Over 350 short and feature films from all over the world, across 90 screenings, will soon regale participants in the Animest International Animation Festival (October 4-13, 2024). Expect ten days of screenings for viewers of all ages of animated stories from across the world, some presented by their creators who are coming to Bucharest. What a treat! The full schedule and tickets for the 19th edition of Animest are now available online.
“When we finally have the edition’s complete schedule, I get these strong feelings. It’s like seeing the finish line in the distance: we’re gearing up for the final sprint, for finalizing all of the many, many details so we’re ready to welcome our audiences. But then I’m taking a break and of course I’ll open the schedule tab – and I happen upon another cool screening I’d forgotten about. I’m just floored by the fact we’ve done it again: we’ve collected so many wonders for the festival’s ten days,” says Filip Mănișor, Animest executive director.
This year’s urban adventure commences with Memoir of a Snail, winner of the Annecy Festival Crystal, a dramatic story told with heaps of humor and authenticity by director Adam Elliot. The Opening Gala is scheduled for Friday, October 4, at Sala Luceafărul (formerly, Cinema Pro).
After attracting multiple Annecy 2024 awards – Jury Award, the Gan Foundation Award for Distribution, the Audience Award, and the Best Original Music Award for a Feature Film – and a world premiere in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Festival, Gints Zilbalodis’ feature film Flow will have its first screening in Romania at Animest.19. This is a story for all ages: the world’s ending and solitary Cat finds refuge on a boat populated by various species after his home is flooded. Sailing through mystical overflowed landscapes, they navigate the challenges and dangers of adapting to this new world – and of learning to work together. The film, distributed in Romania by Bad Unicorn, will be screened twice during Animest, on October 5 and 12.
Also hailing from the Cannes official selection and marking another Romanian premiere: French director Michel Hazanavicius’ new feature film. World-renowned for his unique Oscar-winning feature film The Artist, this time Michel focuses on a story of tender hope during the Holocaust. The Most Precious of the Cargoes, the first animated film to compete for a Palme d’Or since Ari Folman's Waltz with Bashir in 2008, is adapted from Jean-Claude Grumberg's best selling novel of the same name and follows the life of a Jewish baby thrown from the window of a death-camp train and saved by a poor woodcutter and his wife, living deep in a Polish forest. Scored by Oscar-winning composer Alexandre Desplat and described by Variety as “an indelible parable destined to be watched and shared by generations to come,” the film will be screened at Animest on October 5 and 13.
Other national premieres at Animest.19 include The Glassworker (directed by Usman Riaz), one of 2024’s surprises in animation, a Pakistani film on the power of love in a country divided by war, and Slide (directed by Bill Plympton), a 40’s style Western with all the trimmings: cowboys and bandits, country music and tense stand-offs.
Try not to miss Pablo Berger’s animation debut, Robot Dreams, nominated for the Oscars and winner at Annecy, the Annie Awards, Goya Awards, and European Film Awards, a tragicomedy about the adventures and misfortunes of Dog and Robot in 1984 New York City, or the stop-motion animation about Da Vinci’s life directed by Jim Capobianco and Pierre-Luc Granjon: The Inventor. Both these films will have additional accessibilized screenings for Romanian d/Deaf viewers during Animest.19, with descriptive subtitles (SDH) and interpretation in Romanian sign language.
Outside the Animest official competition, we’re screening Disney|PIXAR’s Soul (directed by Pete Docter and Kemp Powers). Voiced by stars such as Jamie Foxx, Tina Fey and Graham Norton, the film follows a jazz-loving middle school band teacher who travels to another realm to help someone find their passion – and discovers what it actually means to have soul.
The Jonathan Hodgson Retrospective – a collection of profoundly human stories
Where our Jonathan Hodgson-ators at? Hopefully, at Eforie Cinematheque, on Tuesday October 8, at 7 PM, enjoying the retrospective we’re dedicating to this titan of contemporary animation. You’ll see 12 of his short films – including Dogs (1981), Feeling My Way (1997), The Man with Beautiful Eyes (2000), Roughhouse (2019), as well as the striking Save the Children–Mariupol: Margarita’s Story (2023). Then, at Cervantes Institute on Thursday October 9, at 8.30 PM, catch his first feature film, The Trouble with Love and Sex. Produced in 2011 for the BBC, the first full-length animated documentary made for British television takes us inside the counseling rooms of Relate, as clients wrestle with champagne soaked fantasies and impotence, with dark family secrets and shocking confessions of infidelity.
Jonathan Hodgson is coming to Bucharest to facilitate a masterclass on Friday October 11, at 11 AM, Drawing on Reality: a practical walkthrough of his creative process, to be part of the Short Films jury, and present the Animest.19 Trophy and its EUR 2,500 prize offered by the Romanian Cultural Institute. Over his career of 40+ years, Jonathan has explored the full scope of animation and has been sharing his insights as coordinator of the animation courses at Middlesex University in London starting 2008.
Check out the full schedule and buy tickets and passes for Animest. 19 online, on the Eventbook platform: https://eventbook.ro/festival/animest.
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The Animest Festival is a project of the Animest Association, co-financed by the MEDIA Program of the European Union and AFCN–the Administration of the National Cultural Fund.
Institutional Partners: the Romanian Cultural Institute, The French Institute and the Embassy of France in Romania, Instituto Cervantes, the Italian Cultural Institute, The Austrian Cultural Forum, Liszt Institute – The Hungarian Cultural Center, The Czech Center, UNATC – The “I.L. Caragiale” National University of Theater and Film, the Animation Festival Network (AFN), IZANAGI – Japanese Film Festival
Partners: Groupama, Mini, Aqua Carpatica, Sâmburești, Alai, Ana Pan, MyAirBridge, Ogilvy
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