Romanian Competition and Balkanimation (VIDEO)

Romanian competition has grown since its incipient stages – if, a few years ago, there were barely sufficient Romanian films for a section of its own, this year the festival received more submissions than the previous edition, a sign that native animation is on track. And Balkanimation, the section dedicated to animation in the Balkans, has risen, with films from Romania, Bosnia – Herzegovina, Greece, Turkey, Croatia, Serbia, and especially Bulgaria, where an impressive number of entries has arrived from.

19 Romanian short films are competing for this year’s national competition trophy. Like last year, former participants in Animation Worksheep are releasing their newest animations in competition – Alexei Pătrașcu, with Eschaton, a combination of 3D animation with hand drawings about a machine that creates a new world, Gabriela Mateescu, with a hand drawn animation La vie en rose, after attending the 2012 with The Envelope. Bogdan Mihăilescu returns to Anim’est with Sancta Simplicitas, after Metamorphosis and Action Movie and Andra Berilă is competing with Spikes, the story of Astro & Chicken, who flee from one planet to another, chased by giant spikes, after participating in the Romanian competition with Cloudman and Mr. gRAPE.
The Romanian competition is delighted with the presence of a Romania – France co-production, the charcoal drawing animation Sleep by Mathilde Boiton, and Becoming, a British production, made by a Romanian student at London Metropolitan University, Andrei Sopon. Becoming is the only film that competes both in the national competition and in Balkanimation.

The 10 films from Romania, Bosnia – Herzegovina, Greece, Turkey, Croatia, Serbia and Bulgaria come for the first time at the Balkanimation competition in Bucharest, some of them after selections in numerous festivals: The Unfinished Painting by Rositsa Vangelova follows a painter who is lost in the world of his own imagination, a 2D animation projected at the World Festival of Animated Film Bulgaria, Ottawa IFF, Bornshorts FF Denmark, Anibare or Be there! Corfu and the Greek animation Eight-minute Deadline by Petros Papadopoulos & Zina Papadopoulou that received many awards: the best experimental film at BeFilm NY, best animation and best film at Federation of Cinematographic Clubs, Drama FF, Cinematic Achievement Award at Thess ISFF and a mention at Boston Sci-fi FF with the story of a postman from an ultra perfectionist future.

Another must see is certainly Rabbitland by Ana Nedeljkovic & Nikola Majdak, in which the mindless rabbits live in an ideal world of their own, a Serbian animation that was screened at Belgrade Documentary and Short Film Festival, Vilnius IFF and The International Film Festival in Berlin (Berlin Generation), where it received the Silver Bear.

Romanian Competition:

• 2 – dir. Ilinca Šeda

• Becoming – dir. Andrei Sopon

• Bonds – dir. Cristiana Voinea

• Credo – dir. Melinda Kádár

• Eschaton – dir. Alexei Pătraşcu

• Final Cut – dir. Anna Búzás
• Hope Mountain – dir. Ștefan Morozan

• Jos / Below – dir. Alexandru Petru Bădeliță
• Kilátás / Opening – dir. Ágnes Fodor
• La vie en rose – dir. Gabriela Mateescu
• Metamorphose – dir. Florian Simovici
• Pretty Fly – dir. Ela Duca
• Priveghiul / The Death Watch – dir. Laurenţiu Popa
• Sancta Simplicitas – dir. Bogdan Mihăilescu – last year with Metamorphosis
• Somn / Sleep – dir. Mathilde Boiton
• Stop – dir. Ion Octavian Frecea