David Sproxton, co-founder and Executive Chairman of BAFTA and Oscar-winning Aardman Animations, has taken over at the helm of Britain’s biggest and longest running short film festival, ENCOUNTERS, replacing outgoing Simon Cooper as the festival’s third Chairman.

The news comes as the dust settles on Encounters’ 15th successful year (17-21 November in Bristol), in which the dazzling international programme countered the economic downturn attracting more films and visitors than last year.

David Sproxton says:

“Having been involved with Encounters since its inception 15 years ago, I am delighted to take over from Simon Cooper as chairman who has done an exceptional job, following on from Andrew Kelly, the very first chairman. It will be a hard act to follow and with the current economic climate it’s not going to be easy maintaining the Festival’s packed and stimulating programme but I’m certainly up for the challenge.”

The appointment is the latest development in the Festival’s eventful 15-year history. The brainchild of Andrew Kelly, who currently organises Bristol’s Festival of Ideas in his role as Head of Bristol’s Cultural Development Partnership, it was founded as ‘Brief Encounters’ in 1994 – a one-off event to celebrate the centenary of cinema. It proved so popular that it continued to run annually, spawning a spin-off animation festival, Animated Encounters in 2001. The two merged in 2006 to become the Encounters Short Film Festival as it is today: an internationally recognised showcase for new films, talent and diversity, which regularly attracts such headline-grabbing guests as Anthony Minghella, Ken Russell and Matt Groening.

This year’s programme included special guests, Oscar-winning shorts director, Andrea Arnold, and Andrei Khrzhanovsky, the 69-year old Russian animation master. In total, 1500 films from 58 countries competed for 19 awards and £12,500 in prize money.

Outgoing Chair, Simon Cooper, is the founding director of CSR Consultancy. He says:

“My 9 years at the helm have whizzed by – that’s a mark of how much fun the Encounters Festival is. I’ve been proud to see short film and animation blossoming as new technologies encourage more and more people to watch these incredible mini-masterpieces. But even though watching Encounters films on my iPhone is intriguing, you can’t beat the buzz of seeing them in the cinema and feeling the audience reaction as the drama unfolds. It all hangs on the quality of the Managing Director, Liz Harkman, and her team who work incredibly hard to bring the Festival to us – and I know they appreciate the support of a strong Board. I can’t think of a better person than Dave Sproxton to hand over to – he’s been involved in Encounters since day one and his industry knowledge and contacts are second to none.”