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No huge surprise that Toy Story 3 won the Best Animation Oscar. But the Scottish animation industry has every reason to feel proud of itself today.

The Illusionist, made and set in Scotland, may not have won an Oscar but its mere nomination did throw a very large spotlight on the film, and the hundreds of animators in Edinburgh, Dundee, London and Paris, who toiled away on it.

The animation industry is easy to overlook - no giant studios, no location work with thousands of extras.

Many animators work from home, often on projects on the other side of the world.

Case in point is Tom Bryant, lead digital artist on The Lost Thing, which won the Oscar for Best Short Animation.

Although the bulk of the film - based on the book by Shaun Tan - was made in Australia, Tom completed most of his work in his studio in Edinburgh, e-mailing it to lead animator Leo Baker in Melbourne, and only needing to be there in person for the final compositing checks.

He was there in person at the Oscars, though, where the whole international team behind the animation are no doubt celebrating their win.

Torrential rain

Meanwhile, more pats on the back for the Glasgow Film Festival, which came to a close last night with the European premiere of The Eagle, the latest offering from another Oscar winning Scot, Kevin MacDonald.

Based on the book, Eagle of the Ninth, by Rosemary Sutcliff, it tells the tale of a Roman Centurion's search for his father's lost legion in Northern Britain.

The scenery is terrific - even if the pace lags at times, and the tone veers from darkly violent to upbeat without warning.

Producer Duncan Kenworthy, who introduced last night's screening admitted torrential rain during their shoot in the Highlands in 2009 made for difficult conditions but it certainly adds to the atmosphere of peril in lawless Scotland, where terrifying tribes roam.

While RP (received pronunciation) has been the standard voice of the film Roman till now, in this version, they speak with American accents, while the Northern Britons speak a mixture of Scots Gaelic and Irish Gaelic - and cause much confusion in the process.

And while the only heather being set alight was on the big screen, it was still a well-received end to a very successful festival.

Worth watching

On track to sell over 33,000 tickets - with guests over the last 10 days including Mark Millar, Alan McGee, Richard Ayoade, Ken Loach and Anthony Lapaglia (who hung around for the closing premiere after attending his own film Balibo on Friday) - it's definitely established itself as a film festival worth watching.

Much has been made of comparisons with the Edinburgh International Film Festival - which seems to be going through something of an unsettling transition period - but the Scottish film industry is small, and doesn't divide that easily.

Most people have a foot firmly in both camps - and rightly so.

Scotland is surely a big enough country to host at least two major film festivals.

GFF's growing success shouldn't be seen as competition for Edinburgh, but inspiration - a reminder that the key to any good film festival is the films and the fans, not the number of stars on the red carpet.