ANIMAC MAKES PUBLIC THE SELECTION OF FILMS FROM THE OFFICIAL SECTIONS: SHORTS, FUTURE TALENT, SMALL ANIMAC AND TALENT.CAT
The productions will be screened at the 28th edition of the International Animated Film Festival of Catalonia, which will be held in Lleida from February 15 to 18 and online from February 22 to March 3
In the Official Shorts Section, A Kind of Testament, by Stephen Vuillemin, will be screened, a short film that is on the Oscar shortlist, as well as such as To Bird or Not to Bird, by Martín Romero, nominated for this year’s Goya awards
The entire programming of the rest of the Animac sections will be announced at a press conference in Lleida and can be consulted on the website
In this link, you can consult the complete list of short films from the ANIMAC 2024 OFFICIAL SECTION
The 28th edition of Animac, the International Animation Film Festival of Catalonia, organized by the Lleida City Council, today makes public the list of productions that have been selected to be part of the official sections of the contest: Official Section Shorts, Future Talent, Little Animac and Animac Talent.cat, and which will be screened in this 28th edition that will be held in Lleida from February 15 to 18, 2024 and online through the Filmin platform from February 22 to March 3. A Kind of Testament (France, 2023) by director Stephen Vuillemin, which can be seen in the Shorts 5 White Cube section, is included in the shortlist of the Oscars in the category of best animated short, and tells the story of a young woman who comes across animations on the Internet that have been created from her private photographs.
The official sections of Animac are especially dedicated to short films, the soul of the Exhibition, since it allows the expression of a more personal vision and stamp and maximum experimentation in the search for new languages, aesthetics and techniques.
The Official Short Section, a selection of the best and most recent animated short films worldwide, this year presents 38 proposals from twenty different nationalities distributed in five sessions. Apart from the short film already mentioned, the short films D’une peinture… à l’autre (Switzerland, France, 2023) by Swiss director Georges Schwizgebel also stand out in this section. , Animac 2022 Honorary Award, To Bird or Not to Bird (Espanya, 2023) by director Martín Romero, nominated for this year’s Goya awards, which can be seen a Shorts 3, and the short film Drijf (Belgium, 2023) by Levi Stoops, winner of the Annecy Crystal for best animated short, which will be screened in the Shorts 4 session.
Other short films that can be seen are Un trou dans la poitrine (Canada, 2023) by Alexandra Myotte and Jean-Sébastien Hamel, which tells the story of two brothers from a neighborhood disadvantaged, Electra (Czech Republic, France, Slovakia, 2023) by director Daria Kashcheeva presented in Cannes which, combining live action and animation, reviews the theme of father-daughter relationshipsfirst explored in her 2019 film Daughter, portraying the experiences of a woman remembering her tense and distant relationship with her father, and Empire (Portugal, Spain, 2023) by Alessandro Novelli, which premiered at the Locarno Festival and has a Catalan co-production.
As for the Future Talent section, the section dedicated to short films received from animation schools around the world, this edition has three sessions with a total of 30 short films selected from 12 nationalities, among which stand out La gran cita de Conej (Spain, 2023) by Pablo Río, a tribute to the great classics of animation, winner of the audience award at the Weird Market, which passed through the Animac Incubator last year, and which can be seen in Future Talent 3.
In Future Talent you can also see Stabat Mater (France, 2023) directed by Hadrien Maton, Quentin Wittevrongel, Arnaud Mege, Coline Thelliez and William Defrance, Bianca Scali’s It’s Just a Whole (Germany, 2023), and The Tornado Outside (UK) , 2023) by Maria Tomazou, among other shorts.
This section is an excellent showcase for new creators, who have just graduated and have the opportunity to see their short films projected on the big screen.
The Little Animac, the section of the competition designed especially for the little ones and their families, has scheduled 25 films from 15 nationalities in three different sessions. The objective of the Little Animac is to introduce boys and girls to the world of animation and its different techniques, and to encourage their curiosity and taste for cinema.
Within the proposals of the Little Animac, the medium-length film Tabby McTat (United Kingdom, 2023), the Christmas special, will be screened in Spanish premiere from the BBC directed by Jac Hamman and Sarah Scrimgeour, an animated adaptation of the children’s book by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler that tells the story of a talented traveling musician named Fred and his tabby cat who is also musically gifted. You can also see Pig (Netherlands, 2022) by Jorn Leeuwerink, whose protagonists are a group of animals that become dependent on an electrical network that is plugged into the socket-shaped snout of a sleeping pig, and Dina Velikovskaya’s Prinzessin Aubergine (Germany, 2023), a lyrical story about adopting a child.
The new stop motion short film by Catalans Marc Riba and Anna Solanas will also be screened at the Little Animac, which tells the story of a girl who loses all her colors after her mother dies, The Goose (Czech Republic, France, 2023) by Jan Míka, which Its protagonist is a boy who dreams of becoming a famous soccer player and playing in the biggest stadiums in the world, and The Swineherd (Denmark, 2023), a silly and funny version from the famous fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen.
Both the Official Short Section, as well as Future Talent and Pequeño Animac, are eligible for the Animac audience awards.
On the other hand, the Animac Talent.cat section, which brings together animation films by students from the Catalan Countries, has this year the participation of 9 centers that have presented thirteen films. A jury made up of professionals from the world of animation will choose the best short in this section. The jury will include the director and producer Nuria G. Blanco, with more than ten years working at Cartoon Saloon, the comic artist and illustrator Fermín Solís, author of the novel graphic Buñuel in the labyrinth of the turtles, finalist for the National Comic Award, and the historian, curator and professor at U-tad, Samuel Viñolo.
ANIMAC 2024 “DIVERSITY”
Animac will have as its theme diversity in animated cinema under the motto “Diversity”. In recent years the animated film industry has been taking steps towards greater diversity in terms of voices, stories and characters. Studies have recognized the importance of reflecting the richness of human experiences, representing not only diverse cultures, but also a variety of gender identities, sexual orientations, and physical and cognitive abilities.
Diversity will be the leitmotif of a program that will be announced later to receive the best animated cinema in Lleida with monographic sessions and retrospectives, in addition to a careful selection of recently created short and feature films from around the world, conferences and masterclasses for all types of audiences.
In addition to the theme of diversity being present in the films, the next edition of Animac is open to integrating groups that have been working for years and demanding inclusion from different aspects. Animac will organize a workshop with Down Lleida, led by Toni García, director of the animated feature film D’Artacán and the three muskedogs (Spain, 2021) and the animator Lluís Viciana, and a workshop on LGTBIQ+ identities, led by the director, animator and activist Emilio Martí.
The spaces will be adapted, there will be a Lila Point, and relaxed sessions designed for people with special needs will be scheduled, among other new features.
In this link you can find stills from some of the selected short films: http://tinyurl.com/yr87cuaj