Anim’est 2014 starts on October 3rd
After introducing you to Anim’est 2014 International Animation Film Festival, mainly to this year’s competition and events, we are back with news and final updates before the festival kicks off on October 3rd in Bucharest, with extraordinary guests, films, happenings, workshops and more until October 12th.
THE AUDIENCE AWARD
The audience joining the 9th edition of Anim’est (October 3rd-12th, 2014) is invited to write down the name of their favorite film. The Audience Award will be offered to one of the 37 animated shorts screened in the special section – Animash – consisting of a series of excellent animated films, outside the competitive categories of the festival, that were selected and awarded at important international festivals.
In addition to short films, some of the latest animated feature films will premiere in Bucharest and complete the Animash section. In the opening of the 9th edition of the festival and for the first time in South-Eastern Europe, the audience will be able to take part in the screening of The Boxtrolls (dir. Graham Annable, Anthony Stacchi), the newest feature of the famous American studio LAIKA (more info here).
Kazetachinu / The Wind Rises is the work of the Oscar winning Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki, announced as his last feature animation. It is a fictionalized biography of Jiro Horikoshi, one of the most innovative and accomplished aeronautical designers in the world. The animation won the Tokyo Anime Award in 2014 (the most prestigious award for animation in Japan), and was nominated for the Oscar in the best animated feature film category, as well as for the Golden Globe as the best film in a foreign language.
The 2D animation Atéque a Sbórnianossepare / Until Sbornia do us apart won the Audience Award at the São Paulo festival last year. It shows what happens to a small and peaceful country named Sbórnia when the wall that separates it from the rest of the world falls.
We then have Beyond Beyond, a Sweden-Denmark co-production directed by Esben Toft Jacobsen. Two other feature films come from Japan: BLOOD-C: The Last Dark (dir. Shiotani Naoyoshi), the final manga in the “Blood” series that narrates the adventures of the heroine Saya, and Koto no ha no Niwa / Garden of Words (dir. Makoto Shinkai), the animation that won the AniMovie award for best feature film in Stuttgart.
Jack et la mécanique du coeur / The Boy with the Cuckoo-Clock Heart (dir. Mathias Malzieu, Stéphane Berl) is a 3D animation about Jack, whose heart was replaced at birth, on the coldest day there ever was in Scotland, with a cuckoo clock, and Minuscule – La valléedes Fourmisperdues / Minuscule: Valley of the Lost Ants, a French 3D animation directed by Thomas Szabo and Helene Giraud, about a ladybird accidentally caught in a war between the black ants and the red ants.
On Saturday, October 11th, at 8.00 pm, Is the Man Who Is Tall Happy? will be screened at Cinema Studio. It is an animated conversation with Noam Chomsky, directed by Michel Gondry.
Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar, the authors of the animation Ernest and Celestine which opened the 2013 edition of Anim’est, directed Buche de Noël / A Town Called Panic: The Christmas Log.
Marilyn Mylleris a stop motion animation awarded at Sundance, SXSW and Chicago Film Festival, directed by Mikey Please and a sequel to his BAFTA winning short film, The Eagleman Stag. Some of you may recall our recent animation marathon, when we recommended the recent film of Mikey Please.
Hasta Santiago (dir. Mauro Carraro) is a Switzerland-France co-production awarded at Annecy, Warsaw and Animatou, and winner of the Jean-Luc Xiberras award for best debut in 2013.
Through the Hawthorn (dir. Anna Benner, Pia Borg, Gemma Burditt) is a UK animation showing a therapy session among a psychiatrist, a schizophrenic patient and his mother. It won the Grand Prix in Stuttgart and it was screened at Clermont-Ferrand, Animafest Zagreb, Anima Mundi, SICAF and Hiroshima.
The Swiss animation From Here to Immortality is directed by Luise Hüsler, in which the two former cartoon stars – Thomas the cat and Jeremiah the mouse – agree to give an interview after many years of silence, while some may enjoy The Fog of Courage, directed by John R. Dilworth who was a guest in Bucharest at the first edition of Anim’est and two years later.
The Polish production Do sercatwego / To Thy Heart (dir. Ewa Borysewicz) is a paper drawing animation selected in this year’s Berlin Film Festival competition, which depicts a love story unfolding in an urban neighborhood.
SPECIAL GUESTS, WORKSHOPS AND EVENTS
As you already know, Denmark is this year’s guest country at Anim’est, and the guest studio in 2014 is Folimage, with director and film producer Jacques-Rémy Girerd joining the festival in October (more info here).
The audience will have the opportunity to watch two programs of short films that include the school films of London’s Royal Collage of Artgraduates – Jonathan Hodgson, Ruth Lingford, Run Wrake, Suzie Templeton or Siri Melchior. The screenings take place on October 10th, at Cinema Elvira Popescu, from 4.30 pm to 6.30 pm. A presentation of the Royal College of Art will be held by Joe King, coordinating professor of the Animation Department.
From October 6th to 10th, under the direction of Joe King, 6 young people aged over 18 will participate in a workshop that combines several techniques: drawing, photography, the sounds of the city, with the opportunity to decompose temporal and structural information about the city and then rebuild it in their own vision.
Another workshop will take place at Minimest, the special section dedicated to the youngest guests of the festival (8-12 y.o.), who will learn about cut-out animation together with their trainer – Ion Aramă.
After his presence at the 3rd edition in 2008, Bill Plympton returns to Bucharest this year. The audience will be invited to watch a special retrospective of the first short films in his career, including college experiments, excerpts from short films and commercials, to his short film hits that brought him international fame such as Boomtown, in collaboration with Jules Feiffer, or Your Face, and, of course, the Plymptoons.
The screenings take place on October 4th, at Cinema Studio, 2 pm, and can be seen again on Sunday, October 5th, at Re:Animation Hub, 7.30 pm (Carol Blvd 53).
6 feature films will also be screened at the 9th edition of the festival: The Tune (1992), the first feature film in his career, nominated for Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, I Married A Strange Person (1997), winner of Grand Prix at Annecy, Mutant Aliens (2001), Hair High (2004), Idiots and Angels, awarded in 2008 at Annecy, Cinanima and Fantasporo, and Cheatin’, launched in 2013, winner of the Jury Award at Annecy this year.
On Sunday, October 5th, there will be a 2 hour animation masterclass with Bill Plympton at Cinema Elvira Popescu (admission is free, depending on availability of seats).
Besides hosting themed music and film nights such as Creepy Animation Night and Animusic Night (more info here), the Re:Animation Hub (Carol Blvd 53) will also host the Animation Worksheep permanent exhibition, providing access to all materials used for the festival spot of the 9th edition – sketches, storyboards, props and so on.
There will also be a demo of the interactive multimedia exhibition FEED ME by NOPER and SAINT MACHINE, that we recently presented on The re:art.
Photos: Cristian Vasile / IGU. More photos here.
Find out more about the project on their website.
The Trippy Animation Night, taking place on Saturday, October 4th, starting 10 pm, at Cinema Studio, combines kitsch with the erotic. The list of films is available here.
18 SHORT FILMS IN THE ROMANIAN COMPETITION
Supporting and growing the animation film industry in Romania is one of the main goals of ESTENEST Association, the organizer of the festival. Their educational platform, Animation Worksheep, is the intensive animation workshop reaching its 4th edition in 2014.
This year, 18 short films will be screened during the festival, including films directed by former participants in the Animation Worksheep, bringing their most recent projects to Anim’est. Full list is available here. The Romanian Competition will be screened on October 8th, starting 8.30 pm and also on October 9th, from 2.30 pm, at Cinema Elvira Popescu. There will be a special screening, outside the competition – Obeliscul, directed by Ion Truică, written with Laurenţiu Damian.
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Find out more on the festival’s website, on Facebook, Instagram, Youtube and Vimeo.
Tickets and Festival Passes are available on EventBook.ro. The tickets and festival passes will also be available at Cinema Elvira Popescu and Cinema Studio during the festival, 3 through 12 October.