In the short film international competition, 45 titles will compete for the Anim’est Grand Trophy. From countries with a tradition of animation as France and Japan to Ethiopia, through Spain, UK, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Latvia, Russia, Austria, Belgium, Poland or China, New Zealand, Australia, Chile, Mexico and Iran, the Anim’est seventh edition will certainly be a colorful mix and energy from all over the world.
Oh Willy …, the Belgian animation signed by Emma de Swaef & Marc James Roels comes to Anim’est after it competed at the prestigious festival in Clermont Ferrand, at the same time being nominated for Cartoon d’Or, the most important European award for short film animation. Another film among finalists at Cartoon d’Or is Edmond était un âne/Edmond Was a Donkey (d. Franck Dion), built around a quiet man who begins to discover how different he is. At the Annecy Festival’s competition, the largest of its kind in Europe, comes Father, a Bulgaria-Croatia-Germany co-production signed by Ivan Bogdanov, Moritz Mayerhofer, Asparuh Petrov, Veljko Popovic, Rositsa Raleva and Dmitry Yagodina which explores precisely those things unsaid between fathers and children.
Three members of the 2009 and 2010 juries return to Anim’est, this time with short films in competition: this is about Simone Massi, with Dell’ammazzare il maiale / About Killing the Pig, Regina Pessoa, with Kali o pequeno vampire / Kali the Little Vampire and Georges Schwizgebel, now competing with Romance.
The American animator Joan C. Gratz, inventor of the painted clay dolls technique and Oscar winner for Best Short Film in 1992, is also competing with Lost & Found, after being one the guests in the 2011 edition, when she competed with Kubla Khan and supported one masterclass about her very personal method of working.
Awarded titles in the feature film competition
The Anim’est trophies await their winners: the only animation festival in Romania announces its titles in international feature, short and student competitions. The five feature films in competition will bring many types of animation, going through rotoscoping, anime, 3D or stop-motion puppet animation and dozens of short films from the other two competitions will electrify the nine-day festival with the freshest productions whether they are the work of experienced animators or students.
After premiering at Venice last year (outside the competition) and walked through festivals like Toronto and Karlovy Vary, Alois Nebel (d. Tomáš Lunák) will be projected (national premiere) at Anim’est 2012. Czech Republic’s proposal for this year’s Oscars, Alois Nebel, is a black and white animation that makes people get easily attached to it: the late 80s, a dispatcher from a station near the border gets lost in memories and begins to confuse present with the past, being a good opportunity for a look at the tumultuous history of twentieth-century Europe. The film is based on a comic trilogy by Jaroslav Rudiš and Jaromír 99: done by rotoscoping technique in which the actors are converted into animation, he keeps noir vibe, the comics, but occasionally sweetened with characters’s tenderness. With the same technique, this time in a different style, are made Gordo, calvo y bajito/ Fat, Bald, Short Man (dir. Carlos Osuna), a bittersweet comedy about a middle-aged man’s complexes.
The list continues in a different register, to the delight of anime fans: Children Who Chase Lost Voices from Deep Below is Makoto Shinkai signed Japanese animation, a director that’s already being called y critics „the new Miyazaki”. Full of fantasy, the film follows a withdrawn girl on her way to a mysterious land. Also for children was made Selkirk el verdadero Robinson Crusoe/Selkirk, the True Robinson Crusoe, directed by Walter Tournier: a pirate’s adventure that starts in search of a treasure is a puppet animation, the first stop-motion film made in Uruguay. Pope, soy one zombie / Daddy, I’m a Zombie is a spanish 3D animation nominated at the Goya Awards 2012, signed by Joan Espinach and Ricardo Ramón. The film follows a teenage girl who, after suffering an accident, is trying to adjust to her new life as a zombie: the black humor is obviously on the house.
Student competition
Student film competition includes 32 titles in the UK, Switzerland, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Estonia, Finland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Croatia, Canada, China, Iran or Israel. After having competed last year with Spots Spots, the Japanese animator Hu Yuanyuan returns with Sunset Flower Blooming, a 2D animation about an old woman who daydreams in a flower garden. The well known graphics French school Supinfocom participates this year with three short films (Jack and Chuck, L’ère bête and Red), and Germany, the guest country, presents six films from four different schools. One of the German productions is also nominated for Cartoon d’Or: Zing (d. Kyra Buschor & Cynthia Collins), a story in which poor death’s life could not be more ordinary.
