Joanna Quinn Premiere ‘Affairs of the Art’ Takes Clermont-Ferrand Prize

Director Joanna Quinn and producer/screenwriter Les Mills’ new animated short film feat Affairs of the Art has won the 2021 Award for Best Animation at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival. The first co-production between Beryl Productions International and National Film Board of Canada, the hand-drawn film was presented as a world premiere among the 78 films in the international competition.

With Affairs of the Art, Quinn and Mills continue the series of beloved, hilarious and award-winning animated U.K. 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 L.A. 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 French film festival awarded its National Competition animation prize to Souvenir Souvenir by Bastien Dubois. See all the 2021 award winners of Clermont-Ferrand here.