Stop-frame animation is part of the University of Tampa’s curriculum: the university lists it among topics in its BFA in Animation program, according to UT. This November, the campus will host an alumnus whose career has centered on the form. Brad Schiff, Laika Studios’ head of animation, is set to appear at the Tampa Animation Festival.
The festival runs November 5–8, 2026, at UT’s Charlene Gordon Theater. Creative Loafing Tampa Bay reported that Schiff will screen Wildwood, ParaNorman and Kubo and the Two Strings over three nights and take part in audience Q&As. The festival’s slate is expected to include more than 130 films, and admission is free, according to the report.
The scheduled Wildwood screening follows the film’s planned October 23 U.S. theatrical release through Fathom Entertainment, as reported by Creative Loafing. One other recent stop-motion feature followed a different release route: Aardman says Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget launched globally on Netflix in December 2023. These are individual release examples, not evidence of a broader distribution trend.
Schiff transferred to UT in the early 1990s after learning about animation professor Richard Protovin, whose teaching helped steer him toward stop-motion sculpting, according to Pathfinder. He graduated in 1993 and went on to work on stop-motion television and feature films. The Academy’s 89th nominations list records Kubo and the Two Strings in both the animated-feature and visual-effects categories; Focus Features’ account also discusses the film’s visual-effects nomination.
A festival engaging with AI
The festival’s attention to handmade animation sits alongside an acknowledgment of AI: Creative Loafing reported that submissions ask filmmakers to describe their AI use and that the program includes the AI-generated film Dreams of Violets. The labor debate in the wider animation industry is a separate matter. Variety reported that the Animation Guild’s 2024 contract with major studios included some AI guardrails, but did not let animators opt out when a job required AI or prevent their work from being used to train AI models. That agreement does not establish the festival’s rules or the terms governing any particular film.
