Ronan Mackenzie

Ronan Mackenzie is an artist filmmaker and animator based in Blackburn, UK. He is a 2023 Film London Lodestar and an alumni of the FLAMIN Fellowship and BBC New Creatives. His work has screened nationally on television through the BBC and internationally at BAFTA & OSCAR qualifying festivals. His films are created through an intuitive process where ideas come naturally to him in an unconscious, painterly approach. Akin to a painting that moves, he combines multiple layers of images to create depth and texture to his frames. In this process: new images and new ideas are formed to create connections and make a narrative. His work often deals with personal narratives surrounding familial relationships and themes of mortality, existentialism, nostalgia, alienation, and most recently, anthropogenic climate change. His debut short film Infinity screened at multiple festivals in the UK, including, Aesthetica short film festival (BAFTA Qualifying) where he was nominated for the North Filmmaker award by the BFI. In addition, it screened at Push Festival at HOME, Manchester which showcased the ‘very best in emerging northern filmmaking talent’. His second short film ‘It’s Raining, It’s Pouring’ is an experimental animation commissioned by new creatives, co-funded by Arts Council England, BBC Arts and delivered by Tyneside cinema. It’s Raining, It’s Pouring has been broadcast multiple times nationally via the BBC through BBC iPlayer and BBC Four. It has since gone on to screen internationally at galleries and festivals in North America, Europe and Asia.

His most recent short film 'Rain, Rain, Go Away' is an experimental animation made through the support of Arts Council England and FLAMIN (Film London Artists’ Moving Image Network). The film was made on a shoestring budget with only two crew members and delicately pieced together with thousands of hand drawn layers of watercolour and other liquids to capture the film's theme of 'Rain'.