Gerald Potterton is a British director, producer and animator. He is best known for directing the animated cult classic Heavy Metal and for his animation work on Yellow Submarine.

Potterton has been nominated three times for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.

Born in London, Potterton attended the Hammersmith Art School. After working as an assistant animator in London, (Animal Farm, 1954 Halas and Batchelor), Potterton joined the NFB where he directed both animated and live-action films. He collaborated with Harold Pinter on Pinter’s People in 1969 and Buster Keaton on The Railrodder in 1965.

After contributing to George Dunning’s animated feature Yellow Submarine in 1968, he returned to freelance work in the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada.

During the early 1970s, among other projects, he directed live-action and animated sequences for Sesame Street and The Electric Company.

In 1981 he was hired by producer Ivan Reitman to direct the animated feature Heavy Metal. Potterton coordinated more than one thousand artists, animators and technicians from seventeen countries working in Los Angeles, New York, London, Montreal and Ottawa.

During the 1980s and 1990s, he continued making animated and live-action features for television and video.

Potterton currently lives in Cowansville, Quebec, Canada, where he is still involved in the production of live and animated motion pictures. Inspired by Quebec’s pastoral Eastern Townships, he continues to paint landscapes and aviation subjects.

More news on AniFest:

Every year in the spring one Czech spa cities becomes the city of animation. AniFest was held for the first time in 2002 in the Southbohemian spa city Třeboň, in 2009 it began its journey to the north, up untill to Northbohemian spa Teplice. Since then AniFest grew from a local film event to a big festival with international competition, which annualy causes some swirlings in the calm waters of Czech film through the selection of the best from both Czech and world animated production. Renowned film makers and theorists of animation are coming every year and students of animation as well as all the fans of moving pictures are heading to AniFest too, looking for some animated treasures unlikely to be found in cinemas.

The aim of the festival is to annualy bring thoughtfully curated selection from the best of contemporary animated film, systematically present the work of big personalities from the history of animation in retrospectives (sometimes celebreting their anniversaries) and in selections of various national productions. For this reason AniFest also colaborates with many other world festivals of (not only) animated film. We are also part of the Cartoon EU organization and we nominate our candidate for the Cartoon d’Or prize every year. AniFest 2012 will aslo screen the selection of Cartoon d’Or winners.

In spite of the fact that we’re trying (so far sucessfully) to break the old cliche about animated films being only for children, we’re also aware that it’s necessary to start with film education early. A significant part of the festival programme is dedicated to children and little visitors can also attend various workshops organized by experienced lectors or authors themselves.

And because we’re also aware that it’s not healthy to spend all week sitting in the dark screening halls, rich accompanying programme in form of concerts, theatre shows and exhibitions is a traditional part of AniFest.

So – viva la animation and see you at the festival! http://anifest.cz/2013/about-festival/team/