The Melbourne International Animation Festival is upon us yet again. Along with the many new names and wildly varied images on display, there are also a number of showcases covering some of the more influential forces in the world of animated films past and present.

Take Felix the Cat, for instance, whose legacy can also be traced through a book found in our collection on the twisted tale of the world’s most famous cat.

The recent work’s by the highly influential Yugoslavian animation studio Zagreb Film also get a focus in this year’s festival. For a bit of background on their output over the last 50 years, check out this tasty little title from our collection.

Another area that gets due focus this year is that which comes from the world-renowned SIGGRAPH conference, showcasing some of the best examples of contemporary computer and digital-borne art and animation. For a glimpse into the earlier days of the conference, a quick look into the 1989 catalog wouldn’t go astray.

All of these titles can be easily requested through our catalogue, and read anywhere within the Library. But if you just want to browse the shelves for some quick animation history, why not head on over to the Arts Reading Room? You could scour through the lengths and depths of the form with the Historical dictionary of animation and cartoons…

…or ponder a century of stop motion animation with renowned stop-motion special effects auteur Ray Harryhausen.