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A year after his mother's death, Toby is in limbo and angry about it but he's still just a kid at school.
Into Toby's life comes Art. Art is made of plastic and filled with air. He’s someone unique who also doesn't fit in and shares a very different outlook on life. Both boys become firm friends and as Toby starts to open up, Art shows him another way to live.
Yet as with all the best tales, it's not going to last and, with Art gone, Toby has to choose whether to go back to whom he was before – or to finally move on.
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Pop Art is based on the short story by the American writer Joe Hill. Director Amanda Boyle was drawn to the unusual tone of the tale - which she describes as 'mundane fantasy'. Having been shown the story by producer Kate Myers, Amanda wrote to Joe out of the blue to ask for the rights. As luck would have it Joe was coming to the UK to receive an award from the British Fantasy Society for his horror writing. Joe agreed to the project over a lunch of fish and chips outside the Fantasycon convention in Nottingham.
The seemingly effortless look of Arthur Roth was created through a deceptive combination of old fashioned puppetry by Talk to the Hand Puppetry and high-tech digital effects by the Mill. Many of the puppet parts were actually inflatable.
Since making Pop Art, Bill Milner (Toby) has appeared in Is Anybody There? with Michael Caine. Producers Kate Myers and Tracy Brimm have made the horror film Tormented and are now in post-production for their next feature, Skeletons. Meanwhile Amanda is currently back in Nottingham directing a new drama series called Cast Offs for Channel 4 written by Jack Thorne, Tony Roche and Alex Bulmer.
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- director Amanda Boyle
- writer Amanda Boyle based on Joe Hill's short story
- producer Tracy Brimm & Kate Myers
- editor Marguerite Arnold
- director of photography Nick Gordon-Smith
supervising sound editor Joakim Sundstrom
re-recording mixer Per Boström
sound effects editor Christer Melén
dialogue editor Linda Forsén
production sound recording David Sohanpal, Yang Xu, Rafal Flejter, Edward Grabczewski
Visual effects The Mill
Puppetry designed and operated by Talk to the Hand Productions
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- Toby Bill Milner
- Dad Daniel Ryan
- Mrs Gannon Sharon Small
- Mr Milton Andrew Havill
- William Spears Duncan Clark
- John Erikson George Morgan
- Cassius Delamitri Matthew Storey
Plus the pupils of Lockers Park School, Hemel Hempstead
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- Leeds International Film Festival , UK, 2008
- Audience Narrative Short Award, Austin Film Festival, Austin, US, 2008
- London Film Festival, UK, 2008
- Encounters, Bristol, UK, 2008
- Birds Eye View, London, UK, 2009
- Dresden Film Festival, Germany , 2009
- Oberhausen Kurzfilmtage, Germany , 2009
- Winner - Best Narrative Short, RiverRun International Film Festival, Winston-Salem, USA, 2009
- Winner - Special Jury Award (directing), Atlanta Film Festival, USA , 2009
- Martha's Vineyard International Film Festival, USA , 2009
- Athens Film Festival, USA, 2009
© 2008 UK Film Council and Film London
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Production Company:
Forward Films
Funded by:
Pulse Plus digital scheme through UKFC and BBC Films 
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