ANIMAC 2023 WILL CELEBRATE THE CREATIVITY OF LATIN AMERICAN ANIMATION UNDER THE MOTTO ‘LATAM BOOM!’ AND PRESENTS THE POSTER BY ROCÍO ÁLVAREZ
The 27th International Animation Film Festival of Catalonia will be held in Lleida from 23 to 26 February and online from 3 to 12 March 2023
778 films from around sixty countries have been received in an open call to participate this year
Animac, the International Animation Film Festival of Catalonia, organised by Lleida City Council and held from 23 to 26 February and online from 3 to 12 March 2023, will this year celebrate the creativity of Latin American animation under the motto “LatAm Boom!” To reflect the theme of this 27th edition, Animac has entrusted the creation of the poster and the direction of the opening video to the illustrator and animator Rocío Álvarez, who has a special relationship with the festival, as in 2018 she won the Animac Audience Award for her short “Simbiosis carnal” (Belgium, 2017), and has also received many other international distinctions.
ANIMAC 2023 “LATAM BOOM!”
On the theme of this year’s Animac, “LatAm Boom!”, Carolina López, director of the festival, points out that “we want to call attention to the arrival on the international scene of Latin American animation and have chosen this title (‘LatAm Boom!’), inspired by the name of the 20th-century literary movement ‘Latin American Boom’, with leading figures such as García Márquez, Cortázar and Vargas Llosa, among others.”
“Cultural richness, the search for distinctive stories and aesthetics, diversity, magic realism and socio-political commitment are some of the hallmarks of a territory where new animations are emerging in dialogue with the other artistic disciplines and the international scene,” explains López.
“As well as Mexico, Argentina, Brazil and Cuba, countries with a history in the medium and, of course, with their own idiosyncrasies, Colombia and Chile are also gaining a strong foothold, and even young talents are emerging, sometimes from the diaspora, in countries with very little tradition in animation, such as Costa Rica and Ecuador. It is a vast and diverse territory and this year’s programme must reflect this,” says López.
Latin American animation will be the guiding thread of a programme designed to bring to Lleida the best of animated cinema with monographic sessions and retrospectives, along with a carefully chosen selection of recent shorts and feature films from around the world, exhibitions, talks and masterclasses for animation lovers.
ROCIÓ ÁLVAREZ, DESIGNER OF THE POSTER AND THE OPENING VIDEO OF ANIMAC 2023
For the first time, Rocío Álvarez has been asked to create the Animac poster and will also direct the opening video of the event. Internationally renowned for her work as an illustrator and animator, the creator living in Belgium explains that receiving the commission from Animac “has been a lovely experience given my great affection for the festival, and I have also felt slightly under pressure as the posters designed by Carles Porta and Gina Thorstensen have set the bar extremely high. I really love the theme ‘LatAm Boom!’ as I think there has really been an expansion there, but it has also been complex to represent such a vast continent. As I am passionate about the vegetable and animal world, I have given it something of a central role, but I have tried to include symbols or architectures of quite a large number of Latin American countries. The human figures rise upwards, in a metaphor of growth. I wanted the image to have powerful tropical colours and I have combined them with black silhouettes to provide a contrast and a touch of mystery. I like the idea of the poster bringing colour to the public space, a touch of visual joy. I am looking forward to seeing how the large format prints turn out in the city during the festival. I also like the fact that it has a clear overall composition but that viewers can travel inside the poster and each time find new details they had not seen at first.”
In terms of directing the Animac opening video, Álvarez explains that she had envisaged it “as a lateral tracking shot making the most of the background landscape of mountains with camouflaged features that gradually appear, where the world of incredible biodiversity of this continent prevails with elements of urbanism.”
ANIMAC 2023 HAS RECEIVED 778 FILMS IN AN OPEN CALL
Animac 2023 has received 778 films in an open call from around sixty countries, including France with 202 films, Spain with 78, the United States with 60 and the United Kingdom with 45, among others. In total, films made in 106 animation schools from around the world have been submitted, yet another year reflecting Animac’s potential for discovering new talents and offering the youngest a window to show off their first projects in the field of animated cinema.
On this link you can watch and download a video in which Rocío Álvarez explains the process of creating the image of Animac 2023:
https://animac22.fromsmash.com/Animac23-RocioAlvarez
FURTHER INFORMATION
Animac press
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