On Feb. 5, the Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) hosted its new animation panel at the Arlington Theatre, open free to the public and featuring directors Chris Sanders, Nick Park, Kelsey Mann, and Gints Zibalodis. Each of their films was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature this year. Roger Durling, SBIFF’s Executive Director, hosted the 90 minute Q and A. Each director showcased their immense passion and appreciation for the art of animation, and all the challenges that come with it. 

First up in the discussion was Kelsey Mann, the director of Inside Out 2, a film about a 13 year old named Riley dealing with a multitude of emotions as she enters adolescence. One big change Mann implemented to set the sequel apart from its predecessor, Inside Out, was the aspect ratio; a movie’s ratio of width to height on screen. He updated the aspect ratio from 1.78:1 to 2.39:1 to show an expanding world as the main character, Riley, is getting older. It also better showcased all the new emotions added to the story, such as Anxiety, the film’s main antagonist. Mann sees Anxiety as the fear of perceived threats, and views Joy and Anxiety in the film as the two parents of Riley. Another big change was family having a smaller part in the story, while friends were much more prevalent. Mann explains how this shift is all about survival, “teenagers are switching from being taken care of to taking care of themselves.” Mann strived to put relatability up on screen, describing how brainstorm sessions were filled with stories that everyone in the room instantly connected with. Ultimately, this strategy paid off with Inside Out 2 becoming the highest-grossing animated film of all time, having made $1.6 billion worldwide at the box office. 

The next panelist was Nick Park, creator of Wallace and Gromit and director of the recently released Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, a film about Wallace building a robotic gnome to do garden chores that suddenly turns sinister, and Gromit’s fear of Wallace relying too much on technology. Traditionally, Wallace and Gromit is, “always set in the nether-world between 1950’s and present day,” explains Park. Choosing to include artificial intelligence in this film was definitely an update to the Wallace and Gromit universe, but Park kept the dated aesthetic by only including more vintage computers. This film also featured the return of Feathers McGraw, a famed Wallace and Gromit character first appearing in 1993. The animation of this sinister character was an “exercise in minimalism and nuisance,” with animators having to rely on blinks and the tiniest movement to display the character’s emotions. Wallace and Gromit is shot using stop motion animation, a technique of taking pictures frame by frame of models to show movement. This is an extremely slow process, with each animator completing around just 4.2 seconds of animation each week. This hard work clearly shone through, as the movie currently sits at a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes by critics. 

The Wild Robot, directed by Chris Sanders, was all about the visuals. The story follows a robot named Roz who becomes a parent figure to a lost gosling following a shipwreck on an abandoned island. Sanders talked about how he tried to create a painterly quality to the point you can see the brush strokes in the animation. Sanders wanted an impressionist feel to the film to “create a different kind of reality.” Part of this was Sanders wanting the depth in animation to prevent the film from skewing too young. Sanders explains how he really pushed to, “break free of the traditional CGI look we’ve been locked to.” Sanders said he took inspiration from the legendary forests of Bambi and Spirited Away. The Wild Robot was also nominated for Best Original Score at the Golden Globes. The score was done by Kris Bowers, and Sanders went to great lengths to explain how integral it was to the story. He discussed how he orchestrated the film to have much less dialogue than his previous projects in order to truly highlight the score. For example, during big emotional beats, “We leave it open to the music because it’s the voice of the film at the point.” The two main themes Sanders wanted to shine through in his movie were, “kindness being a survival skill” and the idea that “eventually you will have to change your programming.”

The last film showcased was Flow, directed by Gints Zilbalodis. It is about a cat whose home was destroyed by a flood and must flee on a boat with other animals. Zilbalodis first talked about the visual motifs throughout the story and how the water was used to represent the cat’s emotions. This had to be done because the film has no dialogue. “We have to use these visual queues and sound queues,” adding later, “the music, sound, visuals, animation, camera work has to fill the gap.” In order to facilitate growth through the story, Zilbalodis and his team made the, “whole world designed to challenge the characters.” He appreciated the medium of animation to tell this story because with “animation you can push things a little bit farther, you can be more expressive.” The camera work as well in the film was integral to its emotional beats. Zilbalodis utilized long takes to create a sense of immersion for the audience. The cats and dogs in the story were inspired by the real pets Zilbalodis has had in the past. He was drawn to animal characters because, “there’s no age, there’s no gender, no nationality, it’s a more pure emotional journey.” In addition to its Golden Globe nomination, Flow has also won the Latvain National Film Award for Best Animated Feature in Zilbalodis’s country of origin. 

The SBIFF showcase of the top animated films in the year was equal parts impressive and inspiring. The audience was passionate about the films, and you could feel the appreciation in the room for the much overlooked art of animation. It was a fantastic addition to the 2025 SBIFF program.

[SBIFF panelists discuss their award-winning animated movies at the Arlington. Image Credit: Clara Watson]