Way back in 2007, Flatpack Festival no.2 included an absurdly confident short called t.o.m. by two students from the University of Wales, about a schoolboy with a taste for exhibitionism.

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One of the filmmakers, Tom Brown, came along to take part in a Q&A, and it was clear that he was going to have some kind of career in animation.

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Sure enough, Tom spent a number of years working with New York production house Psyop. Alongside his commercial work there has been a steady trickle of personal projects, culminating in the magnificent and award-winning Christopher at Sea (2022) about a young man reckoning with his own desires on a transatlantic cargo ship.

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17 years on from his last visit to Birmingham, Tom is back for a canter through his back-catalogue and a chat about what a career in animation might look like. (Assuming that it hasn’t all been delegated to robots by next year.)

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