Short Film News (SFN) - Author, broadcaster and comedian Phill Jupitus will host an Encounters Short Film Festival tribute to British veteran animator, Oliver Postgate.

The event will be held on Sunday 27 July at Watershed, next to Bristol Harbour, to mark the 50th anniversary of the start of Oliver Postgate's stop-motion career and of Smallfilms, the company he founded with artist and puppet-maker, Peter Firmin.

With the help of guests, film clips and audience contributions, longtime fan Phill Jupitus will look at how Postgate and Firmin found the inspiration for saggy baggy Bagpuss and their many other series, and explore why the stories and characters still delight audiences today.

Jupitus will be joined on stage by Smallfilms' archivist and publisher, Loaf, and by Barry Purves, whose own award-winning stop-motion work includes animations for Aardman and Cosgrove Hall and on feature films including Tim Burton's Mars Attacks!