February 3, 2022 – Montreal, Quebec – National Film Board of Canada (NFB)
Joanna Quinn and Les Mills’ Affairs of the Art (Beryl Productions International/National Film Board of Canada) has been nominated for the British Short Animation award at the 2022 BAFTA EE British Academy Film Awards. Since its debut at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival in January 2021, where it won the Best Animation award, Affairs of the Art has been screened at more than 65 festivals and picked up 27 awards. The EE British Academy Film Awards ceremony takes place on Sunday, March 13, 2022.
With Affairs of the Art, director Joanna Quinn and producer/screenwriter Les Mills continue the series of beloved, hilarious and award-winning animated UK films starring Beryl, a 59-year-old factory worker who’s obsessed with drawing and determined to become a hyper-futurist artiste. We also meet her grown son, Colin, a techno geek, her husband, Ifor, now Beryl’s model and muse, and her sister, Beverly, a fanatical narcissist living in LA. Affairs of the Art provides glimpses into Beryl’s, Beverly’s and Colin’s peculiar childhoods, and we see that obsession is in this family’s DNA.
The first co-production between Beryl Productions International and the National Film Board of Canada, Affairs of the Art features Quinn’s signature hand-drawn animation with attitude and Mills’ raucously humorous scenarios, in an endearing romp through one family’s eccentric addictions.
Affairs of the Art is also among the 15 films shortlisted for this year’s Oscar for Best Animated Short Film. Link to the Academy press release: osca.rs/OscarsShortlists
Quote:
“Wow, what fantastic news—we are both absolutely thrilled to hear that our film Affairs of the Art has received an EE BAFTA nomination for British Short Animation, and we know that all of our amazing and talented crew who worked on the film will be equally delighted and excited by the news. We are very honoured and, in short, over the moon to get this nomination.” —Joanna Quinn and Les Mills
Affairs of the Art
A film by Joanna Quinn and Les Mills
A co-production between Beryl Productions International Ltd (Les Mills) and the National Film Board of Canada (Michael Fukushima).
Press kit: mediaspace.nfb.ca/epk/affairs-of-the-art
Highlights:
- Beryl’s back in Affairs of the Art, which showcases one family’s eccentric yet endearing obsessions with everything from drawing to screw threads and pet taxidermy.
- The voice cast features Menna Trussler (Beryl), Brendan Charleson (Ifor and Colin), Joanna Quinn (Beverly) and Mali Ann Rees (Mum and Edie).
- Stream the film for free in Canada and the US via The New Yorker: ly/30AiLn6
About Joanna Quinn
Since making her first award-winning film, Girls Night Out, which introduced audiences to working-class heroine Beryl, Joanna Quinn has become one of Britain’s most distinctive animators. Joanna and her writing and producing partner, Les Mills, created three more films about Beryl: Body Beautiful, Dreams and Desires: Family Ties and Affairs of the Art. Joanna’s animation is vibrant, energetic and unique. Her films have won BAFTAs and Emmys and received two Oscar® nominations. Joanna also lectures at colleges and universities around the world.
About Les Mills – screenwriter and producer
Les Mills first collaborated with Joanna on her graduation film, Girls Night Out. He then wrote and produced the next three Beryl films: Body Beautiful and Dreams and Desires: Family Ties, which have won 45 international awards (including the 2007 European Cartoon d’Or) and received a BAFTA nomination, and Beryl’s latest romp, Affairs of the Art. Les also produced Wife of Bath, an animated adaptation of one of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, which won a BAFTA and three Emmys and was nominated for an Oscar®.
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Associated Links
Beryl Productions International
BAFTA EE British Academy Film Awards
French version here | Version française ici.