The newly announced season will run from the 1st August until the 9th October and will include free film screenings for children under 16.
The BI have announced details for its Stop Motion programme taking place from this August.
Film screenings set to take place throughout the season will include: King Kong (1933), Jason and the Argonauts (1963), Chicken Run (2001), Corpse Bride (2005), Coraline (2009), Fantastic Mr Fox (2009) and Anomalisa (2015).
Meanwhile, special guests as part of the season are set to include: Henry Selick (Coraline), Chris Butler and Sam Fell (Paranorman), Guillermo del Toro (Pinocchio), Peter Lord (Chicken Run), Nick Park (Wallace and Gromit), The Brothers Quay (Street of Crocodiles), Suzie Templeton (Peter and the Wolf), Barry Purves (Achilles), Osbert Parker (Clothes) with further guests to be announced.
Stop motion is a special technique that hides its craftsmanship in the space between each meticulous frame. A time-consuming process that demands patience, painstaking attention-to-detail and boundless creativity, the flow of stop motion and its illusion of movement helps to draw in audiences with a tangible sense of human interaction – where literal fingerprints are sometimes even visible on screen.
Supported by Headline Partner LAIKA and curated by BFI Southbank Lead Programmer Justin Johnson, the season will offer offer free screenings for children under 16 and will include LAIKA’s five films including: Coraline (2009), Paranorman (2012), The Box Trolls (2014), Kubo and the Two Strings (2016) and Missing Link (2019).
The season will be accompanied by LAIKA: FRAME x FRAME, a free, unique exhibition showcasing the artistry of the nearly one million hand-crafted frames that make up LAIKA’s five films. Visitors at BFI Southbank will get an exclusive look at puppets, sets and artifacts – some never seen before – from the studio’s vast production archives, along with a sneak peek at LAIKA’s highly anticipated sixth feature Wildwood (2025). Full details of LAIKA: FRAME x FRAME, running from 12 August – 1 October, will be announced in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, British talent working in the stop motion space will be highlighted with a programme of classic shorts by filmmakers Suzie Templeton, Barry Purves and Osbert Parker, followed by a Q&A panel discussion with the animators, while shorts by Paul Berry and Daniel Greaves will also accompany feature presentations during the season.
BFI Southbank Lead Programmer and curator of the season, Justin Johnson, said: “It’s impossible to overestimate the level of patience, vision and pure artistry that goes into making a great stop motion film. In this season, we present work by pioneers of the form throughout the years, in the company of some of the finest living stop motion auteurs who will share their knowledge in person on stage at BFI Southbank. With an incredible exhibition that unlocks the magic behind the films of LAIKA running in parallel, this is a unique opportunity for audiences to immerse themselves in every aspect of an art form that has thrilled people of all ages throughout the history of cinema.”
Tickets for BFI Southbank screenings and LAIKA’s free exhibition in August are on sale to BFI Patrons from 1 July, BFI Members from 2 July and to the general public from 4 July. Tickets for BFI Southbank screenings and LAIKA’s free exhibition in September and early October are on sale to BFI Patrons from 5 August, BFI Members from 6 August and to the general public from 8 August.