# Marjut Rimminen > Marjut Rimminen, Finnish-born animator and director based in London. Short films, commercials and animation teaching, including the National Film and Television School. Founder of Tricky Films Ltd. This is the Markdown rendering of [https://marjutrimminen.com/](https://marjutrimminen.com/), generated from the page itself. It carries the same words in the same order, with every image reduced to its description. The short map for machines is at [https://marjutrimminen.com/llms.txt](https://marjutrimminen.com/llms.txt). This page in Finnish is at [https://marjutrimminen.com/fi/](https://marjutrimminen.com/fi/). ![Still from Many Happy Returns, a lone figure with a bag walking away down a snowy street between bare trees](https://marjutrimminen.com/images/many-happy-returns/many-happy-returns-1996-figure-walking-snowy-street.jpg) Many Happy Returns, 1996 · Papier-mâché puppets, drawn animation, live action, visual effects and digital compositing ![Still from Urpo and Turpo, Turpo the red bear in a surgeon's mask and apron, holding up a toy saw](https://marjutrimminen.com/images/urpo-turpo/urpo-and-turpo-1996-turpo-surgeon-mask-toy-saw.jpg) Urpo and Turpo, 1996 · Stop-motion puppet animation ![Still from Some Protection, Josie's face filling the frame, looking straight out, the words GO away and a red no-entry sign behind her](https://marjutrimminen.com/images/some-protection/some-protection-1987-josie-face-go-away-lettering.jpg) Some Protection, 1987 · Drawn and painted cel animation ![Still from The Stain, four puppet figures sitting around a white dining table under a hanging lamp, tall curtained windows behind them](https://marjutrimminen.com/images/the-stain/the-stain-1991-puppet-figures-dining-table.jpg) The Stain, 1991 · Drawn animation, puppets, pixilation and live action ![Still from Urpo and Turpo, a doll in a gold crown lying on a stack of folded laundry, Urpo the grey bear standing beside it in a paper crown](https://marjutrimminen.com/images/urpo-turpo/urpo-and-turpo-1996-urpo-folded-laundry-mattresses.jpg) Urpo and Turpo, 1996 · Stop-motion puppet animation ![Still from Some Protection, Josie curled against the wall of a prison cell, a barred window above her and light falling across the floor](https://marjutrimminen.com/images/some-protection/some-protection-1987-josie-prison-cell.jpg) Some Protection, 1987 · Drawn and painted cel animation ![Still from The Stain, a drawn woman in a long red dress standing against a dark mass of roses, holding a rake-like tool](https://marjutrimminen.com/images/the-stain/the-stain-1991-red-dress-figure-rose-collage.jpg) The Stain, 1991 · Drawn animation, puppets, pixilation and live action ![Still from Some Protection, a grinning figure in green and pink leaping across a red ground lettered LUCKY DIP, black silhouettes at the right](https://marjutrimminen.com/images/some-protection/some-protection-1987-leaping-figure-lucky-dip-lettering.jpg) Some Protection, 1987 · Drawn and painted cel animation ![Still from Learned by Heart, a drawn blonde woman in a pink hat laid over a grainy photograph of two young men](https://marjutrimminen.com/images/learned-by-heart/learned-by-heart-2007-blonde-figure-over-night-photograph.jpg) Learned by Heart, 2007 · Archival footage, drawn animation, digital animation and visual effects ![Still from The Stain, a drawn child peering through stair banisters, an adult in dark trousers above and two boys below](https://marjutrimminen.com/images/the-stain/the-stain-1991-child-behind-stair-banister.jpg) The Stain, 1991 · Drawn animation, puppets, pixilation and live action ![Still from Learned by Heart, a child's face behind glass, rows of small white crosses reflected across it](https://marjutrimminen.com/images/learned-by-heart/learned-by-heart-2007-child-behind-glass-white-crosses.jpg) Learned by Heart, 2007 · Archival footage, drawn animation, digital animation and visual effects ![Still from Many Happy Returns, a puppet girl in a red flowered dress pressed against a window, a walking figure reflected in the glass](https://marjutrimminen.com/images/many-happy-returns/many-happy-returns-1996-girl-behind-window-glass-reflection.jpg) Many Happy Returns, 1996 · Papier-mâché puppets, drawn animation, live action, visual effects and digital compositing ![Still from Learned by Heart, people in coats and hats pushing through heavy snowfall on a city street, one carrying an umbrella](https://marjutrimminen.com/images/learned-by-heart/learned-by-heart-2007-figures-in-heavy-street-snowfall.jpg) Learned by Heart, 2007 · Archival footage, drawn animation, digital animation and visual effects ![Still from Many Happy Returns, white tulips, a dandelion clock in a glass sphere, a china rabbit and a tiny figure inside a glass jar](https://marjutrimminen.com/images/many-happy-returns/many-happy-returns-1996-tulips-glass-jar-tiny-figure.jpg) Many Happy Returns, 1996 · Papier-mâché puppets, drawn animation, live action, visual effects and digital compositing ![Still from The Bridge, a red-haired woman with an umbrella walking past a red double-decker bus, her mouth open, two figures nearby](https://marjutrimminen.com/images/the-bridge/the-bridge-1982-woman-umbrella-red-double-decker-bus.jpg) The Bridge, 1982 · Short film ![Still from Urpo and Turpo, the bears playing knights atop a castle made from drawn-on wooden blocks](https://marjutrimminen.com/images/urpo-turpo/urpo-and-turpo-1996-bears-as-knights-block-castle.jpg) Urpo and Turpo, 1996 · Stop-motion puppet animation ![Vivante still, a drawn woman with a cloud of white curls sits in a claw-foot bath of blue water, a Vivante by Berner shampoo bottle tipping in at the right](https://marjutrimminen.com/images/vivante/vivante-1971-woman-lathered-hair-shampoo-bottle.jpg) Vivante, 1971 · Drawn cel animation ![Vita Plus still, a comb drawn diagonally through a fall of pale silver hair curving in a long wave against a dark red and blue ground](https://marjutrimminen.com/images/vitaplus/vitaplus-hiusvesi-comb-through-pale-hair.jpg) Vitaplus, Huuhdeltava hiusvesi, 1978 · Drawn animation on paper, in Stabilo pens with Caran d'Ache colouring, the clouds on cel ![Still from Learned by Heart, a drawn woman in a pink hat leaning on the railing of a long photographed pier](https://marjutrimminen.com/images/learned-by-heart/learned-by-heart-2007-drawn-woman-seaside-pier.jpg) Learned by Heart, 2007 · Archival footage, drawn animation, digital animation and visual effects ![Animation drawing for the Vita Plus käpyhiukset commercial, a profile with the eye closed and long lashes, the hair a broad sweep of cyan pencil hatching shot through with pink and yellow, an open hand laid into it](https://marjutrimminen.com/images/vitaplus/vitaplus-kapyhiukset-drawing-hand-stroking-hair-profile.jpg) Vitaplus, Käpyhiukset, 1976 · Drawn animation on paper, in Stabilo pens with Caran d'Ache colouring ![Still from Learned by Heart, a drawn woman in a pink hat and dress standing in a bus aisle among seated passengers](https://marjutrimminen.com/images/learned-by-heart/learned-by-heart-2007-pink-dressed-figure-on-bus.jpg) Learned by Heart, 2007 · Archival footage, drawn animation, digital animation and visual effects Finnish-born artist, director, animator and illustrator, based in London since 1974. A master of the short film, of animated commercials and of advertising creative. She has won the Grand Prix at Tampere and special jury prizes at Hiroshima and San Francisco, with retrospectives across Europe. She teaches masterclasses in animation direction. Her subjects are taken from life, and often difficult. The psyche and how childhood shapes adulthood, the lives of women and girls, the silences of family life, and the aftermath of war in ordinary homes. She handles them with lightness, play and dark humour. Her animation reaches inside experiences and emotions that live action cannot. Rimminen directs and makes, and treats material, medium, story and craft with equal weight. Illustration and live action, drawn cel, puppets, clay, collage, pixilation, 3D, CGI and digital composites live alongside one another, and often in the same frame. ## About *Finland 1944 · London since 1974* ![Marjut Rimminen in round glasses and a patterned scarf, seated by the French doors at dusk](https://marjutrimminen.com/images/marjut-rimminen-portrait-french-doors-dusk.jpg) In the garden, London Marjut studied graphic design at the Helsinki College of Applied Arts, graduating in 1968. She started making [animated television commercials](https://marjutrimminen.com/commercials/), one of which was named [Best Animated Commercial](https://marjutrimminen.com/commercials/vivante/) at the 1972 Animafest Zagreb. At Annecy in 1973, Lee Mishkin invited her to work at Halas and Batchelor in London. She then joined the studio, where she worked from November 1974 to January 1975, and has lived and worked in London ever since. She works in illustration, drawn cel, puppet, clay and pixilated animation, 3D and CGI, vector, and digital compositing, often combining several in a single sequence. [The Stain](https://marjutrimminen.com/films/the-stain/) and [Many Happy Returns](https://marjutrimminen.com/films/many-happy-returns/) are the most layered. Her 1972 packaging design, the [Hellä Mietonen](https://marjutrimminen.com/creative/hella-mietonen/) shampoo bottle, is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art. Her artwork has been shown at the [West Surrey College of Art and Design in Guildford, the Neal Street Gallery in London and Kettle's Yard in Cambridge](https://marjutrimminen.com/awards/). Her [short films](https://marjutrimminen.com/films/) and [commercials](https://marjutrimminen.com/commercials/) have screened at festivals around the world, and she has sat on numerous juries. She teaches animation direction at the National Film and Television School and Aalto University in Helsinki, and has taught at the Royal College of Art and the Institute of Art and Design in Surrey. She still gives masterclasses and workshops internationally. Her teaching took her between Britain and Finland. She led animation workshops at the Helsinki Institute of Applied Art in 1983–1985 and taught part-time at the Surrey Institute of Art and Design in Farnham from 1989 to 1995. She became a regular animation tutor at the National Film and Television School in 1993, and a senior tutor in 1998. Back in Helsinki, her workshops at TAVI and Stadia between 1998 and 2004 ranged from animation basics to developing children’s cinema and working with Flash. Alongside this regular teaching, she gave masterclasses in Bristol in 1987, at the Institute of Contemporary Art in London in 1993, in Hamburg in 1996 and in Turku in 2002, as well as occasional lectures at art schools across Britain and Finland. In Krakow in 2001 she joined the teaching team at Jerzy Kucia’s international workshop. She also helped assess graduating animators’ work as an external assessor at the Royal College of Art in 1990 and the Turku Arts Academy in 2001. ![Marjut Rimminen at her desk in her London studio, surrounded by archive shelves and a pinboard of clippings](https://marjutrimminen.com/images/marjut-rimminen-studio-desk-london.jpg) In the studio, London Retrospectives of her work have been held at the [Tampere Film Festival](https://tamperefilmfestival.fi/en/) and [Stuttgart Trickfilm Festival](https://www.itfs.de/en/) (both 1998), [Animerte Dager](https://animationfestival.no/) in Norway (1999), and [Tricky Women](https://www.trickywomen.at/) in Vienna (2008). She has served on international festival juries, often alongside a retrospective of her films. [The juries, retrospectives, awards and screenings are listed together](https://marjutrimminen.com/awards/#juries). Her husband, British animation producer [Dick Arnall](https://dickarnall.com) (1944–2007), worked with her on many of the films through his company [Finetake](https://finetake.com). Their son [Timo Arnall](https://elasticspace.com) was the VFX supervisor on most of their later work. While making [Many Happy Returns](https://marjutrimminen.com/films/many-happy-returns/) for Channel 4, Marjut started her own company, Tricky Films Ltd, in 1995 or 1996. Her commercial work has its own home at [Tricky Films](https://trickyfilms.com). Video: [Marjut's Biography on Vimeo](https://player.vimeo.com/video/1114216957?dnt=1&byline=0&portrait=0&title=0) Marjut's Biography, a short documentary made by Jason Elliot at the National Film and Television School, 2024. > The child in me will always remain Finnish. > > – Marjut Rimminen, Kotiliesi, 4 October 1996 > Marjut Rimminen is one of the most complex protagonists in the European animated film world. This is reflected in both the multitude of animation techniques and in particular the complexity of her topics. Her films often have a documentary core, but it is on the whole difficult to categorize them. After a closer inspection of the films, one notices an effective narrative technique, and rather unconventional fact, that despite the films undoubtedly are animated, they seem strangely 'real'. > > – Ulrich Wegenast, Trickfilm Festival Stuttgart, April 1998 > Channel 4 in the commissioning and broadcasting of new independent work have prompted the emergence of highly talented female animators … The Leeds Animation Collective, Joanna Quinn, Candy Guard, Erica Russell, Marjut Rimminen and Ruth Lingford have created a distinctly 'feminine aesthetic' which has challenged dominant orthodoxies not merely in British animation but in the form per se. > > – Paul Wells, Art of the Impossible, in Film: The Critics' Choice, 2002 > If a film is innovative in any way, it is better than a film that is just well made. > > – Marjut Rimminen, Marjut's Biography, a film by Jason Elliot, 2024 > Even my first film was a combination of separate pieces. I don't know why I like this so much, just as I like to collect crappy junk and bits and bobs and turn them into something new. I seem not to want to sustain a long continuity. I like fragments. That's just something in the nature of my psyche. > > – Marjut Rimminen, Edwin Carels interview, Annecy 1993 > I don't believe in happy endings, so I can't use them. I find them mostly false. Perhaps I haven't matured enough to see how I could change the course of these tragedies, so for the moment, tragedy is apparently just the medium I am happy with. > > – Marjut Rimminen, Edwin Carels interview, Annecy 1993 ## Get in touch For festival and screening enquiries, teaching, masterclasses, or correspondence: [marjut.rimminen@gmail.com](mailto:marjut.rimminen@gmail.com) [© Marjut Rimminen 2026](https://marjutrimminen.com/rights/) See also: [Tricky Films](https://trickyfilms.com) [Finetake](https://finetake.com) [animate!](https://animate.org.uk) [Dick Arnall](https://dickarnall.com) [Timo Arnall](https://elasticspace.com) Elsewhere: [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marjut_Rimminen) [IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1425895/) [TMDB](https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1488316) [Letterboxd](https://letterboxd.com/director/marjut-rimminen/)