April & May 2026 Newsletter

April

Get Birding Kick Off...

We collaborated with local production company Peanut and Crumb to develop their popular birdwatching podcast, Get Birding, into an animated series for preschoolers.  It was fantastic to workshop directly with the RSPB and understand more about the diverse and varied behaviour of our featured friends and then to translate that into a hilarious ensemble cast of characters.  We worked with some incredibly talented writers and artists to begin to imagine this story-world, and are excited to see how the project is received, as we begin to pitch it to broadcasters.

Brighton International Animation Festival…

April in Brighton saw the International Animation Festival hit the town.  A fabulous array of animated shorts and features were shown at the Brighton Dome. As a sponsor of the event, our team was keen to attend and to meet fellow industry professionals at the Festivus mixer. We are looking forward to seeing how this festival continues to evolve into 2027, see you next year!

Juliet at Quirino...

Also in April Juliet had the pleasure of attending the Quirino Ibero & Latin American Film Festival, which took place in Santa Cruz, Tenerife.  It was amazing to connect with so many talented Latin American, Spanish and Portuguese animators and studios and also very interesting to learn more about the tax credits offered by the region for animation production.   The event culminated with a glitzy award ceremony at the concert hall and an amazing drinks reception overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.

Juliet TellyCast Panel:

Juliet joined an all-female panel at the TellyCast event, How to Make Money in Digital. It was inspiring to join 2 other female entrepreneurs leading digital businesses and making content for post-TV audiences. We all discussed the energy and excitement about making multiplatform content and engaging with audiences in new ways.   Other sessions covered diverse topics such as visualised podcasts, Youtube packaging, and vertical dramas.

Juliet's panel is available to watch here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLndj5pAcUQmunTIvMnYMc3iz5bpfkeKd2

May

Brighton Fringe Show…

The team had a fantastic night celebrating a busy few months of hard work - with some brilliant projects in production and development.

The night started with pizza and a Spritz bar - then time for the main event: 'Who Killed the Plot?' - an improv comedy show - where, surprise, surprise, a zoo was the centre of all the action. We finished the evening off with a trip to the Spiegel Tent for a boogie. A massive thank you and well done to our brilliant team for an amazing first 5 months year, we can't wait to see what the rest of 2026 has in-store for us all.

Juliet to Get Animated…

Juliet went to the Get Animated conference in Birmingham and joined contemporaries from studios across the UK and Ireland.  There was lots of varied information to be gathered from new ways to develop IPs, adult animation commissioning and details of some of the soft funding available to studios.

Got an idea worth playing with?

We love collaborating with broadcasters, brands and creators who share our passion for young audiences. Contact us at admin@brighton-zoo.co.uk to find out more!