Channel 4 ends its special relationship with animation
Channel 4 closed its animation department this week, after two decades of customised commissioning of seminal British animation.
During the last three months the Channel has been shedding staff, cutting programming budgets and scaling down its interactive website division, mainly as a result of reduced advertising income. Amongst the latest departures are Camilla Deakin, Editor for Arts & Animation and Ruth Fielding, Assistant Editor, Arts & Animation. As a result it will now be up to larger departments at C4, and no longer an animation department, to commission animation by television genre rather than production technique.
Camilla and Ruth are establishing their own production company Lupus Films and have already been commissioned to produce C4’s next two Christmas animation specials. They will also act as external commissioning editors for the Channel’s three animation schemes: animate!, Mesh and C4/MOMI Animators in Residence.
C4 will continue to support each of these schemes into the future. animate! is co-funded by the Channel together with the Arts Council of England.