And we're jumping into the fray. In this first episode of a two-part awards miniseries, Michael and Jake talk about the two CG-animated offerings from Hollywood studios in contention for Best Animated Feature this year: Inside Out 2 and The Wild Robot.

Scroll back through our archive for interviews with Oscar nominees Chris Sanders (The Wild Robot), Nick Park & Merlin Crossingham (Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl) and Adam Elliot, and look forward to our interview with Gints Zilbalodis (Flow), coming to podcast your feeds in March.

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In this episode, Michael speaks with Australian stop-motion filmmaker Adam Elliot (Mary & Max, Harvie Krumpet) about his new, Oscar-nominated film Memoir of a Snail. In this wide-ranging conversation, Adam speaks about the enduring influence of David Lynch, how he crafts his distinctive films, his love of stories that mix the dark with the light and his memories of working with Philip Seymour Hoffman on Mary & Max.

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Director Naoko Yamada (A Silent Voice, Liz and the Blue Bird) joins us to talk about her new film, the delightful coming-of-age music drama The Colours Within.

If you would like to hear Ms Yamada's Japanese responses in full, the unedited interview starts from 32.30.

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It's not a Ghibliotheque miniseries until we've opened the mailbag! This week, Michael, Jake and Steph are opening some Park Life mail from listeners, to hear their thoughts on all things Vengeance Most Fowl, which Wallace and Gromit adventure deserves the top spot in the rankings, and more.

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Our journey through the films of Nick Park comes to a close with a conversation with the man himself! To mark the release of the new Wallace and Gromit adventure, Vengeance Most Fowl, Michael speaks with Nick Park and co-director Merlin Crossingham about directing as a pair, the importance of the human touch in animation, and how intimidating it is to animate Feathers McGraw.

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