Charles Sturt University (CSU) will host the 12th Australian International Animation Festival in Wagga Wagga from Friday 15 to Sunday 17 May.

The Festival will feature more than 120 films selected from 3 500 submissions from around the world, and four free seminars including one by award-winning animator and Charles Sturt University (CSU) graduate Mr John Lewis.

The Festival will also be the Australian premiere of The Story of Percival Pilts, created by animators Mr Lewis, who graduated from CSU in 2004, and Ms Janette Goodey.

The pair picked up the Golden Gate Award for family films at the recent San Francisco International Film Festival. They will share their experiences creating the stop motion animated puppet film in a free seminar from 4.30pm on Saturday 16 May.

Multi award-winning sound designer and CSU senior lecturer in sound and multimedia Mr Damian Candusso will discuss the creation of the soundtrack for The LEGO Movie in another seminar, Click by Click: Build LEGO from the sound up with Damian Candusso, from 3pm on Sunday 17 May.

The Festival also welcomes motion caption specialist Mr Peter Divers for his talk Performance Capturing Hobbits, Apes & Beyond from 4.30pm on Sunday 17 May.  Festival Co-Director Mr Malcolm Turner's seminar Top Shelf starts at 3pm on Saturday 16 May.  

Four CSU animation and visual effects graduates from 2014 have had films selected for the Festival. They include Mr Alex Jennings and Mr Sean Butler for Alien Abduction; Mr Aaron Murdoch and Mr Cameron Pappas for Anywhere But Here; Ms Emma Hay and Mr Nicholas Bussey for Kaledoscopia; and Mr Cameron Pappas' Winter's Light. 

Festival Co-Director and CSU lecturer in animation and visual effects Mr Andrew Hagan said there had been tremendous interest in the Festival this year with an extra 1 000 films submitted, an increase of 40 per cent.

"There's also been a surge of new students into the animation and visual effects program which doubled its enrolments for 2015," he said.

 "We are also delighted to offer $3 000 worth of door-prizes which is extremely rare for a non-profit Festival."

The full AIAF 2015 program can be downloaded from here.

Further details are available from the festival facebook page here.

CSU offers a Bachelor of Creative Arts and Design (Animation and Visual Effects) through its School of Communication and Creative Industries in Wagga Wagga.