Anima Festival is getting ready
The Anima Festival is back with a vengeance to duly celebrate the world of animation! Over ten days, animated images of all sorts and coming from all over will be screened continuously, to the delight of young and old.
Anima 2015 will take place from 13th to 22nd February, in Flagey, Brussels as well as being decentralized in other towns throughout the country: Namur, Charleroi, Liege, Mons, Ghent, Antwerp, Louvain and Ostend.
The latest offering from the Aardman studios, Shaun the Sheep The Movie, will be kicking off the animated proceedings this year. This much awaited feature, coming from the series of the same name, is following the worthy tradition of Wallace & Gromit, Chicken Run and co. Besides this great opener, the Festival will be presenting many other new features: The Prince and the 108 Demons by French filmmaker Pascal Morelli; the stop motion feature Pos Eso from Spanish director Sam; the autobiographical Rocks in my Pockets by Latvian animator Signe Baumane, not forgetting films from Asia such as the Korean thriller The Fake by Yeon Sang-‐ho; Giovanni’s Island by Mizuho Nishikubo from Japan and Hiromasa Yonebayashi’s When Marnie Was There, co-‐produced by studio Ghibli.
The kids are certainly not going to be disappointed either. During carnival week, screening sessions in the morning and the afternoon will be especially for them. Highlights include Moomins on the Riviera by Xavier Picard; the French feature Yellowbird by Christian de Vita and the latest from Disney, Big Hero 6 directed by Don Hall. The little ones can also get an insight into the techniques of animation with introductory free workshops that will be open to all.
As for the shorts, Anima has retained 65 to compete in the international competition, out of around a thousand professional and student films received. These films will be subjected to a jury made up of animation professionals: Marco de Blois (CDN), animation programmer/curator at the Cinémathèque québécoise and Artistic Director of the Sommets du cinéma d’animation; Eija Saarinen (FIN), Senior Lecturer and Manager of the Animation department at Turku University of Applied Sciences and Stéphane Aubier (B), co-‐director of Pic-Pic & André, A Town Called Panic and Ernest and Célestine, to name but a few.
Twenty homemade shorts will be presented in the national competition to a jury made up of Jérémie Degruson (F), Art Director and filmmaker at nWave Pictures; Spela Cadez (SLO), independent producer and filmmaker, winner at Anima 2014 with her short film Boles and Anton Roebben (B), producer and co-‐founder of the Belgian studio Walking the Dog.
Anima will also be presenting its Futuranima professional meetings from 18th to 21st February. Three days of conferences on diverse topics including: a meeting about animated documentaries, the presentation of transmedia projects Urbance and ZOOKs, a panel discussion about webcreation and a foray into the world of video games with a visit to the Belgian studio Larian.
French animator Alexandre Heboyan will be on hand to talk about his work on productions such as Azur
& Asmar, Kung Fu Panda and Mune, le gardien de la Lune, co-‐directed with Benoît Philippon. The Festival will also play host to Marlon Nowé, Belgium-‐born animator at the Walt Disney Studios, who has worked on hit films such as Tangled, Volt, Frozen and Wreck It Ralph and will be giving a one-‐day masterclass on Wednesday 18th February.
Sign up via the website: www.animafestival.be
The Festival will be flying the colours of the Netherlands and Latvia and will present two programmes of recent short films showing off productions from these two countries. Also on the programme: a focus on animation schools in Holland; a documentary about the work of Dutch filmmaker Joop Geesink
